The second Willow had said goodbye and left for the day, Kim jumped into action: staying in bed, doing absolutely nothing except snuggling Calum Woof. She petted his furry little head for a while, then stopped to check her phone, but then Calum insistently worked his little head underneath her hand so she had to keep petting him, and this process repeated for a while. Kim didn't mind; they had a lot of lost time to make up for.
Just as she was starting to feel lazy and like she should probably get out of bed and figure out what to do with her day, her phone rang. It was Kris, surprise.
"Hiiiii," Kim said, trying to suppress an eye-roll.
"Kim, we haven't heard from you. Did you get the stuff Kourtney needs from Kardash? Are you in transit?"
Am I in transit? Kim thought. What is this, Special Ops: Fashion Edition?
"Hey! How's the store coming along," Kim asked, trying to cheerfully change the subject. "I bet Kourtney's super excited, I'm so proud of her."
"Kim," Kris said plainly, not falling for it. "Kourtney is the same as ever. We need the delivery from Kardash. Time is of the essence."
"Fine, yes, I know, I just got pulled into a thing today. I need to go to...London?" she guessed.
"London? Why do you need to go to London today? This is very important for Kourtney and--"
"Kris, I am here for Kourtney," Kim said, her voice rising. "I am in Miami, running her little errand. But am I supposed to utterly reject my own personal brand in the process? Kourtney wouldn't even be opening her own store if it wasn't for me. I need to do my thing and I will get to Kourtney's thing later."
For once, Kris was silent for a moment before answering. Kim hated to let her frustration seep through like that--she did not need more enemies in this world, but jfc, enough already.
"I would never ask you to reject your brand, Kim," Kris said softly. "OK. Do good work in London. We're just excited about getting this project off the ground. We'll talk when you get back. Be careful and come back safe."
"OK. See you soon."
Kim hung up, staring at her phone, weirded out that Kris had suddenly been so reasonable, and feeling bad for getting so heated.
"Welp, Calum," Kim said, burrowing her face down into his, "Looks like I'm going to London today."
Calum licked Kim's face once and then burrowed down under the covers.
"OK bye," Kim said.
On her way to the shower, something glittery on Willow's dressing table caught Kim's eye. Hanging off the corner of Willow's earring display was a dazzling jeweled statement necklace. Kim gasped in recognition--it was the necklace the Bollywood actress Rani Khosla had given her back in New Delhi, months ago.
It had been one of the darkest times in Kim's life. It had felt like everyone and everything was aligned against her. Other Kim was manipulating things to make it look like Willow was Kim's enemy, and Tiny Monkey and his family had been killed, mere pawns in Other Kim's terrible game. Kim's personal brand was in ruins. Kim had never felt so alone, but Rani had risked her life to help Kim, giving her this necklace in the process, reaching out in friendship to Kim at a time when she had needed it most.
Kim fastened the clasp behind her neck. Rani had said it would protect her.
But what had happened to Rani since then? There was no news about her, ever. Kim did a quick search on her phone. It looked like Rani had done a few more films after Kim left, then she'd gotten married to some actor Kim had never heard of. An article mentioned a lavish wedding at 10AX and a honeymoon in San Francisco. And then nothing. Nothing! She'd been one of the most powerful and popular actresses in KKHollywood. Maybe she'd retired and settled down, exhausted from the media grindfest. Kim hoped Rani was somewhere, happy. But still: the Rani she'd known would never have retired so early in her career.
This world needed Rani, and women like her, more than ever. Kim really needed to get things back on track. So OK! London.
Kim admired herself in the mirror, nude except for Rani's necklace. Maybe this is how she should greet Willow when she got home. Kim took a quick selfie, winking for the camera, then finished getting ready for her day.
~~~
London was a mess. The buildings along the skyline in the distance were hollowed out, just the skeletal remains of their former beauty. The clock on Big Ben was cracked and no longer kept time. There was a bright red double-decker bus, but it had been upended and set on fire. The city streets that had once been vibrant with color and noise and life were now eerily quiet.
Kim had been confident that her return to celebrity status would magically fix the things that were broken in the world, but she was starting to doubt this hypothesis. She was famous again now, 2nd only to Willow, shouldn't things be closer to normal? She tapped a nearby bird to see if it produced any money. It coughed once, then fell over, dead.
Maybe she just needed to work harder? She stopped by Club Tulip and the owner was all too happy to welcome her, inviting her to do a quick 3-hour appearance. She was happy to help. It felt good to work. It was so weird, not having an insanely busy schedule, Simon being too busy with the Foundation to be her manager and keep her supplied with a steady course of things to do. Everything felt off when she wasn't busy.
Kim finished her appearance and pocketed the cash. She went to post something to social media and saw that Willow had just posted an update:
Hashtag KILLING it at Lif today. 2nd place is first loser.
