Entitlement

by Rumaan Alam

She hadn’t worn flats because of first impressions. The report of concrete under her heels reverberated into her calves. Brooke, all sinew, all muscle, all focus, ignored the pain and the sweat and, at Twenty-sixth Street, the oncoming traffic, because she had a place to be, she had work to do.

The effect was of a woman in disguise, but all workplaces demand pantomime from their inhabitants.

“Brooke, if you don’t ask for what you’re owed, who can you blame when you fail to get it?”

Paige’s love of beauty but knew there was more to life. You were what you did in the world, not what you collected.