Mommy
Danielle

Texas is where I was born and raised. Serbian is where I come from. I grew up speaking both and belonging fully to both, which turns out to be a useful thing when you spend your life reading people.

That reading is the whole job. Before anything else happens, somebody has to notice whether a man is performing confidence or actually feeling it. Most of them are performing. The ones worth an evening are not, and you can hear the difference in the first ten seconds.

I stopped pretending this was a phase somewhere around the third year. It is not a phase, it is not a hobby, and I have never once pretended otherwise with a man who deserved better than a lie.

I have been told I am cold. I have been told I am demanding. Both are fair. What I have never been called is careless — and that is the only reputation that matters to me.

These days I travel. Belgrade now, Slovenia next, then wherever the work takes me. Serbian, Croatian or English — we will understand each other either way.