The not-so-subtle dig at Kim's status made her smile. It felt like a private message just for her, Willow's way of letting Kim know she was thinking about her.
Still smiling, Kim sat out by the Piccadilly Circus fountain to take some selfies before returning to Miami.
The streets were all but deserted when she sat down but after a few minutes she noticed a group of shadowy figures watching her from down the far end of the street. Fans probably, no big. She kept on taking pictures. The light here was amazing and basically every angle was her friend. This does not happen often and when it does you are obligated to cancel everything on your calendar and basically fill your camera roll with selfies.
She noticed that the figures had all come closer, and also that there was more of them now. They had gathered around the fountain and were watching her very closely, suspiciously. They were all men.
As she turned back to her phone one of them called out to her:
"Oy! Wot's all this then?"
"Hey!" Kim said, happily addressing the crowd. "Taking some selfies in this killer light! Did anyone want to be in one with me? I love my fans!"
"Taking selfies! Fancies herself a model, this one," a man said, causing the other men to laugh uproariously.
Kim's happy demeanor vanished as she turned to face them. "I'm no mere model. I'm a successful entrepreneur and influencer with a heavily leverage-able brand identity."
"Ooooh we got ourselves a smart one here, mates," a man said. "Read a book, this one."
"Read a book? I've written and published books."
One of the men, balding, his plaid shirt straining around his doughy frame, stepped forward, away from the sea of plaid behind him. "Stop taking pictures of yourself, love," he said. "Leave it to the professionals. You're not skinny enough to be a model."
"Excuse you I am not your love. And so what if I'm not skinny? I'm still extremely hot."
The group erupted in laughter. "Think pretty highly of yourself, don't you?" the balding man said.
"How could I not?" Kim said. "I'm powerful and amazing."
A sneer poured out across the man's face. "No selfies here. Staring at your camera, making faces and posing for yourself. It's unnatural and vain. It's immodest."
"Modesty is a tool of the patriarchy," Kim said dismissively.
The men gasped.
"What do you have against the patriarchy?" the man asked.
"Um, everything? It sucks and I hate it? The patriarchy demands meekness from women. The patriarchy would dictate my behavior and emotions. It would belittle my accomplishments and demand I seek approval for my every opinion and choice, about every facet of my appearance and being. I choose to celebrate myself, and make my own decisions about my life and body and desires."
"Actually the patriarchy exists to help women," the man said. "It's obvious you don't know much about it. I shouldn't be surprised, someone as ugly as you probably did terrible in school."
"What? That doesn't even make any sense," Kim said. "And for a man who hasn't once looked me in the eyes and seems only capable of addressing his comments to my breasts, you sure have a lot of negative things to say about my appearance."
Thunderclouds broke out over the head of every man in the crowd. Lightning flashed, illuminating their glares. Clearly she had touched a nerve.
"This is about ethics in photography!" the man shouted. "Taking hundreds of vain pictures of yourself and then applying filters to fool men into thinking you're more attractive than you are! We won't tolerate it anymore! Men invented photography. How dare you appropriate it for your own illicit and wanton purposes. We'll be taking that phone from you, and deleting all the offending files."
Kim couldn't keep a quick laugh from escaping. "Oh, I would love to see you try," she said. She extended her hand, holding out the phone for the man to take.
The bald man eyed her warily, then nodded at another nearby dude to go get the phone from her. He stepped forward and reached out to grab it. Kim swiped the Flexed Biceps emoji and the man's arm froze in mid-grab, then twisted and bent itself backwards at an impossible angle with a sickening crack. The man screamed in pain and fell to the ground.
"Ooo, you've done it now, love," the balding man said cooly. "You want to pose for pictures? Fine. We'll take your phone, strip you naked and then take all the pictures we want of you. If you want to model, you'll model for us, on our terms."
"I told you," Kim said, her eyes growing dark. "I am not your love." She swiped the Water Wave emoji and a wall of water erupted up out of the fountain and swept out in every direction, knocking the men over and sending them tumbling back into the street.
Kim crouched in a ready stance, wondering how much more fight these men really had in them. As the men began furiously scrambling to their feet, Kim saw more men, hundreds, thousands of them, streaming out of every nearby building, eager to join the fight. Not worth it.
"Well, cheerio, fückers," Kim said. She took a quick selfie with the crowd, sticking her tongue out at the camera while the men glared in the background, then swiped the Rocket emoji and vanished, just as the rushing crowd of terrible men closed in around her.
---------------
Yikes what is those dudes problem?!? Why would you hate selfies? Definitely some strange business going down in London. Next chapter we'll be back in Miami with Willow and we can process some of this together. Thank you for voting and commenting and sharing! If you like the stories please mention it to your friends on Twitter or IG or wherever! I love seeing your posts about it!