Page 96 of The Endowment Effect

These old women were going to be the death of him.

With a grin, Pinkie marked two of her cards and said, “Birdie Wellborn, do you know anything about TikTak?”

Birdie shot him a questioning glance. She was clearly speechless at having the most influential woman in Wayward ask her a direct question.

A random one at that.

Typical Pinkie. She was up to something.

“It’s, uh… Birdie Shepherd now. As for TikTok, I know a bit. Not as much as Mia, my daughter.” She side-eyed him and self-corrected with, “I mean, our daughter.”

Pinkie kept her eyes glued to her cards as she spoke, “How about building one of them web place thingies. You know anything about that?”

Lucas watched as Birdie clutched the dauber so hard her fingers turned white.

She leaned toward him until he could feel her breath skate across his cheek, and then whispered in his ear, “Is there a right or wrong answer?” Her soft breath on his skin caused the hair on his arms to stand at attention.

Again, he shrugged his shoulders in response. But he had to give her credit as she turned to the older woman with her head held high and replied, “I do know a thing or two about building websites.”

“You know,” Pinkie said, drawing out the question as she caught up with the caller, pressing dots on her cards. “You reach a time in your life when you’re no longer considered a participant by those who are younger, but an observer.”

Lucas watched Birdie’s eyes move from Pinkie to him, but he was no help as he too was unsure where she was going with this line of dialogue.

Pinkie continued, “I, for one, do not appreciate being instructed to sit and observe by younger women with one third of my life experiences.” The woman’s eyes finally landed on Birdie’s. “Would you agree?”

“No, ma’am?” But then she added, “Yes, ma’am.” Not sure which she was responding to, or agreeing with.

“I mean, yes, it would upset me if I were told to observe life instead of being an active participant.”

“I thought so,” Pinkie said, clearly leading the witness. “Therefore, I would like your help in putting the Pinkie Posse on the silver screen. The silver computer screen that is. I want you to teach us how to TikTak and make it arrive on our computers where other people can see it. We refuse to be mere observers of life because others deem us as old and senile. We demand to be participants, living life to the fullest and on our own terms.”

“Okaay.”

“Excellent,” Pinkie responded, assuming that was a confirmation to her proposition.

Lucas held back a laugh at Pinkie’s sleight of hand when it came to conversational maneuvering.

The faux-British caller shouted out another letter and number and Pinkie continued, “There are things about getting old that are untenable. Instead of fighting back, many women of a certain age allow themselves to be railroaded. Believing they have no right to want or ask for more. Can you relate?”

Birdie stiffened beside him, causing Lucas to send Pinkie a stern look, not liking the turn she was taking. It was getting a little too personal. A little too close to home. The old crone was going in for the kill shot. Or maybe the shock factor. He wasn’t sure which. He had witnessed both approaches executed by the woman with lethal accuracy.

“For instance,” she said with an imperious demeanor. “Did you know that when you get to be of a certain age, you begin to lose your genital hair?”

Yep, shock factor it was. With little to no relevance to the conversation.

Birdie reared back in her seat. “All of it?” she asked as if genuinely surprised.

“Enough that it matters,” Pinkie said flatly, daubing her card.

“Well.” Birdie began to fidget, having missed the last couple of letters and numbers. She glanced at Lucas, as if unsure how to respond or if she should. He avoided her wide eyes asking him for some sort of lifeline.

Nope, she was on her own.

Her face flushed a mottled red. “Um, did you know a lot of younger women shave it off? And some men, actually find a bare…” She leaned forward and lowered her voice. “… hoohaw… to be sexy?”

Pinkie took a beat and then lifted a dubious eyebrow toward Lucas. “Is this true?”

Lucas jumped as Birdie squeezed his leg with enough pressure that he thought he better answer the question before losing all blood flow to his lower extremities.

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