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“Hey, I’m not finished,” Lila yelped, her hand going to the locking bar.
“Yes, you are,” Sutton said, swatting Lila’s hand away. “You’re a woman. You’re not going to get any more muscle on your bones unless you resort to steroids.”
“I don’t lift to gain muscle.”
“Well, you already meet the militia’s strength requirements and then some. Let’s go have lunch. I’m hungry, and you’re making me look bad with all this running and jumping and lifting weights.”
“Maybe you should do so some—”
“If you finish that sentence, I will beat you. I brought you into this militia, and I can take you right out again. I don’t give a damn who your mother is.”
Lila snickered and followed Sutton from the room, wishing she could have a shower before facing her militia, but it wasn’t like they hadn’t seen her looking worse.
Plastered all across the elevators.
While Lila nibbled on a turkey sandwich and fries, Sutton filled her in on the commanders’ meeting and other matters she’d taken care of, or would take care of if Lila needed. She had worked with Lila long enough to know when she needed to pick up the slack.
It was a good thing Sutton didn’t know why Lila was so busy. Sutton was more or less a straight arrow, someone who only bent the rules so far. If she ever found out some of the things Lila had done recently…
“Hey, space case,” Sutton said, rapping her knuckle on the table.
“Hmmm?” Lila mumbled, looking up into the face of the militia’s chef and her team. The group chuckled, smug expressions pasted on their faces. Their little white caps tilted as each one laid tiny paper plates in front of her, each containing a cookie.
All shaped like breasts with chocolate chip nipples.
“All hail the conquering breast. I mean, hero.” Chef Sasha giggled, unable to keep a straight face.
The entire cafeteria snickered, holding up their own breast cookies.
Sutton winked, picked up a cookie, and bit off the nipple. “Hey, look, there’s fudge inside.”
Chef Sasha bowed as Lila took a bite and gave an appreciative nod. Still chuckling, the group ambled away back to their stations.
“Traitor,” Lila said when the staff was out of earshot.
“Ah, give them a break. It’s rare they get a chance to razz you. They’re proud and celebrating. Their chief made the LeBeau militia and the prime minister’s security detail look like idiots.” Sutton eyed Lila’s face, and Lila knew the commander was about to do a bit of razzing of her own. “You usually have a much better sense of humor about this stuff. You need a vacation. You haven’t had a proper one in ages. Perhaps you could some time off for the beginning of the season, find a senator, and enjoy yourself for a few weeks.”
“Don’t go there.”
“Why not? I’m around you more often than my daughters. I’m too busy to bug them for grand—”
Lila stood up. She dumped the rest of her meal in the trash, then slid her tray in a slot in the back of the room for cleaning. She’d barely eaten and wasn’t hungry, anyway. She practically welcomed an excuse to get rid of her food without comment.
Regardless, she collected half a dozen breast cookies from the table before leaving, all for the show of it.
Sutton followed along behind her in the corridor. “I guess your father bugged you about children at breakfast?”
“You guys teaming up now?”
“Perhaps he can take weekends from now on, so we don’t overlap. It’s better than you flying into a snit and running away whenever I bring it up.”
Lila withdrew her elevator card from her pocket. “You could stop bringing it up.”
“Life finds a way.”
“Yeah, well
, life can find a way up someone else’s vagina.” Lila would not get pregnant without a small miracle. She’d had a CUT on her twenty-first birthday. The operation had dropped her chances of having children to almost zero, and had been worth every credit.
