Just the Way You Are

Susan Berlanger, a New York based concert flutist, is currently in the pit orchestra for a ballet company where her best friend Lisa Elliott is a dancer. Susan's parents are helping arrange a European concert tour to increase her professional profile. She is considering accepting the marriage proposal of straight-laced investment banker Frank Bantam, it a marriage of convenience for both with Frank still in the closet, and Susan facing her own man problems. Having contracted a case of viral encephalitis at age nine, Susan requires a brace to walk, and even then with a limp. As such, many men seem to be attracted to her until they see the brace. In going on that European tour, Susan comes up with an idea to explore life without being judged solely by her disability. On her limited funds, she will ditch a couple of the tour dates and instead head to the French ski resort of Megève on a deal. Before she goes, she is able to persuade a Parisian doctor to put her usually braced leg in a cast so that people will just assume that she is recuperating from a ski injury, instead of being permanently disabled. The ruse works, she making some friends and having some lovers along the way. Key among those is an American skier named Steve Haslachez at the mountain for some races, a Parisienne named Nicole Schallon who is waiting for her married lover to show up, ski equipment executive François Rossignol who is a little more comfortable discussing his own physical disability, and freelance photographer Peter Nichols who is largely there to take photos of his current love interest Bobbie, also there for the races. Despite their bumpy beginning, she especially makes that romantic connection with Peter. She has to decide if there is any chance of a future with him, which means not only being fit into his already hectic global travel schedule, but being up front with him about her disability, which, if past history is any indication, may kibosh the relationship anyway. Written by Huggo