Frances set aside her awful green smoothie. “Because I want to get the gang together for one last heist before we all kick off. I miss it. I miss us. I would love to try it one last time.”
“Interesting.” Irene studied her. “What are we taking?”
“I don’t know. I thought I’d see if anyone was interested before deciding on a target. So. Are you interested? Maybe? Or are you in the never-again camp?”
Irene kept studying her, like she was expecting her to pull her face off and announce she was the FBI. “I don’t know,” she said finally. “It could be a lot of work. I like to take it easy these days.”
“Maybe we could find something that isn’t labor-intensive.”
“The other thing is, you’re really bossy,” Irene said.
Frances snorted. “That’s the pot calling the kettle black.”
“I’m not bossy, I’m straightforward and state my opinion. And I haven’t forgotten what you called me.” Her eyes narrowed.
Frances blinked. She had no idea what Irene was talking about.
Irene frowned. “You know. A see-you-next-Tuesday?”
Frances was not following. She shook her head.
Irene rolled her eyes “You called me a cunt, Frances.”
“Oh!” Frances could feel her cheeks flame with shame. In the last big fight between the four of them, she had said a lot of things she regretted. “I did; you’re right. That was so rude of me, Irene. I’m so sorry. I don’t use language like that anymore. I thought I was so edgy back then.”
“Edgy?” Irene snorted. “The only thing you were was rich.”
“Thanks,” Frances said dryly.
“You shouldn’t have said that.”
“I just acknowledged that it was rude.”
“And?” Irene pressed.
“And … uncalled for? But in my defense, you were acting exactly like a cunt. We didn’t call you Mean Irene for no reason, you know.”
For a moment, Irene looked like she was gearing up to explode, but then, suddenly, she laughed. “I was a bitch, wasn’t I? And I’m still mean.”
“You don’t have to tell me. I just witnessed you tell a grown man with an artificial hip to man up, and then you insulted my feet.”
“They’re big,” she said, and laughed again.
They sat together in silence for a long moment, Irene looking off into the distance.
Frances leaned forward. “Come on … don’t you miss it a little?”
“It’s funny,” Irene said. “Sometimes I think about it, and I think I’d be much better at it now. The world has changed so much, and I learned a lot about computers when I was a corporate spy for IBM. And I met these guys on the dark web who taught me alot.”
She dropped that tidbit so matter-of-factly that Frances said, “You’re making that up.”
“Am I?” Irene shifted her gaze to Frances. “What do Edie and Joan say about this idea of yours?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t spoken to either of them. I don’t even know where Joan is.”
Irene shook her head. “This is what is so annoying about you, Franny. All the ideas and none of the execution. Joan is in Colorado.”
“You two kept in touch?”
