directly at my face without looking away.
“You’re beautiful,” she said. You don’t need to change anything.
We got married and spent eight years together. Andrew never made fun of me or forced me to hide from the cameras. But the voices of my childhood were still living inside my head.
Every time my coworkers took a group photograph, I pretended to be sick.
Sometimes I even got out of bed at night, stood in front of the mirror and used my fingers to imagine how I would look with a smaller, straighter nose.
For years, I saved money for surgery.
When I finally scheduled the operation, Andrew didn’t seem happy.
“Natalie, are you sure?” she asked while holding my hand.
I do it myself.
He watched me for a long time and then nodded.
The operation went well.
When I woke up, my face was completely swollen and the
