“Are you going to the big work picnic this weekend?”
“I’m not one to skip a free catered meal.”
One corner of Jake’s mouth rose in a smirk. “Guess I’ll see you there. I have to uphold my cornhole title, after all.”
“I’ll be coming for it Saturday. I’m going to win that trophy away from you.” He pointed at the stupid little plastic cornhole trophy that had been passed around the station for God only knew how long. It had been in Jake’s possession two years out of the five he’d worked there.
“In your dreams. See you tomorrow.” As Tony left, Jake turned to finish his write up. As much as he hated these schmooze-y work events, his competitive nature wouldn’t let him back down, not even from a silly cornhole tournament.
An alert from his phone caught his eye. The price on the box set ofWolf’s Rainhad finally dropped. Hastily, he added it to his online cart and used his saved payment information to get it on its way. Grinning, he looked forward to spending the rest of his weekend binge-watching one of the anime shows from his youth.
Strolling up to apartment twelve, Olivia set her contributions to game night on the floor and knocked on the white wooden door. The paint was peeling almost as badly on this door as it was on her own. Her friend and coworker, Nadia, immediately answered. She was a full head taller than Olivia, with long chestnut hair and green eyes hiding behind her black eyeglasses.
Olivia picked her brown paper bags up from the floor. “I got the goods!”
“Get in here!” She opened the door wide and all but yanked Olivia inside. “What kind of wine did you bring?”
“I got a merlot for Jade and Mia, and a riesling for the rest of us. Unless we want whiskey sours.”
“Ineeda cocktail after the shift I had. Hand it over.” Jade strolled out of the bathroom, her long, black box braids swung over one shoulder. One long, ebony arm reached for the bag with the black lid peeking out. “How many am I making?”
“Make one for each of us, Jade. If the others don’t need them, one of us will drink them.”
“Sure thing, Nad.”
Olivia glanced at Nadia as the usually unflappable Jade disappeared into the galley kitchen. “What happened?”
Nadia shook her head. “The district manager showed up and told Jade she was doing her job wrong.”
Olivia grimaced. “Like Jade has time to deal withthatwhile managing the busiest coffee shop in the city?”
“Hence the whiskey. Pretty sure she’s one more incident away from calling Memaw for a voodoo doll.”
Wincing, Olivia handed her the bag with the wine. Jade was originally from Louisiana, and her grandmother was a hoodoo practitioner of some kind. Olivia preferred not to ask details. “Here, stick these in the fridge, so they have time to chill.”
Nadia gave her a nod and slipped away as another knock sounded on the door.
“Can you get that? Should be Rosie or Mia.”
She threw Nadia a thumbs up and headed to the front door. Mia, short for Amelia, wandered in from the other side, her blonde head pointed down in her phone. “Hey, Mia!”
Mia looked up, startled. “Did you beat me here, or am I at the wrong apartment again?” Her flighty friend had a history of getting confused about where they were meeting.
Olivia chuckled as she shut the door. “I beat you here. No worries.” She peered at the app on Mia’s phone. “You doing the ordering?”
“Yup. I’ve got one with sausage and pepperoni, and one with mushrooms and spinach. That should cover everyone, right?”
“I think so.”
Jade had walked back into the living room, Nadia behind her with drinks in hand for her guests. “Do they have that new brownie pizza for dessert?”
“Yeah, but do we want that, or the giant chocolate chip cookie?” Olivia asked.
Jade rubbed her chin in thought. “Oooh, tough call.”
Nadia handed Olivia her cocktail. “Mia, you want wine or whiskey sour?”
“Whiskey sour, please. Now, what dessert do we want?”
