Puddin' (Dumplin', #2)

by Julie Murphy

My magic truth—the thing that has changed everything for me—is this: the body I have shouldn’t change how deserving I am of my dreams. I stopped obsessing over my body being too round or too wide or too lumpy. Because I’m not too much of anything. I’m just enough. Even when I don’t feel like I am.

My mother and I have crafting, romantic comedies, and above all else, diets. Diets are our love language. And it’s not been such a simple thing to shake. The truth is I’ve spent most of my life thinking of food in terms of point systems and calorie charts, and, for me, exercising only existed for the sake of becoming someone I’m not instead of taking care of who I am.

I lean forward and say, “The trick is to lay your hand down on a flat surface and paint a strip down the center of the nail and then thin strips on either side.”

“I tell you,” she says, “love comes and goes, but lipstick is forever.”