“So you do think he’s pretty?” I teased.
“Babes, that whole group is pretty.” Becka fanned herself theatrically.
“I’ll tell Woojin you think so.”
“That man could get it,” she said dreamily.
“Rebecca Hanson!” I gasped, and then laughed so loud I slapped a hand over my mouth.
“What?” she said defensively. “As if I’ve been subtle about that?”
“What about sofa-boy?” I teased.
Becka rolled her eyes. “If you mean Ben-” She bit her lip, and it was like watching a balloon deflate.
“What’s going on there?” I asked, my smile fading.
“Not much,” she scoffed, lifting her shoulders only to slump them again. “Anyway, I don’t want to talk about it. Let’s move the conversation back over to Celine.” Becka met my eyes through the camera, and it was clear there would be no derailing her. I made a mental note to come back to this, though. Clearly there was trouble in paradise.
“Okay,” I said easily. “What’s happening to her at Pisces?”
“Oh, she’s been fired.” Becka snickered.
“Fired?” I echoed, although I couldn’t say I was surprised.
“Oh yeah, like super, mega fired.”
“Serves her right, I guess.”
“Babes, wipe that look off your face right-the-fuck-now.” Becka pointed her Stanley cup at the screen in a semi-threatening manner, but the effect was somewhat ruined by the cutesy charms hanging off it.
I held my hands up in surrender.
“I’m going to apply for her job,” Becka neatly sidestepped.
“No shit?”
“No shit,” she laughed. “And if they have any sense, they’ll give it to me. I basically did her job half the time anyway.”
We laughed about that for a moment, before I sobered up as an unpleasant thought filtered through the glee of having one less conspiracy to worry about.
“What about TK?”
“With any luck, he’s rotting in a hole somewhere.” She took an obnoxious slurp of her drink.
“Besides that,” I said pointedly. “Did your snooping pay off?”
“Okay, first of all, I don’t ‘snoop’, I ask around. Secondly, keep in mind that contrary to popular opinion, I am not in possession of every tiny detail that happens at Pisces-”
“I don’t believe you.”
“But,” she continued as though I hadn’t spoken. “From what I was able to find out, he negotiated the release of his contract in March, on the provision that he doesn’t attempt to solicit work from any client of Pisces, past or present, for the next three years.”
She delivered this piece of information as though it had no more significance than a boring bit of admin. I watched her in disbelief.
“What?” I burst out on the back of a laugh.
“I know!” Becka’s placid mask dropped away and she grinned at me widely.
