Page 28 of The Sadist and the Brat

Sadie shoveled a pile of noodles into her mouth and mumbled, “About the bet.”

Nikki frowned, peanut sauce dripping off her salad roll. “About your hat?”

Sadie swallowed her mouth full of food, took a fortifying sip of wine, and said, “Not hat. Bet.”

“What bet?” Rebecca demanded, and Sadie sighed.

“The one I made with Jack.”

“Oh, boy.” Olivia gave a little butt wiggle. “Iknewthis was going to be good!”

“It’s not a big deal,” Sadie began.

“If that were true, you’d have already told us about it.” Olivia bit into a chunk of fried squid and jabbed her chopsticks in the air. “Come on, spill it.”

“Fine.” Sadie took another gulp of wine. “We were discussing the demo, kind of bickering a little—”

“Because he tricked you into it,” Rebecca put in.

“He did not.”

“Um.” Nikki cleared her throat, an impish smile on her pretty pixie face. “He kind of did.”

Sadie scowled. “Do you want to hear this story or not?”

“Fine, he didn’t trick you,” Rebecca soothed. “Totally tricked her,”she mouthed at Olivia, who snickered and promptly choked on her calamari.

“Serves you right,” Sadie muttered.

“You were saying?” Nikki prompted, passing her water to Olivia.

Sadie reached for her wine. “Anyway, I said something about not wanting to be bored, which in retrospect, was probably unwise.”

“Probably?” Olivia wheezed.

“Then he asked if I didn’t think he could make it fun for me, and I said no.”

“Were youdrunk?” Nikki asked, mouth open in shock.

“I wasn’t thinking straight,” Sadie admitted. “Anyway, it just kind of…evolved from there.”

“Into a bet?”

Sadie nodded. “He said if I won—if I didn’t have fun—he’d owe me a favor.”

Nikki leaned forward, eyes bright. “And if youdidhave fun?”

“I’d owe him a real scene.”

The three of them stared at her for a moment, wide-eyed and silent, then Rebecca said, “This isfantastic.”

“Oh, shut up,” Sadie said and drained her wine.

“When are you playing?” Nikki wanted to know.

“Why do you assume I lost?” Sadie demanded and scowled as all three women began to laugh.

“I hate all of you,” she declared, and reached for the bottle to refill her glass.

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