Read Online Skin Deep by Gary Braver - Free Book Online Page B

lid lift, maybe a nose job if I can afford it.”
    â€œThen start at the top. I think he’s done everybody who’s anybody in Boston, not to mention a lot of movie people who don’t want to be outed by the Hollywood paparazzi.”
    â€œYeah, and I’ll probably be sixty-five before I can get an appointment.”
    â€œUse my name.”
    The waitress came to take their orders, and they each asked for a glass of Chardonnay. Dana ordered a Caesar salad topped with grilled shrimp, and Lanie ordered a grilled fillet of arctic char. “Isn’t that an endangered species?” Dana asked.
    â€œProbably, because this is Newbury Street not Harvard Square.”
    They were surrounded by young suburbanites in town for lunch and people-gazing, young professionals off from work, and chain-smoking Euro college kids, most dressed in tight black. “Ever notice that the older you get the more you’re aware of all the twenty-somethings inhabiting the world?”
    â€œYeah, and I hate them.” The waitress returned with their drinks. “To makeovers,” Lanie said, raising her glass.
    â€œBut I haven’t decided anything.”
    â€œYou will.”
    Dana took a sip of wine then removed her sunglasses and surreptitiously pulled up her eyelids. “What do you think?”
    Lanie lowered her own sunglasses. “You just took ten years off your face. Go for it.”
    â€œAnd the nose?”
    Lanie whispered, “You want the God’s honest truth?”
    â€œMaybe not.”
    â€œWell, that’s all I see. You’ve got a beautiful face and this distraction in the middle of it. Sorry, but it doesn’t belong on your face. Period. Get rid of it and you’ll be drop-dead gorgeous.”
    Lanie’s brutal honesty was part of her carpe diem charm. Unlike Dana, she was not conflicted over cosmetic augmentation. Over the last eight years she had had a brow lift, upper and lower lid lifts, and a lower face-lift that tightened her jawline. She also had regular Botox treatments and microabrasion therapy, giving her skin a fresh suppleness.
    â€œI’m thinking of getting lipo on my belly.”
    Lipo, not liposuction. Already the procedures had nickname familiarity. “You think you really need it?”
    Lanie dropped her hands below table level and grabbed a handful of flesh. “At least two inches.”
    Dana’s head filled with TV images of masked doctors ramming large suction tubes into women’s bellies. It looked so violent. “Didn’t you just get an elliptical machine?”
    â€œThat was Carl’s idea. I hate the thing. In five minutes I’m exhausted.”
    â€œWhat about your treadmill?”
    â€œTerminal boredom. Look, I’m not like you. I hate jogging, I hate working out. I admit I’m weak, going for the quick fix and all. But, screw it.” Then she leaned forward again. “I bet you half the women at this place—and maybe some men—have had cosmetic work, including the Euro and Latin club kids. In fact, where they come from they start in their teens—nose jobs, boob jobs, butt jobs, tummy tucks, lipo, you name it. It’s like going to the hair salon for them.”
    â€œThat’s insane.”
    â€œI agree, but it’s happening. Look, for four thousand bucks you get a simple lid lift. Another six or seven you get the nose you’ve always wanted. If you have the money, it’s a no-brainer, because you’ll be happy. Even if you don’t have it. Get a loan. You owe it to yourself. And do it now while you’re still young, while your skin is still elastic.”
    â€œYoung enough for preventive surgery but too old to get a job. There is a God, and She doesn’t own a mirror.”
    â€œIt’s not just the job thing. I think you have a moral obligation to yourself.”
    â€œYou’re making aging sound like a sin.”
    â€œWell, if you can do