Molly raised her coffee in salute. “We don’t judge here.”
“Except romance books.” Sabrina winked at Cleo and pointed a finger-pistol at Molly.
The corners of Molly’s mouth tugged into a pursed-lipped smile. “Except that.”
“Can I get you something, Sabrina?”
Her flawless skin darkened with a blush at the question. She rolled her lips between her teeth and shook her head. “No, thanks. I was hoping you could play mailwoman for me? I know you’re with Linc, and he rooms with Russell Stewart, right?”
Cleo nodded slowly, struggling to figure out where the woman in front of her was leading them with her strange answer.
“This is weird. I know it’s weird. I’ve talked myself in and out of doing this no less than thirty-five million times today.”
Molly leaned forward. “Doing… what, exactly?”
Sabrina held out the gift bag to Cleo. Could you give this to Linc, to give to Russ, to give to Jude, please?”
Adorable. Utterly adorable. She’d gone to the trouble of picking up a gift for Russell’s daughter, and delivered it to Cleo to pass along.
“You’re giving a gift to Russell’s daughter, through three degrees of separation? Well this just gets curiouser and curiouser.”
Sabrina’s cheeks darkened. She swept her hair from her face before knotting her hands together. “I… uh.”
“Have a raging lady boner for Russ and wanna use his kid to get to him?”
Cleo groaned inwardly at Molly’s bluntness.
“What? No!” Sabrina’s eyes widened and her brows rose. “It’s not like that at all. Is that what he’s going to think, too? Shit. Fuck. I knew I shouldn’t have come.” She stepped forward, reaching for the bag, but Molly snatched from Cleo’s hands.
“Hmmm. Okay, so you want Russ to take a stroll in your lady garden, but you’re not a cold, calculated, wench. We can work with that.”
“Molly!” Cleo covered her eyes and groaned.
“What?” Molly rolled her eyes.
“I’m sorry about her.” Cleo flapped an elbow in Molly’s direction. Leaning over the counter she tugged the bag from her grasp and set it on the counter. “This is a very sweet gesture – I’ll be sure Russell gets it.”
“Why don’t you just give it to him yourself?”
“I didn’t want things to be weird. Jude has the same birthday as me, and when I saw this at the store, I couldn’t walk by. I don’t even really know them. I mean, I just met them… It’s too weird, isn’t it? It’s definitely weird. Fuck.”
“It’s adorable.” Cleo hoped her insistence would calm Sabrina down. Beads of sweat prickles across her forehead and her chest rose and fell much too fast. “Take a breath. He’s going to appreciate it. It’s not too weird – it’s sweet.”
Molly jerked a thumb over her shoulder. “She’s just saying that so she doesn’t have to fill out an incident report form when your ass crumples onto the tiles.”
Sabrina snorted a laugh. “Why is this so complicated?”
“Men?” Cleo tucked the bag under the till.
Sabrina nodded.
“Romance novels.” Molly raised her mug again and took another slurp. “That shit gives people all kinds of dumbass ideas.”
“Like what?” Cleo leaned on the counter.
“Well, for starters, they make them think we wear lacy thongs and bras all the time. No one talks about period pants in books. Or the pH-panties.”
“PH panties? What the fuck are you talking about?” Cleo’s eyes met Sabrina’s, who was seemingly every bit as confused as she was.
