Page 31 of Chips & Checks
Violet visibly relaxes. “That makes sense. Especially since you’re…” She looks me up and down. “Like, freakishly tall.”
“Says the girl who needs stilts to reach the top cabinets,” I tease. “It is a problem, though. Half the time, I end up bumping my noggin on the showerhead.”
“Whereas I need a stool to use the bathroom mirror.” Lest I think she’s joking, Violet points to the little stool she’s stashed between the vanity and the wall.
“You guys are like the two ends of the Goldilocks spectrum,” Ash observes. “Well, now that we know you’re not pawing through Violet’s unmentionables, I’m going to go sit down in the living room. My feet are killing me, and I’m not feeling a party in the hallway.”
Violet, pink-cheeked, hesitates a moment before following her out. I take another look at the bathroom. I usually end up having to make some modifications to my living spaces to make things more comfortable. Now I’m wondering if a stepstool is enough to make this space feel like it belongs to Violet. What about the kitchen counters? Does she need a stool for those, too?
And why the hell doesn’t she have a stool in her office? She had to practically climb onto the counters to reach her own supplies today. I was so distracted by Chad’s behavior that it’sonly just occurred to me that Violet’s workspace doesn’t work forher.
I put a pin in that thought so I can come back to it later.
Cam arrives a few minutes later with an overflowing bag of groceries. “I figured you’d have drinks here, so I grabbed snacks.”
Violet stands on her tiptoes to peer into the bag. “Snacks? Cam, you brought a whole freakingfeast.”
“I was hungry.” Cam heaves the bag onto the counter. “What are we drinking?”
“Rosé,” Ash says. “Shall I pour you a glass?”
Cam nudges me with his elbow. “You gonna tease me if I drink pink wine?”
I nudge him back. “Why would I? It’s delicious.”
Violet’s already pulled out another stepstool and started unpacking things from the bag Cam brought. About half of it’s charcuterie fixings, and the other half is frozen appetizers.
“Iamgoing to make fun of you for buying mini-pigs-in-a-blanket, though,” I add.
“Dibs on Bowen’s share,” Ash says at once.
“Only if I getyourshare of the stuffed olives.”
Ash holds out a hand to me. “Deal.” We shake on it.
Violet’s preheating the oven, so I step past her and start opening cabinets in search of a serving platter. We orbit each other in the small space. She sprays two baking sheets; I retrieve a cutting board. She arranges the frozen appetizers for baking, and I cube the cheese…
At some point, I realize that nobody is talking. When I look up from slicing a stick of salami, both Ash and Camden are staring at us with twin expressions of bemusement.
“This is… homey,” Ash says. “You’re like an old married couple already.”
“We’ve known each other for two days,” Violet argues. She’s putting the trays into the hot oven, so it’spossiblethat the pink in her cheeks is from the radiant heat.
“Three,” I correct. “Technically.”
She sticks her tongue out at me. “Really? Feels longer.”
Ash snickers. “That’s what she said.”
Violet’s blush spreads to the tips of her ears. “Nu-uh,” she mumbles, which only makes Ash smile wider.
I arrange the last of the veggies on the platter. “We’re just coworkers, Ash. A couple of coworkers, who have called a secret meeting about how to handle a problem with ourothercoworker.”
“Problem?” Ash asks.
Violet pours me and Cam a glass of wine each as she explains the Chad Problem. There isn’t enough room in the kitchen for all of us, so we shift to the living room while Violet keeps talking. Cam looks like he wants to flip a table, and I’m glad that Ash doesn’t have laser vision, because if she did, she could probably fry Chad with her fury from halfway across the city. Actually, I wish she could. Chad sucks.
When Violet’s done, Ash holds up two fingers. “I have two questions. The first one,obviously,is where we’re going to hide the body.”
