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Sean seemed momentarily diverted by her high colour, but he refrained from pursuing that sideline in what must have been a Herculean effort for him.
“He mentioned this morning that you voluntarily went to dinner with Darth and Cruella,” he said frankly. “I hope he offered you at least three of those medals he hides in his sock drawer. How bad was it?”
“It was…” Sophy considered. She despised gossip and with anyone else, she would be loath to discuss Mick’s personal life at all, but she knew that Sean was next door to a brother to him. And he was a significant improvement on the blood brother. It wasn’t even comparable. Oranges and really bad apples. “I just – I don’t understand how they can treat him like that.”
“And I wish I had an explanation for you. They’re just extremely unpleasant people,” said Sean bluntly. “I used to try to reason it out when we were kids, but there really is very little else to say. The majority of the Hollisters are not good people. Mick is one of the best.”
He was watching her carefully as he spoke, a hint of steel in his voice. Usually that sort of unspoken warning, the subtle ice, would resonate straight to her plentiful stores of insecurity, but in this case, she felt a contrasting surge of warmth. This was someone who had Mick’s back, who would go to the wire for him – someone else who loved him.
“I know it,” she said quietly, and his face softened. He held out a hand and she took it. It wasn’t a handshake; it was more as if they sealed a silent vow of sorts. Brother and sister in arms, bonded by a common loyalty.
The young consultant, the one who’d first tried to scrape her off the floor during her asthma attack and who still looked like a teenager doing work experience, came up then and claimed Sean’s attention. Sophy still couldn’t see Mick and she didn’t want to go in search of him if he was working, so she ducked into the ladies’ room. For more practical purposes than escape this time.
She was drying her hands under a Space Age contraption, covered in fancy buttons and levers yet expelling less air than a bored asthmatic blowing out their birthday candles, when the door opened and history repeated itself. Sophy stiffened, immediately removing her gaze and wondering if she was just destined to encounter Jennifer Nolan every time she entered this bathroom. Like a really not-fun twist on the wardrobe in Narnia. The direct portal to Mick’s horrendous ex-lovers.
She shook her hands in an attempt to scatter the remaining water and turned to leave. There were few people to whom she would less rather speak. And unfortunately she wasn’t a violent person, which ruled out drop-kicking the other woman into the lake.
Jennifer was smoothing her long blonde ponytail with one hand, while the other fussed at a pretty silver locket. She wore slim black pants, a silk blouse and leopard print heels that Sophy would give quite a lot to possess. She would probably have to give quite a lot. At least four months’ rent money, if she had correctly identified the designer. Security consultancy obviously came with some financial perks. It was amazing how efficiently a good dress allowance could disguise the horns and forked tongue.
Out of sheer habit, she stood politely aside and waited for the other to pass. Instead, the heels came to a stop and she looked up to meet a pair of calculating hazel eyes.
“You’re the student who collapsed during the incident with the smoke grenade,” Jennifer said, studying her from her topknot to her pink flats. The condescending tone on the word “student” seemed to imply that Sophy had been at the exhibition accompanied by a packed lunch and a parent helper. She had adopted a “just us girls” tone, which effectively made Sophy feel a decade younger and at least a foot shorter than she actually was. “I noticed you in the foyer with Sean.”
Sophy said nothing. She wasn’t even sure if she could speak and she didn’t know why she wasn’t walking straight out. As early as the school corridors, some women seemed to possess a certain type of compulsion, like those giant spiders in Lord of the Rings that paralysed their victims first so they couldn’t escape. There was usually at least one lurking at every cocktail party and academic function.
“As someone who knows the boys very well,” Jennifer went on, and Sophy was unable to subdue the flicker of her left eyebrow at anybody referring to either Mick or Sean as a “boy”, “do you mind if I give you some advice?” She continued without waiting for a resounding rebuff. “I wouldn’t try to play one off against the other if I were you. I know you wouldn’t think it to look at him, but Mick does eventually catch on to these things and he can have quite a temper.”
Sophy stared at her in disbelief.
“And it’s just a wee bit juvenile to play games.” Jennifer somehow managed to utter those words without being instantly smited by the god of hypocrisy.
Sophy had never been able to stand up to a bully in her life.
Apparently she had only needed the right incentive.
“Thank you. I’ll take that on board. Do you mind if I ask you a question?”
The hazel eyes narrowed slightly.
“How much did you bet, out of interest? What exactly is the price tag on integrity these days?” Sophy’s hands were fisted behind her back, but her voice was miraculously cool, steady and audible. “Ripping your claws into someone who’s too honourable and too decent even to verbally slap back. That must be really satisfying. You complete and utter bitch.”
Jennifer’s expression had chilled, but she looked at Sophy scornfully.
“Big words from such a very little person.”
“It’s not just empty words.”
“Is that supposed to be a threat?” Jennifer asked contemptuously. “Because no offense,” she went on, dripping sarcasm, “but I think I could take you.”
Sophy was absolutely certain that she could. In comparative physique, the other woman was a nylon catsuit away from an alternative career as a superhero. Fortunately she had a more productive use for her hands than throwing a punch.
She smiled back breezily.
“Oh, don’t worry,” she assured the scowling blonde. “I can do much better than physical retaliation.”
“I somehow doubt that I have much to worry about.”
Sophy looked at her once more, just for a moment, her head tilted to one side.
