Page 27 of The Sadist and the Brat

“One glass. I’m driving.” Olivia finished unloading the food and set the bags aside. “Did you rearrange the furniture in here? It looks different.”

Sadie handed Olivia a glass of wine and gestured to the corner where the desk now lived. “I moved the stuff out of my office so I can turn it into a massage room.”

Rebecca returned with a handful of napkins and a spoon. “That explains the outfit.”

Sadie glanced down at her yoga pants and the Garth Brooks concert T-shirt that would’ve come to her knees without the knot she’d tied at the hip. “What, you don’t like Garth?”

“I like him,” Nikki piped up. “He’s my dad’s favorite singer.”

“That would make me feel old, except I stole this shirt frommydad,” Sadie said, accepting the container of broth and bag of ingredients from Olivia. “Did you get it with tripe?”

“Yes.”

Rebecca grimaced. “I don’t know how you can eat that.”

Sadie grabbed a set of chopsticks and settled into a chair. “It’s just meat, Rebecca.”

“It’s gross,” Rebecca countered, and sat down on the couch. “Where’s my bánh mì?”

Sadie pried the lid off the container of broth and poured it into the bowl, then dumped in the meat and noodles. She started to tear the basil leaves, remembered that she’d been washing walls and painting, and dashed into the kitchen to clean up. By the time she got back, Nikki and Rebecca had dug into their food and Olivia was sitting cross-legged on the floor.

“I can get a chair from my bedroom,” she offered.

Olivia shook her head and flipped open the takeout container in front of her. “I’m good on the floor.”

Sadie sat and began to shred the bundle of basil leaves. “What’d you get?”

“Peppered salted calamari.” Olivia took a bite. “And it’s excellent.”

Sadie finished doctoring her bowl of Ph?, settled cross-legged in the chair, and inhaled the fragrant steam. “God, I needed this. Thanks, pals.”

“Don’t thank us yet,” Rebecca warned and plucked a sliver of carrot from her sandwich. “We have ulterior motives.”

Sadie shook her head and mumbled “I don’t care” around a mouthful of noodles and meat.

“Don’t be too sure,” Nikki cautioned.

“What happened Saturday night with you and Jack?” Olivia demanded, and Sadie was grateful she’d already swallowed.

“And don’t try to convince us that nothing did,” Olivia told her. “I could tell by your face Saturday night. It was weird.”

Sadie twirled her noodles and tried to act nonchalant. “My face was weird?”

“You know what I mean.” Olivia gestured with her chopsticks, a chunk of fried squid clamped between them. “Even Cade noticed. He asked me if you’d had Botox.”

“Has he ever seen someone who’s had Botox?” Nikki wondered.

Olivia shrugged. “Not that he’d notice. So? What happened? Start with before the demo.”

She knew if she didn’t tell them, they’d keep badgering her, and it would be impossible to enjoy her dinner. It also occurred to her that talking to her friends about this wasn’t the worst idea. “We…had a conversation.”

“That’s all?”

“Pretty much.”

“Oh, I very much doubt that,” Rebecca said over Olivia’s snort of disbelief.

“A conversation about what?” Olivia wanted to know.

---