Page 4 of The Puck Stops Here
‘Chase Miller?’ Bella repeated, as though recognising the name. But then of course she would. Bella was Upper Crust New York. Bella and ‘her set’ probably spent their weekends wandering the halls of art galleries as much as the shops along Fifth Avenue. And Astrid wasn’t being bitchy. No, she was distracting herself from the image of Chase’s wife appearing at their hotel room door. Ashen and?—
‘What iswrongwith these men?’ Bella suddenly exclaimed, rocking Astrid’s head back into the present. ‘Doesn’t marriagemeananything any more?’
‘I don’t think men get the concept of commitment,’ Sienna murmured. ‘Even the ones who seem to get it are just faking it.’
And now they were all looking at Sienna, knowing there was a story to tell.
‘Sorry.’ She gave a shaky laugh. ‘That’s a little dramatic, isn’t it?’
‘What happened?’ Bella said.
‘My ex kind of just… discarded me. It wasn’t like some big, dramatic break-up. I didn’t even get the chance to throw plates.’ Sienna waved it off, but she wasn’t fooling Astrid. She’d seenthatstyle of break-up too many times with Mum, and they were theworst, themostunbearable. Because those were the ones that never made sense. Not to Mum. And not to her. The child in it all.
‘I mean, we were just kids, but we were each other’s firsts, you know? And I thought we were going to have a life together, but he hightailed it out of town without a backward glance. Like nothing we had mattered.’
Astrid downed her drink with a muttered curse. Men.Bastardmen, and the shitty hand of pain they dealt.
‘Can I bring you anyone’s head?’ Sienna asked Paige, who choked on a laugh.
The nervous titter had Astrid’s Spidey-senses tingling. People only ever wanted to give away what they were comfortable with… when the really interesting stuff lay in theuncomfortable.
And this definitely had Paige on edge.
‘I broke up with my ex, Harvey,’ she eventually admitted, ‘after a brief, intense relationship and then he… posted naked pictures and video of me online. He’d taken them without my knowledge or consent.’
Every curse imaginable raced through Astrid’s mind along with the billion-and-one hit pieces she wanted to release into the world about this man she knew nothing about but already wanted to ruin with every fibre of her being.
‘Revenge porn?’ Sienna hissed.
Paige nodded. ‘I’ve never felt so degraded.’ Her fiery-haired friend dropped her gaze to the table in humiliation –humiliation? – as she told them the whole sorry tale, from a dedicated law student with a bright future to a uni dropout with stunted career prospects, all because of a man!
Astrid shrivelled up inside. Ugh, men! She filled up everyone’s glass, trying to get a handle on her emotions before she trusted herself to speak.
‘They shouldn’t be allowed to get away with it,’ Sienna suddenly declared.
NowthatAstrid wholeheartedly agreed with. ‘Damn right they shouldn’t!’
‘Look, what if we…’ Sienna did a quick sweep of the circle and leaned in, encouraging them all to do the same. ‘I know this sounds crazy and I may be a little drunk.’ And the little cutesy hiccoughed which caused them all to chuckle. ‘What if we took it upon ourselves to exact some revenge?’
Astrid’s eyes widened. Revenge! Was she serious?
And if so…
‘I don’t mean murdering them or anything.’ Sienna waved a hand that Astrid had to duck. ‘I mean, look, these guys have had everything go their way, right? They got to walk all over us. Or walk out on us. Why should they just get to live their best lives while we’re picking up the remnants of ours? Why not have a little fun at their expense?’
‘What kind of fun?’ Bella asked warily.
‘Nothing serious,’ Sienna assured. ‘Stuff that would inconvenience them. That we could have a laugh over. Like, signing them up to hundreds of mailing lists. Or putting a dead fish in their wheel hubs…’
Sienna kept reeling off ideas and Astrid stared at her in wonder, amazed that behind those big blue eyes hid such a mischievous mind. The woman was a genius!
‘Some of those things would require us to get close,’ Bella said.
‘That’s why we pick someone else’s ex.’
‘It’s an excellent plan,’ Astrid blurted. ‘So good, I wish I’d thought of it. Who would you pick?’
‘Harvey the horrible,’ Sienna said, without hesitation. ‘If he spends time regularly in the US, I’m sure I’ll be able to figure out something. You?’
