Read We Only Know So Much for Free Online

room for more ugly girls she can cross off the callback list. She’s not wrong about these girls, not about them being ugly so much as about them being not pretty or stylish enough to be called back. A plainer girl can go a long way with a little style , Priscilla thinks. Why don’t they know that?
    Finally Taylor comes out and she’s making a face like That was weird but kind of fun , and Priscilla is dying to grill her about it, but her name is called, so she has to go in. Don’t leave , Priscilla whispers on her way in. She smoothes her hair down one last time, shakes hands with Ted. The other guy from the food court isn’t there. Instead there’s a panel of four people: Ted; a guy Ted introduces as the casting director; and another man and woman he says are producers. Priscilla catches a weird vibe from the casting director, which may or may not be there, and smiles at all of them like she’s never smiled before. All it is is, they just ask her a few questions about herself, what she’s interested in, what she’d be willing to talk about or do on TV. Oh, anything , she says, a little too quickly. She didn’t really mean anything like she’d take her top off or eat spiders anything, she meant more like flirt-with-cute-guys-and-drink anything. But she doesn’t explain. That could have been a mistake. Probably not. But it could have been. But probably not. Probably not. Hopefully not.

four
    A t work this morning, first thing, Gordon’s secretary presents him with a small plant, a bonsai she’s picked up for Boss’s Day. Support staff is encouraged not to spend more than five dollars on their bosses on Boss’s Day, as their salaries are obviously much smaller. It’s just supposed to be a gesture. Gordon’s secretary, Doris, is a few years older than he is, and she’s been doing this for thirty-five years. So she gives him this sweet little bonsai to thank him; the fact is, he’s a decent boss, he doesn’t make her stay late, has her birthday on his calendar, knows the names of her kids, and is generally friendly toward her. But, but, he’s the same with her as he is with everyone, and so when she gives him the bonsai, he responds with the following: Oh! A bonsai! Did you know that the bonsai dates back as far as the early times of Egyptian culture? Of course they’re most closely associated with Japan, and the concept of wabi-sabi. You surely know about wabi-sabi — how best to explain that? Well, it’s a sort of appreciation of the transience of things. On that account, it’s almost surprising that the bonsai has gained any popularity in America, since we’re well known for our throwaway culture. Do you know that there’s a bonsai at the Tokyo Imperial Palace that dates back to the seventeenth century? Think about that! Often, copper wiring is used as a technique for directing the tree into a desired shape. And there are many different shapes. Gordon holds it up and examines it from all sides. I’m not quite sure whether this one is upright or informal upright, but it’s clearly not multitrunk. I’ll have to find a nice sunny place for this.
    Gordon means to include a thank-you in here somewhere, but by the time he’s done, he’s forgotten. Doris nods and smiles, but about halfway through the bonsai talk she’s begun to go through the morning mail, tossing out junk and handing her employer the letters he needs to see.
    Now Gordon’s day is about to take a weird turn.
    At the deli counter at one of his stores, he’s considering a tabouli salad for lunch, providing some information on tabouli for the chef who prepared it. Did you know tabouli was originally a Lebanese mountain dish, but that there are Turkish and Armenian variations of the dish as well, in which there is more parsley than bulgur? Also, interestingly, there’s a common misconception that bulgur is the same thing as cracked wheat, but in fact it’s usually just parboiled. The chef is just listening for any part of Gordon’s