Chapter 1
“Good afternoon—or is it morning for you, Joan?” Clarice asked from the kitchen table, where she sat sipping tea.
Joan had only just risen. Her hair pointed in every direction, as though she had fought the night and lost.
It was one in the afternoon.
“Good whatever-you-want-to-call-it, Clare,” Joan muttered. She dropped two tea bags into a cup of hot water.
Clarice frowned.
“It’s Clarice, Joanie. Wake up on the wrong side of the coffin?”
“Eat me.”
Joan dragged the tea bags through the water with slow, vengeful circles.
Clarice chuckled.
“Speaking of your sex life, how are things going with Nova?”
Joan slumped in her chair.
“It’s too early in the afternoon for your nonsense. How’s the threesome going? Still a zero-some?”
She stared across the table at Clarice.
“Go buy yourself some bowling shoes.”
Clarice rose, dumped the rest of her tea into the sink, and stormed out of the kitchen.
Elodie entered just as she disappeared.
She began preparing a cup for herself and glanced toward Joan.
“You two still getting along?”
“Besties,” Joan replied.
