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“Mad at me? What did I do?” She reaches over my shoulder to pluck a piece of chicken from the pan and pop it in her mouth. “Why are you cooking for me if you’re mad at me?”
“Because I was hungry.”
“But why are you mad?” She snatches another bite of chicken and I smack her hand with the wooden spoon in mine. “You’re being very nice to me?”
“I am nice.”
“You’re an asshole with a smile and we both know it, Soph. What’s up?”
I pull plates down from her cupboard and start dividing up the food. “I’m mad at you and Sutton equally. You went behind my back to apply for the assistance fund, after I told you I didn’t want you to.”
Lauren heaps her plate with rice, chicken and the vegetables I’d found in the back of her freezer. “Soph…” she groans. “You need the money. And you’ve been paying into that program since you started. That’s what it’s fucking for. Medical emergencies are, like, the first thing on the list of reasons why you can apply. Besides, all I did was finish the application you started. You can’t really be mad at me?”
I fill my own plate while she perches on one of the stools at her counter. Her dining room table is piled high with packages from various clothing stores. “That’s what Kate said too.” Leaning my elbows on the counter opposite her, I shovel a forkful of dinner into my mouth. “Hot!”
Her grin is evil as I chew carefully, trying not to burn the inside of my mouth any more. “HR Kate?” I don’t answer and she eyes me. “So why are you mad at Sutton? Beyond the usual, ‘he’s trying to buy my love’ complaint that I’ve already told you is utter bullshit.”
“I was mad at you. But the longer I thought about it, the more Kate seemed right. That I do have a right to the assistance fund, even if—” I catch myself before I blurt out the other really important news I need to tell Lauren. “So, I was mad at you for doing it behind my back. But I realize that I wouldn’t have done it myself if you hadn’t.”
Lauren’s crow of triumph is cut off by her choking on her mouthful of food. “Don’t die, asshole.”
I grin and push her my glass of water. “I admit you were right about it and I should have listened to you. But I’m still mad at Theo.”
Getting her coughing under control, Lauren raises an eyebrow. “Why are you mad at Sutton? And please, for the love of the Bluewater Billionaires, tell me why he’s in such a fucking foul mood. He made Stuart and that new developer Frankie cry tonight.”
The idea of that tall, patrician sack of male ego tearing up over something Theo said, has giggles bubbling up inside me, but from the exhaustion in Lauren’s shoulders, it probably wasn’t nearly as fun to live through as it is to think about after the fact. “She’s so sweet, I hope you gave him a hard time for making her cry.”
Lauren nods. “I saw him apologize later. So why are you mad at him?”
“He approved it. And I think he doubled it.”
A spray of half-chewed chicken and rice lands in the middle of the counter at my announcement. “Doubled it?”
“It’s the only thing I can think of. I went to talk to Kate. Um,” I cough to cover my hesitation and hastily reach for the wine glasses I know Lauren keeps in the far-left cupboard, and snag the already open bottle I spotted in the fridge earlier. “Kate said that the amount was for thirty-thousand dollars, twice the normal limit of an application. And I didn’t register the other things she said until later.”
I pour us each a glass praying that Lauren doesn’t call me out until I’m ready to tell her my other news. She takes the bait.
“What did she say?”
“That someone else submitted an internal application and doubled it. Who else besides Theo would know the exact amount of money Emma’s hospital bill came to?”
Lauren sips from her glass, tapping it with her red-tipped nail. “I haven’t told anyone else.”
“Neither have I. And who else would be able to do something like that internally without tripping off some kind of alert?” We eat in silence for a few minutes. I don’t know what’s going through Lauren’s head, but mine is whirling with how I’m going to tell her that I’m leaving Mailbox.
Finally, Lauren pushes her plate away and takes a long sip of her wine. “There’s something else, isn’t there, Soph?”
“What makes you say that?”
“Because you’re a terrible actress and I can see the hamster running circles in your mind. I haven’t known you for twenty years not to know when there’s something on your mind. And it’s not just about Sutton, is it?” She nudges my wine glass closer with her own. “Drink up and spit it out.”
“You’re a pushy bitch, you know that?” But I grab my glass and down the rest of the crisp white wine.
Lauren grins and pours us both another glass. “Yeah, but you love that about me. Besides, you’re too nice to get rid of me at this point. Now spill.”
“I was talking to Kate because I was giving my two weeks notice.”
Dead silence is all I get in response.
