“One of the issues we’re facing is the fact that we don’t think Doc Landry has given us the full picture of how bad things are.”
“Oh, how is Dr. Landry?” Ashanti asked. “I loved him as a professor.”
“Doc is Doc,” Evie said with a shrug. Ashanti’s nod signified that her answer was sufficient. “But we didn’t really need Doc to tell us that things aren’t going well. It was obvious to us by the state of the facility.”
“Who is thisusyou keep mentioning?” Ridley said.
Shit.She hadn’t caught what she was saying, but of course Ridley did. With a healthy intake of breath, Evie prepared herself for the fallout from her next words.
“Um, Bryson Mitchell is also going to help with the effort to save The Sanctuary. I’m meeting him for dinner this evening so that we can come up with an initial plan.”
“Wait a fucking minute!” Ridley said, tossing the cashmere sweater she was folding onto the floor as if it were a dirty rag. “Bryson Mitchell? That fine-ass basketball player you dated back in school?”
“I never dated him,” Evie said.
“Bullshit,” Ridley said.
“We volunteered at The Sanctuary together that summer. We did not date.”
“Come on now, Ev. Don’t try to rewrite history,” Ashanti said.
“What?” Evie said, going for the most innocent look she could manage.
“Girl, do you not remember that weekend Shanti and I spent with you at your parents’ house that summer? We could play connect the dots with the hickeys that man put on your neck.”
Evie felt her entire body flush with the most intense heat ever. She absolutely remembered that weekend. She’d met Bryson at The Sanctuary for what was supposed to be a quick check-in on a Doberman that had been rescued from a storm drain. The check-in turned out to be not so quick.
“Fine, I can admit that things got a bit… overly friendly that summer,” Evie said. “But we were not a couple. We were just having a little fun.”
“You should have fucked him,” Ridley said. “I told you that back then. Instead, you returned to LSU that fall and went back to Cameron’s crusty ass.”
Because Bryson left Louisiana without so much as a goodbye.
Evie pushed down the rush of indignation and hurt that bubbled to the surface.
“That all happened a long time ago,” she said. “It has nothing to do with what’s happening with The Sanctuary today.”
“The hell it doesn’t,” Ridley said. “Is he married? Because if he isn’t, you better fuck that man now. Make up for time lost.” She pointed a stiletto heel at her. “Better yet, fuck him in front of Cameron!”
“What is with you and this new fascination with voyeurism?” Ashanti asked.
“I’m not sure, but it’s become my preferred porn genre.” Ridley shrugged. “But I don’t want Ev to fuck the basketball star in front of Cameron for my benefit. Although I would love to see him lose his shit over you getting your back blown out by someone better than him. This is for you, Ev. You deserve it.”
Evie pushed up from the sofa and walked over to the glass-topped dining room table where Ridley was sorting her unpacked clothes. She picked up the cashmere sweater from the floor and added it to a pile on the table.
“No one will be getting their back blown out anytime soon,” Evie said.
“Ahem.” Ashanti cleared her throat.
“A-fucking-hem,” Ridley followed.
Evie held up both her middle fingers. “You can both go to hell,” she said.
The three of them burst out laughing.
“All jokes aside,” she continued. “I just broke up with Cameron. What would it look like to have me dating this soon?”
“Like you have common sense and good taste,” Ridley said.
