"Wow," one of the observers replied, "serious artist fetish. Kinky!" Then he wiggled his eyebrows to emphasize the comment.

Oh, that made Ess's stomach turn in a new direction. Manda talked loud enough now that a few others close by began to look Ess up and down, and one or two joined in the conversation. She looked at Jill, and pleaded desperately with her eyes. Why were they letting these people stall their escape? Jill took the obvious hint, and resumed making their way to the exit.

"Well, it's been fun, but our model needs to go," Jill stated as she wrapped her arm around Ess's. "Other modelly things to do." Lame excuse – stupid even - , but Ess didn't care. She felt extremely grateful to Jill.

They were at last on their way to the front of the gallery, Jill still guiding the embarrassed "model", and Beth taking up Ess's other arm. Lisa followed suit, not wanting to be left behind. Manda didn't excuse herself from her conversation until the others were nearly at the door.

Once outside, Ess finally caught her breath, taking in the cool fresh air of the outdoors. She coughed a little as a rusty old Ford truck passed – maybe the city air was not so fresh. Still, it felt less stifling than the pretentious gallery. While Ess continued to recover from the shock of beholding herself in the nude, Jill led her onwards, sure that there was a café nearby. It was the city's artsy district, after all.

Not too far down the street they found a Starbucks – of course. A misty rain started to descend just before they reached the entrance. The light drops felt good on Ess's face, and helped to bring her out of her agitation. Once inside, Beth sat with her at a table, while Jill and Lisa went to order their drinks with the barrista.

"Ess?" Beth questioned, concern on her face. "Are you alright?"

"I…" Ess really wasn't sure. Was she all right? "I was just. . . extremely surprised." Now that she thought about it, though, and she got over her initial shock, she began to decide differently.

"You know what?" Ess then began in an increasingly upset tone, "I'm not alright." Beth just looked at her with a worried pout on her face. "I'm mad!" she continued then, and Beth raised an eyebrow. Ess getting angry seemed, well . . . rare and unusual. Hell, she put up with Manda better than anyone else; a testimony to her even and easygoing temper. Seeing her angry like this actually raised Beth's apprehension all the more.

Just then Manda, who hadn't caught up to them when they left the gallery, walked through the door. She ended up wet through, because the rain now fell in torrents. Lisa, who had just walked up to the table, laughed audibly at her expense. "Serves you right, doesn't it?"

Manda scowled at her. "Serves me right that my friends left me behind?" she demanded. Then added a retort of "Thanks a lot," as she began squeezing the rain from her hair.

"Thanks a lot?" Jill walked up and set Ess's drink down in front of her. A hot, grande, skinny, French vanilla triple shot latte with no whip. Ess got a slightly warm feeling as she realized her friends knew her so well. Well, some friends anyway. She glared at Manda, and the fuzzy feeling went away.

Before Manda could have a chance to answer Jill with a smart remark, Beth stated, "Manda, you have the biggest mouth I have ever heard. You just don't know when to shut up."

"Don't you chastise me because I'm uninhibited . . ." Manda began in return.

"Uninhibited!?" Ess cried, "Manda, you are inappropriate . . . improper . . . ill-mannered . . ."

The rest of her friends stared at her with the same stunned look Beth had had a moment before when witnessing Ess's anger. Manda, herself, looked as though she was ready to cry, which was no small feat. The manner in which Ess lashed out indicated that she meant what she said, and that struck Manda unlike any insult she had ever received in her life.

They were drawing the attention of other customers with this display, so the women grabbed some adjacent chairs and crowded around the small table. Manda became not only silent, but also withdrawn. Ess noticed this, and the guilt started to gnaw at her, not enough to draw an apology yet, though. She still felt too upset about what she had just seen at the gallery.

Lisa was the first one to re-establish the conversation. She cleared her throat. "Well," she looked around the table, "That was some exhibit, huh?" Jill rolled her eyes at her, and Lisa just shrugged.

"We have to get rid of it," Ess said suddenly. "All of them." She amended. This caused another round of raised eyebrows from the young woman's friends. "There's got to be something I can do."

They began to think on it. "Maybe," suggested Jill, "You could complain to the gallery."

"Yeah," agreed Beth, "Maybe you could tell them you do not want your statues on display. You didn't give permission to use yourself as a model."

"They won't go for that," Manda said quietly, obviously a little wary of speaking. Jill prompted her to continue, so she did, "The statues may look like her, but she can't prove that they are meant to be her, unless the artist states that they are. They were dedicated to an 'Esther' – no last name. It would be seen as a coincidence only."

"Are you sure?" Lisa questioned, "It seems pretty obvious."

"I'm sure," Manda replied, "Who's the paralegal here? Besides," she added, "You've seen those silly newspaper articles. Can't you just see the caption? 'Scandalized Woman Loses Court Case Over Impermissible Viewing of Naked Keaster in Art Gallery'. Then, it would go on to state that she accused the gallery of displaying a statue that looked like her, and the judge would laugh and declare that the next case would be about a crazy man who wanted the Statue of Liberty removed from the harbor in New York, because it reminded him of his mother-in-law."

Ess smiled slightly despite herself. Manda caught the smile and relaxed a little. At least, Ess couldn't stay mad enough to scowl at her for long. They thought in silence a little longer.

Then Ess had an idea, "Maybe I could buy them." She looked hopefully at the others for input.

"I don't know," replied Beth, "I don't know a lot about art, but isn't it usually pretty expensive? I mean, it was in a nice upscale gallery, after all. Do you really think you can afford it?"

The hope on Ess's face faded. "I don't know. Probably not. But it doesn't hurt to find out." The others just shrugged. "Well, does anyone else have any better ideas?"

Lisa piped up, "We could break in during the middle of the night – all of us dressed in black, scaling from the skylights – and just smash the statues to bits with crowbars!?!"

"Okay. Anybody else have any better ideas?" Ess said again, ignoring her friend's inane plan. The others laughed, however, and Ess had to admit it did break the ice that was chilling her insides at that point. Besides, it really did sound like a good plan, if not inappropriate and unlikely.

CHAPTER THREE

The Labor Day holiday seemed to last forever. Ess had looked forward to it the whole week prior, until the statue fiasco on Saturday. Manda promised to call the gallery the next day on Ess's behalf, but learned that it was closed on Sunday and Monday in observance of the holiday. So, the wait for Tuesday became excruciating.