I eyed him. “Uh, Mr. Revisionist History. You obviously dumped me when you fled to California.”
Sarah’s wide owl-eyes swooped to Ben. “That’swhy you moved to Palo Alto?”
“No, you dumpedme.” Ben ducked his head and lowered his voice. “When you cheated on me with Connor.”
“What?” I squawked, volume definitely courtesy of the wine. “I did not. I assumed when you yelled at me in front of everyone at the graduation party that you were totally, 100 percent dumping me.”
Ben’s face flushed. “AndIassumed when you walked out of the graduation party with Connor, leaving me all alone with everyone watching, you were definitely, no doubt about it, breaking up withme.”
“Does this mean y’all are still technically dating?” Alexis asked.
“I certainly hope not,” Sarah said.
The waiter circled the table and held out a small menu with a flourish. “May I tempt you with dessert?”
Sarah shoved back from the table, her face panicked. “Oh my God, it’s McGraw. My boss.”
We all turned to see what she was looking at. Sure enough, Kenneth McGraw, notorious Texas lobbyist and head of Sarah’s firm, was walking in our direction.
“We have a lovely chocolate tart,” said the oblivious waiter.
Sarah ducked. “I can’t let him see me. He’ll ask about the pipeline and I’m nowhere near where I should be on negotiations.”
My head swiveled like that little girl inThe Exorcist. “TheLonestarpipeline?”
She looked at me, alarmed, like I would grill her on her progress, too. “Yes. I’m helping Lonestar convince the House to approve it.”
My blood temperature surged from 98.6 to boiling. “You’re trying to get itpassed? As in, yes, pipeline?”
“Lee,” Ben warned.
I waved a hand. “Oh,I’m sorry. You’re working to pass a major clean energy bill and your girlfriend just said she’s trying to put in a pipeline. How’s that not a conflict of interest?”
“Oh, shit,” Alexis said. “It just clicked. Lee and Ben—you two areworkingtogether?”
“Ben, you actually support this pipeline?” I asked.
“Of course not,” he said. “I’m totally against it. It’s not Sarah’s favorite thing, either, but it’s her job. Two months ago, she was working on a bill to protect teachers’ unions. That’s how it works.”
“Our most popular item is the passion-fruit crème brûlée,” tried the waiter, looking at us a little desperately.
“The pipeline has bipartisan support,” Sarah whispered, still trying to hide from McGraw. “We’re giving the House funding for a statewide after-school program in exchange.”
“Fuckbipartisan support.” I felt every liquid ounce of the wine I’d poured down my throat. “That’s code for an empty, vacuous deal where each side claims to win. And the loser is always the people.”
“Stoner, you’re being extremely reductive.” Ben gripped his glass. “You know politics literally doesn’t work without compromise.”
“There are some things you don’t compromise on. And theLonestar pipelineis one of them.”
My high-octave “Lonestar pipeline” must’ve caught McGraw’s attention, because his head turned in our direction.
“Oh,no,” Sarah breathed.
McGraw lumbered over. His nickname was the Greaser, both for all the palm greasing he did and his unfortunate comb-over. “Ms. Sarah Drake, what a coincidence—”
“Oh—my—God,”Alexis shrieked, standing straight up out of her chair. She knocked over her glass of wine and almost clipped McGraw in the nose.
“What the hell, Alexis?”
