By Sandra Thom-Jones
David fidgeted with the stem of his empty wine glass and glanced anxiously at the front door of the restaurant. They had been dating for three months but he still wondered every time whether she would show up, whether she would actually want to sit and have a meal with him. Not that he was sure ‘dating’ was the right word for it, as they only ever met in secret. She said dating people at work wasn’t allowed. Margot, their boss, had never mentioned this rule to David but perhaps that was because she assumed none of the glamorous models would ever consider dating him.
Morgan stopped briefly in the lobby and checked her lipstick in the mirror. As she did, she steeled herself for another boring evening with David. Three months since she first asked the little troll out for a drink and her plan seemed no closer to fruition. She had been so sure that this insipid little man, who somehow had Margot’s ear, would be the key to overcoming the one barrier to her well-deserved stardom. But after eleven dates, in response to every top client request, Margot booked ‘the other’ redhead; Sylvia, her nemesis.
David beamed as Morgan flounced into the restaurant, turning heads in her body-hugging violet pantsuit and black leather boots, with large boho floral bag hanging elegantly from her left shoulder. He stood up and pulled out her chair.
“You look spectacular, my love,” he said.
Morgan resisted the urge to flinch and instead gave him a stunning smile and a quick kiss on the cheek. The smile had been easy to produce when she noticed his briefcase on the floor beside his chair. Morgan knew what was in that briefcase, and that was why she had been so eager to meet for dinner this evening. She had been in the dressing room changing back into her street clothes following a painfully demeaning photoshoot for a cat food commercial and had heard David on his mobile phone through the window. It was unusual for him to take work calls outside and she could only hear snatches of conversation, but she heard enough: “Yes, as we discussed…Redhead…$5,000…bring the paperwork this evening.”
When she called him a few minutes later, ‘just to say hello,’ she asked if he had any bookings for her and, of course, he said “no.” That was when she suggested this early dinner.
Morgan knew it wouldn’t be long before David needed to go to the bathroom, a combination of nervous energy and too many glasses of water while she kept him waiting for her arrival and she was ready. As soon as he left the table, she snapped open his briefcase, pulled out the manila envelope, slid out the glossy 8×10 photograph of Sylvia with her address and bio on the back, and replaced it with her own.
The next morning David tuned his radio to the morning news and listened to the story he had been waiting for: “Breaking News: unnamed model found shot dead in her apartment.” After he had vomited up his toast, swallowed his guilt, and wiped his mouth, he imagined the smile on Morgan’s face when she heard that Majestic Models now had only one redhead on its books.
* * *
Sandra Thom-Jones is an autistic author, researcher and advocate living in Melbourne, Australia. Her books include Growing in to Autism (2022; 2025), Autistics in Academia (2025), and Autistics at Work (2025). In 2023 she left a career in university leadership to focus on writing fiction with autistic characters, including a (hopefully soon to be published) novel about an autistic woman, a cat, and a few dead bodies. Sandra was the winner of the 2025 Scarlet Stiletto Award for short crime fiction; and in 2023 she won the Scarlet Stiletto third prize as well as the Liz Navratil Prize for the Best Crime Story with a Disabled Protagonist. Her short stories have been published in several anthologies. She also writes for a range of outlets on the autistic experience and contributes to public discussion on autism and creativity.