Page 39 of My Sister is Going to Kill Me

“I’m not sure what kind of fun we’re going to find here.”

“Late-night skinny-dipping? Hot gossip about the guides? I’m here for all of it. Lord knows my sister isn’t.” She shot a pointed glance over to where Liv was deep in conversation with Charlie, who looked like he’d barely slept.

“She seems kind of intense,” PK said.

“So does he,” Mandy said. “Hopefully it’s not contagious.”

“Charlie? He’s always wound tight. And especially right now, with Babette not here, it means he’s in charge. Not his favorite place to be.”

“A behind-the-scenes guy?”

“More like in the shadows,” PK said. “Not like a vampire or a mole rat. Just, Babette is the engine. He’s the caboose. It works well that way.”

“Is she a benevolent engine?”

“Excuse me?”

“I’ve heard she drives the company with a lot of intensity. Charlie seems to think she can be threatening.”

“Threatening? That powder puff. Babette is exactly who she says she is. Raw. Fierce. Her love language is intensity.”

“What do you mean?”

PK cocked his head to the side. “Do you know the story of how she got Skinnmilk to stop testing products on baby animals?”

“She keynoted a conference with their CEO, right? She brought a basket of puppies onstage and kept handing them to him as she spoke.” Mandy had watched a clip of Babette, smiling ear to ear as the fur balls wriggled all over the horrified double-breasted suit beside her. “Her talk went viral, and the board of Skinnmilk had a change of heart.”

“That’s the public story. But that CEO?” PK flashed her a sidelong grin. “He’s allergic to dogs. Those puppies sent him to the ER in anaphylactic shock. Their stock tanked, he got put on notice, and he changed their testing policy to save his job.”

“Babette put him in the hospital? Intentionally?”

PK waved her off. “She motivated a change he never would have made otherwise. It was brilliant. And the guy was fine. Checked himself out three days later. I delivered Babette’s get-well dragon-fruit-and-sea-moss bouquet myself.”

“Has she ever done something like that to someone who works in the company?”

“Something intense? To inspire them to do what needs to be done?” He rummaged in his pocket and pulled out his phone. “Every day. Look at this.”

Mandy accepted the phone and started scrolling through screenshots of text messages he’d received from Babette.

SLEEP IS FOR THE WEAK. GET BACK TO WORK.

WE’RE HERE TO CHANGE THE WORLD, NOT TO TAKE WEEKENDS OFF.

A STONED MONKEY COULD DO YOUR JOB BETTER.

“Whoa,” she said.

“Yeah,” he said.

“Why don’t you quit?”

PK shrugged. “I don’t work for Babette because she’s my friend. She’s a genius. She’s my hero.”

“But she talks to you like you’re disposable.”

“She talks to me like I can do better,” he said. “And I have the receipts if I need them.”

“So your plan is to sue her if it gets too bad?”