Page 45 of About Last Night

“I figured this was coming, too,” Audrey says, a wry smile on her face.

“What?” I ask.

“Willa is a very affectionate drunk,” Audrey says.

“There are worse things to be,” Willa says. “So, I tell my friends I love them when I’m drunk. It’s not a crime.”

“Are we friends?” Greta asks, deadpan.

“Yes, we are,” Willa says. She points at Greta and circles her finger around her face. “I see through that ice queen facade, by the way.”

Greta raises an eyebrow and Willa stares at her for a moment, before turning to me and Audrey.

“It’s not all the time that Audrey and I like each other’s friends and here we are, two sets of sisters”—she looks back at Greta—“all becoming friends. Cheers!” Willa holds up her mug.

We all clink our mugs together and drink.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

AUDREY

“I have a question for you,” Willa says.

I park the car in the Fourteener Sports warehouse parking lot. Employees and their families are filing into the building, dressed in festive clothes, for the company holiday party. I kill the car engine and turn down the radio that will continue to play until we open the car doors. Willa and I remove our seatbelts and turn toward each other. Frank Sinatra is imploring us to have a holly, jolly Christmas.

“Shoot,” I say.

“If Greta offered you, or us, a job when our contract is up, would you take it?”

“I don’t know. Would you?”

“I don’t know, either.”

“Why do you ask? Has Greta said anything? Hinted at anything?”

Willa scoffs. “No. She’s been more reserved than normal since I called her an ice queen.”

“It wasn’t very nice.”

Willa furrows her brows. “Oh, Greta knows I meant it as a compliment. She’s having a great time playing the part. She’s so distracted by it that she’s oblivious to you and Toni mooning over each other all day every day.”

“What? No, we aren’t.”

“Oh my God, yes you are. You do a bit better job of hiding it, but poor Toni. You should see the expression on her face when you’re in All-Business Audrey mode.”

I reach into my back seat for my purse and sparkly rainbow Santa hat and hope Willa doesn’t see me blush.

“Oh, my God,” Willa says again. “You have noticed. Which is why you go on longer than you should, overexplaining everything. You know Toni thinks it’s hot.” Willa laughs. “You’re torturing the poor woman. Don’t you see how she squirms in her chair?”

I press my lips together. “Maybe.”

“You are fucking awful,” Willa says, but she’s laughing. “Telling her you can’t be in a relationship yet but winding her up every chance you get. I bet she rubs one off in the bathroom at least once a day.”

“Willa!” I say, but I laugh too. “She’s not innocent in all this. She knows I love her forearms so she’s constantly rolling her sleeves up and flexing her arms and wearing those fucking hiking pants that make her ass look amazing.”

“So, she loves you for your mind and you love her for her body.”

“No one has said anything about love, and I am attracted to more than her body. If we didn’t have this project, would I want something casual with Toni right now? Yes, I would. But we do, so I can’t. End of story.”

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