She is not trying to look twenty-five, which is why the photo has teeth. No strained angle. No frozen smile waiting to be graded against a younger face in the scroll.

She lets small things stay in the picture: a line near the eye, a hand that is not perfectly placed, a laugh that nearly wrecks the polished version. Younger women often edit those out. She knows they can make the photo better.

The comparison starts to feel beside the point. She has stepped outside it, and somehow that makes everyone else look busier.