Chapter 1

"Friday night, VIP lounge at Club Spade. I’ve pre-ordered ten bottles of Ace of Spades! See you there, babes!"

Chloe leaned against my cubicle partition, sipping Coca-Cola through a straw. Her peach lip gloss left a sticky, greasy ring on the plastic straw.

Peach. She always wore peach.

Of the six people in our department, five nodded in agreement. I was the only one who stayed silent.

"Avery? You coming?"

She tilted her head, looking at me.

I declined flatly. "No."

She stopped sipping her soda.

"Oh? Why not?"

"Just don't want to."

"Are you worried about the money? Don't be! It's covered by the team budget. Mr. Davis already approved it—"

"Ace of Spades is twenty-three hundred dollars a bottle. Ten bottles is twenty-three thousand. Our quarterly team budget is five hundred dollars. How exactly are you planning to write this off?"

Someone coughed outside the breakroom.

Harper’s fingers froze over her keyboard.

Chloe slowly pulled the straw from her mouth and stood up straight.

"Avery, you're so funny. The owner is a close friend of mine. He’s giving us a massive discount."

"How massive?"

"Like, super cheap."

"Give me a number. I'll do the math for you."

She didn't answer. Her perfectly manicured nail scraped against the soda bottle.

"Whatever. Don't come if you don't want to."

She turned on her heel and walked away.

At three in the afternoon, Mr. Davis called me into his office.

"Avery, I heard you refused to join the team-building event?"

"Yes."

"Mind telling me why?"

"The pricing doesn't make sense. Ten bottles of Ace of Spades, even at half price, is way over our five-hundred-dollar budget."

He tapped his fingers on the mahogany desk. There was a coffee mug on his desk with a crooked heart drawn by his daughter.

"I'll look into that. But Avery, your attitude is the problem here. Chloe worked hard to organize this, and you embarrassed her in front of everyone."

"Mr. Davis, I didn't embarrass her. I was just doing the math."

"You could have asked her privately. Doing it like that makes it look like you're accusing her of embezzlement—"

He cut himself off, realizing where that sentence was heading.

"Just get back to work. Watch your tone with your coworkers."

Leaving his office, I saw Chloe standing at the end of the hallway.

She had a fresh bottle of Coke in her hand.

"Avery, what did Mr. Davis say?" Her voice was pure honey. "Nothing bad, right?"

"It's fine."

"Good. Honestly, I don't care where we go. I should have asked you first. Next time, I'll make sure to get your input, okay?"

She draped her arm over my shoulder, pretending we were best friends.

"Chloe, how many team events have you organized this year?"

"Um... maybe seven or eight?"

"And they're all expensed to the company?"

"Of course. It's team-building."

"Do you still have the receipts?"

Her grip tightened on my shoulder. Her sweet smile faltered for a split second.

"Why the sudden interest? Want to see them? I can show you."

"No need. I'll look them up myself."

I walked away. She chased after me, her voice still sweet, acting as if nothing had happened.

"Okay, okay! Next time then!"

Back at my desk, my phone buzzed.

In our department Snapchat group, Chloe had sent a voice note.

She spoke in a low, conspiratorial whisper.

"Avery seems really stressed lately. Let's all show her some extra love, guys."

Five minutes later, Harper peeked over her monitor, looking around before whispering to me:

"Avery, you shouldn't have picked a fight with her."