Page 73 of All the Right Words
Brenda reached into her bag and pulled out a small clear supermarket snack pot of pineapple. ‘OK. Right. So to start, I need you to eat this.’
Gina looked at the pot and then up at her interrogators. ‘Are you two out of your fucking minds?’
Harper wasn’t sure about this part. It felt a dash Guantanamo. But Brenda had insisted on it and wouldn’t waver. ‘Eat it,’ Brenda said firmly.
‘Why?’ Gina demanded reasonably.
‘So we can see if you break out in hives.’
‘No. OK?No. How about that?’ Gina said with an aggressively casual shrug.
‘Why not?’ Brenda asked.
‘Because I don’t eat fruit cups on demand,’ Gina said. ‘And I don’t like pineapple.’
‘Because you’re allergic,’ Brenda smirked.
‘I’m notallergic,’ Gina said, laughing nervously. ‘And what if I was?’
Brenda sat back down in her chair and leaned across the table to Gina, who leaned back slightly. ‘Well, here’s the thing. Your boss told a story to my agent about a pineapple allergy. For god knows what reason, Harper found it charming. Along with a lot of other things she said. In person and over text. But she kept getting this feeling.’ Brenda paused for effect. Harper had to hand it to her. She was really in her element. ‘The feeling was there were twoverydistinct sides to Olivia. One of them was someone she thought she might be romantically interested in, funny, charming, emotionally mature, open, all that jazz. What the kids callgirlfriend material. The other was an uptight cold fish with control issues.’
‘Brenda, steady on!’ Harper said. ‘I never said that.’ She turned to Gina. ‘I never said that,’ she repeated.
Brenda didn’t pay much heed to that; she was in it now. She leaned in even closer to Gina. Gina leaned even further back. ‘And I think she was feeling that confusion because she was talking to… two different people!’ Brenda finished melodramatically.
Gina’s face didn’t change. Harper was disheartened. Because it was the big reveal and Gina’s reaction should have told them whether Harper was right or stark staring bonkers. But there was nothing. She was stone-faced.
Brenda was undeterred. ‘And the reason that I’ve, thatwe’vedrawn that conclusion, the reason this whole scheme cameunstuck, was because Olivia was thoughtless and demonstrated that she had no such allergy.’ Brenda gave a light laugh. ‘Now, it would be easy to say that you told her that story, and then she just adopted it as her own. People do that all the time, not much of a scandal.’
Gina nodded. ‘Yeah. That’s probably what happened. Can I go now-’
‘Except that you told us quite specifically that you don’t have an allergy!’ Brenda declared.
Gina paused. ‘Err…’
Oh wow. Brenda was killing this. She’d trapped Gina in her own words. Therewasa lie here. Harper hadn’t imagined it.
‘And that’s not all,’ Brenda went on. ‘You were offered the exotic fruit in Harper's presence and apparently, hadquitethe reaction. Guilt face. Was that what you called it?’ she asked of Harper.
‘That’s what I called it,’ Harper confirmed, looking at Gina. But Gina wouldn’t look at her. She was fixed on Brenda.
‘Which tells me that you,Gina, were in on it from the beginning,’ Brenda proclaimed. ‘You were feeding Olivia lines from the start. Not only that, but we believe that you coached her throughout several dates. Furthermore, we suspect that you handled some text communications pretty much solo, based on the fact that there were several occasions when Olivia acted like she didn’t remember rather crucial conversations between them.’
Gina shook her head sadly at Brenda. ‘I helped you get unblocked,’ she pled.
Brenda smiled warmly at Gina. ‘And I appreciated it. Noweat the pineapple.’
Gina glared at Brenda like she might deck her. ‘Oh for fuckssakes!’ she exclaimed, grabbing the pineapple pot, ripping the top off and pouring the entire contents into her mouth, juice splattering down her neck and top. She chewed for several seconds while Harper watched her in disbelief. She’d never really believed Gina would eat it.
But Gina was going for it, moaning between chews, ‘God, that’sfibrous!’ Eventually, she’d swallowed the lot, and she sat there panting from the exertion, juice spattered and angry. She belched loudly and said, ‘Happy? It’s just a fucking fruit that I don’t like very much, you absolute pair of bloody lunatics-’ She stopped mid-sentence and twitched slightly.
‘Well, that kicked in quick,’ Brenda said with a contented smile.
‘What are you talking about?’ Gina asked, her shoulder jerking quite obviously.
Harper didn’t want to do this anymore. ‘Gina, I don’t think… How bad is it?’ she asked. ‘Do you need to go to the hospital or anything?
Gina, fists clenched, laughed maniacally. ‘You’re being ridiculous. I’m fine. I told you, I don’t-’ She stopped and stood up. ‘If you’ll excuse me, I just need to use the bathroom,’ she said with odd formality.
