You Look Beautiful!
by Hannah Berman
The dressing room mirror was plastered with the words “You look beautiful” in script. Heather looked right past the message, because of course she looked beautiful. She always looked beautiful, and she wasn’t there for a pep talk. She just needed to try on the bikinis she wanted, because her stepmom had asked her to do so before buying them. Even though she already knew the bikinis would all look great, Heather didn’t want to offend Linda, who had taken off work for this.
The first bikini was red, with cherries on it. Unsurprisingly, it looked great. Heather looked so good that she took a picture of herself in the mirror, retrieving her phone from the back pocket of her jeans and angling her body just so, although it didn’t even really need angling, since she was beautiful from all angles.
Next, she tried on the high-waisted bikini. It looked great. The bows were cute, and the light blue made her skin shine. She pulled out her phone again. More selfies. She stuck out her tongue and winked in one. It felt great to look so great. She scrolled through the photos, and idly considered posting one to her story.
Before she could try on the third bikini, a calico cat appeared in the dressing room, presumably having entered through the gap between the floor and the door. She only noticed the cat when he said, “You look beautiful, Heather.”
Heather was a little puzzled as to why the cat had entered her dressing room unannounced, but she wasn’t one to refuse a compliment. She smiled. “Thank you. How do you know my name?”
The cat gave a shrug and said, “I follow you on Instagram.”
“Oh, okay.” Heather had a lot of Instagram followers. She wasn’t actually profiting off the platform, but you could still pretty much call her an influencer, so that made sense.
An awkward silence had begun to grow, and the cat would not stop staring, so Heather pointed to the swimwear and asked, “Which bikini do you like best?”
“I’m more of a cherries guy myself.” His eyes traveling up and down Heather’s legs, the cat seemed to smile. Then he startled her by jumping onto the dressing room stool. He tucked his front paws underneath his belly, wrapped his tail around his body, and sat. He announced, “I’m ready to see the next one.”
Heather didn’t really want to get naked in front of the cat, but she couldn’t think of a good reason to refuse, and anyway, he was being very nice. She turned around and took off her bikini top.
“Turn around.”
Heather rolled her eyes—typical. She pretended innocence and asked, “Why?”
“I want to really be able to see how beautiful you are.”
That made her soften a bit. Heather cupped her breasts in her palms and turned. The cat’s eyes were narrowed, and his tail was swaying back and forth excitedly, almost like a dog’s. “Purrrrfect.”
“Thank you,” said Heather. She grabbed the black and white bikini top and rushed to put it on, fumbling with the clasp in the back. The cat was silent aside from the low rumble of his approving purr. Then she said, “I’m going to turn back around to change my bottoms.”
The cat yelped, “No! You don’t have to be ashamed in front of me, Heather.”
“It’s just that I don’t usually change in front of an audience.”
“Oh, have you never done this before?”
It was technically a question, but it sounded like an accusation. Heather was embarrassed to admit it, so she looked down at the ground and answered, “No.”
The cat flicked its ears. “Yeah, I can tell.” What did that mean? Was Heather really acting like she had never done this before? And what was “this,” exactly? The cat continued, “Well, you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do. I’m just here to appreciate you. You look so beautiful when you’re confused, by the way.”
Relieved, Heather turned back around to remove her bottoms, bending down slightly to step out of each leg hole. Then: “Yes, you look so beautiful when you bend over like that,” the cat hissed, his voice louder than before. Tiny goosebumps appeared on Heather’s legs. Was that a whisker she felt?
Pulling up the new pair of bottoms, she turned uneasily. The cat was still lounging on the stool—or maybe he had quickly jumped back into place. She made unsteady eye contact with his two yellow-and-black slits, and realized she was waiting for feedback.
“This one is… fine,” said the cat. “But… I just need to see one thing. Spin for me, Heather.”
Heather had just begun to spin when she heard someone enter the dressing room. “Honey, what’s taking so long?”
It was Linda. Heather felt herself go red. Instinctively, she yelled out, “Sorry, I was taking selfies. Almost done!”
“Alright, I’ll be sitting right outside,” her stepmom responded. The door to the dressing rooms closed with a thud.
When Heather turned back to the mirror, the stool was vacant. Where had the cat gone? And, not that she cared, but what was the one thing that he had said he needed to see? She spun for herself, gazing into the mirror, but couldn’t tell. What was the difference between this bikini and the other two? Was it the way it made her breasts fall away from one another? Was it her gut, bulging out more than usual?
The cat had lied. Or maybe he had just been so kind as to try to tell the truth. Heather reread the mirror’s false cheer absentmindedly, then looked back to the lines on her stomach, holding her breath.
As Heather left the dressing room, Linda raised one perfectly plucked eyebrow. “Where are the bikinis? Did none of them work?”
Heather assumed a neutral air and said, “They didn’t look good. Let’s just go home.”
Hannah Berman is a middle school teacher by day and writer by night based in Washington, D.C. Read more of her work at hannah-berman.com.