Sam noted the jealousy undercutting the sarcasm. She was the only one who’d inherited their dad’s qualms about modern technology. Nicole and Tabby both owned phones and loved social media, but while Nicole’s Instagram followers stood at a humble six hundred, Tabby had close to a hundred thousand.
That made sense, considering Tabby’s photos showed her travelling the world in low-cut tops and tattooing minor celebrities, but Nicole was still bitter. She believed in working hard and paying your dues and Tabby just rolled around drunk, tattooing Pokémon onto the bellies of the girls from Camp Cope and being retweeted by Ruby Rose. She was lucky and she took her luck for granted. That gave Nicole the shits.
Before they reunited, Sam had considered updating Nix about some of Tabby’s more stressful dramas—the ex-boyfriend who’d almost convinced her to marry him, the malfunctioning pregnancy test, the rainbow unicorn tattooed on her butt cheek saying ‘Get Woke, Cunt’—but she decided it wasn’t worth the stress. Tabby could tell her herself if she showed up. With Tabby, it was always an if.
“Ooh, our drinks!” Nicole held out her hands and took her mint tea from the waitress’ hands.
Control freak, Sam thought.You should have been a tattooist, Nix. Shame you can’t draw for crap.
Sam let the waitress plunk her huge, frothy drink in front of her and leaned forward to gulp through the straw without using her hands. She could feel Nicole’s disapproving stare but she kept going—a form of social protest. When half her drink was gone, she straightened up and wiped her mouth. “Anyway, you were asking if the staff were pissed about you coming—Noah, our main guy, is fine with it.”
“Is he the big man dad loved?”
“Yup. I should tell you, Gil, the other full timer doesn’t seem happy.”
Nicole narrowed her eyes. “Why not?”
“He thinks Tabby’s gonna take customers away from him and you’re going to rake him over the coals.”
“How can Tabby take customers if you’re barely getting customers?”
“I dunno, he’s got an ex-wife and three kids to support so maybe he’s just being sleep deprived and paranoid.”
“Hmm,” Nicole said, taking another sip of hot water. “I guess Iamthere to rake the studio over the coals. I have no idea how you guys could be running at a loss.”
“Right…but you still think we can save it, right? We can pump up the website and get the heritage building people off my dick? We won’t have to sell to Angry Greg?”
Nicole put down her teacup, leaning forward and placing her hand over Sam’s. “I promise. We’ll get you up and running in no time.”
They smiled, and the frost that had coated their conversation finally thawed.
“I’m so glad you’re here,” Sam said.
“Me too.” Nicole squeezed her hand and let go. She always did that—a little extra tightness before the release. “So, about Scott Sanderson…?”
Sam choked on her mouthful of whipped cream. “Wh-what about him?”
“Um, everything? I can’tbelieveyou saw him again after all these years. The last time I saw him was the night you guys came back from the police station. He left that night, didn’t he?”
“Er…yeah. I think so.” Sam took in her sister’s nervous expression. “Things were incredibly civil when we had that drink, I promise.”
Nicole fidgeted with the paper tail of her teabag. “Sure, it’s just…the cops told you two to stay away from each other.”
“That was a decade ago and it wasn’t a formal restraining order. Neither of us was charged.”
Nicole didn’t look at all reassured. “He didn’t…mention The Thing, did he?”
“No. Didn’t even hint at it. I don’t think he wants to go there any more than I do. We just went for a drink and talked about the business. It was normal. Everything was normal.”
Her sister tilted her head to the side. “Did something happen?”
“No!” Sam refused to think about the hug, the way she and Scott had looked at each other over the scratchy pub table, his suggestion of margaritas and the unspoken suggestion that whatever followed margaritas would be fine by him, too. She refused to think about the spanking dreams.
“Scott Sanderson and I had a beer, talked about finance and his crackers dad and then we went our separate ways. It was nothing. It waslessthan nothing.”
Her sister opened her mouth and then closed it again. Then she took a long sip of tea. “He didn’t mention how horrible we were to him, did he?”
“We weren’tthathorrible,” Sam protested. “Anyway, he gave as good as he got! Remember when he put up those fake lost dog posters that said I was missing and also a kelpie with hip dysplasia?”