Tonight on our show (part 2)

... part 1

Susan looked around the reception area. There was a large box leaning against a desk. A large garment box. Susan lifted it, not realizing how heavy it was. She placed the box on top of the empty desk, and removed the lid. There was a handwritten note on top.

Susan,

On this holiday season, I wanted to wish you the best for you and your loved ones. But I also wanted to thank you for the support you have shown me on all of your shows. The current day success of the Kim Danelle brand is in big part due to your enthusiasm. As a small token of gratitude, I wanted to give you this coat as a gift. This is by far the coziest coat I have ever designed. Since you've been one of my biggest champions since I started in the business I wanted you to have one of the prototypes, which I had done in your measurements. Hope you enjoy this coat... See you soon on the show.

xoxo 

Kim

Susan took out the coat from the box. It was an ankle length faux fur coat, in a deep brown. It looked bulky and luxurious. It looked not very different from the typical full length Kim Danelle faux fur coat. Susan had two of those faux fur coat at home, but seldom wore them because they never seemed too impractical for regular days. However, this coat felt different than any coat Susan had seen. It felt thicker and heavier. Susan peered inside the coat, and the lining seemed different from the other faux fur coats Susan had. Was it a reversible coat? It had the iconic Kim Danelle white and gold tag on the back, so Susan quickly put that idea away. Yet the coat seemed off. Somewhat piqued by curiosity, Susan slid her left arm into the sleeve and quickly realized why it seemed off.  The inside of the coat was actually puffed up, the fit of her arm inside the sleeve was very snug. Was it one of those coat that had a removable liner for extra warmth? Susan looked at the seams but couldn't find any zippers or buttons to remove such liner. Susan slid in her right arm into the faux fur coat. The coat was as heavy and warm as much as it looked in the box. Or maybe it was even warmer. Susan had already been feeling overly warm in the thick turtleneck sweater she had worn on her show. The coat quickly turned from cozy and cute to hot and heavy, and she hadn't even closed the coat. Susan could feel how the snug quilting inside the sleeves restricted get arm movement. Sensing the on set of a claustrophobic attack, Susan quickly took off the coat, and looked at the label:

Faux-fur shell: polyester

Fill: down/feather

Lining: nylon satin twill

This was basically a full length down coat inside of a length faux fur coat. No wonder Kim had said it was the "coziest" coat she had ever designed. Susan put the coat back in the box, and started lugging the box back to her dressing room. 

Once in the dressing room Susan took off the hot and heavy turtle neck sweater. She put on the top she had been wearing when see came in this morning, a plain cotton blouse with three quarter sleeves.

Susan grabbed her coat, a rather utilitarian hip length down coat, and headed to her car.

It was early December, but the air was already chilly that night. Maybe she should have kept the heavy turtle neck sweater?

---

"Thank you Kim, it was great having you on our show today."

"Always a pleasure Susan, it always is so much fun."

"Thank you for watching, and tune in tomorrow for another hour of 'Kim Danelle Apparel'"

... 

Susan and Kim walked back to Susan's dressing room in the back of the studio. Susan was sweating, she was wearing a thick knit cowlneck sweater, leggings and high heeled booties. Susan had just spent the last hour or so heavily bundled in a thick sweater, and parading around the set wearing a multitude of winter coats. Under normal circumstances Susan would have run (as much as her heels would allow) to the dressing room to change out of the hot stuffy clothes she was made to wear for her shows. But Susan was having a great time with Kim, as they always did. There had been a strong connection between the two ever since they both started their respective journeys. Susan as a television host hoping to one day make it to the national news networks. And Kim as a fashion designer.

Once in the studio, Susan started to pull up her cowlneck sweater. Underneath the sweater, Susan was wearing some fearful looking shapewear. The vest shaped garment covered her midriff, lifting Susan's substantial bust high up. A high back reached past Susan shoulder blades, where two thick shoulder straps went around each shoulder holding Susan ramrod stiff. Like a soldier standing at attention.

"Wow, Susan, what are you wearing?"

"This? It's a modern take on an ancient torture device, it's a latex waist cincher. Like a girdle, but built like a personal sauna.  It's part of my daily wardrobe nowadays. But not by my own volition, mind you."

"Doesn't look very comfortable..."

"I can't say it's comfortable ... actually, it's agony, I can't breathe and I feel my bust up to my neck! It's made of latex so it super hot. And it's got wires all around that will poke me every so often so that I never forget that I'm wearing this contraption."

"Well, it does give you a nice figure! Those curves would turn heads. And at least it keeps you warm, which you seem to like, by the warm sweaters you seem to favor lately. By the way, are you enjoying my gift?"

"Gift...?"

Both Susan's and Kim's eyes converged to the big garment box, leaning on the dresser.

"Ohh... If you didn't like it you could have just returned it to me..." Kim tried to hide her disappointment, but her face betrayed her.

"No Kim, I did like it, I just hadn't found the right occasion to wear such a gorgeous coat!"

Susan hurriedly got back into the massive cowlneck sweater she had been wearing during the show, grabbed the heavy coat from inside the box. Susan hurried outside the dressing room, but Kim was nowhere to be seen...

"What was that scene?" ... it was Megan, standing on the doorway to her office.

"Well, Kim was disheartened that I had worn this coat that she had given me as gift... but look at it, it's monstrous! It's like a down coat inside a fur coat."

"Well, that very ungrateful from you. You should stop complaining, and from now one make that beautiful coat your go-to daily coat. Remember that the 'personal image' clause in your contract applies not only to your appearance on set, but also outside. So enjoy your new coat, and make sure you do whatever is necessary to Kim happy. That's one exclusive the network can't afford to loose."

"... yes Megan."

"Great... that should at least be a first step to making it up to Kim."

Susan walked to the dressing room and grabbed her purse, too shaken after disappointing someone she considered a true friend. It just felt that her job ShoppingTV was getting harder by minute. But what other option did she have? At her age what other station would take a chance on her? Susan knew that she had signed a very advantageous contract back in the day. As her high heeled boots clicked on the way to the exit. Susan closed up her coat. It was cold outside, but not that cold. The thick collar of her coat covered most of Susan's face. Yet tonight she just wished she could sink into the coat and disappear for a while.

---

After parking my car and stepping inside my home I heard a voice I didn't really want to hear that night. "You look hot. And I mean that literally and figuratively... what's that huge coat you're wearing?" It was Jake, my ex-husband.

part 3...