Chapter 42 “The End of the Game” - Weezer #2
We’re sipping our glasses of champagne—Saylor’s first, my third—when everyone else joins us in the foyer. Pierce walks up first, but Maeve is right behind him. He accepts a drink from one of the waiters with a grateful nod, then throws the whole thing back in one go.
Maeve smacks his arm, but he doesn’t even flinch. “What the hell was that?”
“That,” Pierce says, exchanging his glass for a full one, “was your stupid plan gone to shit. Happy?” He drains his champagne again without looking at her.
“I’m livid,” she hisses, apparently no longer caring who can see or hear, because we are attracting quite a lot of attention.
“Hey, guys, we might want to take this elsewhere,” I say, scanning the room for cameras. There aren’t any yet, but it’s only a matter of time.
They both ignore me and continue glaring at each other.
“You’re going to pay for the stupid thing,” Maeve says.
Pierce huffs out an amused sound. “Like hell I am.”
“Your shell bidder is the reason we’re in this mess.”
He hands off his empty glass and crosses his arms over his chest, then bends down until their noses are nearly touching. “Actually, it was your constant need for drama and control that won you that fucking balloon.”
Maeve gasps, and a chuckle slips past my own lips, which I quickly cover with a cough. “Go to hell,” she says, glaring at Pierce so hard I half expect his tux to start smoking.
He smirks. “You’re the one with the handbasket.”
Her tiny hands are clenched into fists at her sides. She turns to the rest of us, and I swear I see Heath take a step back. “You guys were there. You heard us agree that I would do the bidding, right?”
No one says anything. Slate just stands there, arms crossed, like he’d rather be anywhere else in the world.
Lux is suddenly absorbed by her fingernails.
Heath is staring at the carpet, and Walker is twisting her hands into knots.
Beside me, Saylor is watching the whole thing go down like it’s a soap opera that she doesn’t give a shit about but finds entirely too fascinating to turn off.
“Of course they didn’t, Maeve,” Pierce says. “Because that’s not what happened.”
Maeve jerks back to him and shoves a finger in his face. “Yes, it is, you manipulative piece of shit. They’re just scared of what you’ll do if they tell the truth.”
“Hey, not true,” I say. “I could take Pierce any day.”
He narrows his eyes at me before focusing on Maeve again. “I’m manipulative? I just heard you last week bragging to one of the investors about the merits of dinner downtown, but everyone knows it’s because you didn’t want to be stuck with an hour-long commute.”
“Oh, is that why you drone on and on about how ‘inspiring’ it is to mentor junior employees, right before dumping half your workload onto your assistant?” Maeve says, arms folded over her chest, armor on.
Walker steps forward, ever the peacemaker in our group. Her dark red gown rustles as she enters the battleground. “Guys, I’m sure we can work this out. What if—”
“No,” Maeve snaps. “The only way this thing ends is if Pierce admits he blew the whole thing up.” The two of them are still locking eyes, and if I’m being honest, it’s getting downright awkward. They’ve never had a fight on this scale before.
Saylor touches my arm and leans in close. “Should I be worried?”
I give her my best smile. “Nah, they’ll sort it out.” Although we might all be ancient relics before it happens.
“I’m not admitting anything,” Pierce says, “except that you’re a pain in my ass.”
Maeve’s jaw grows rigid enough to snap. “Funny. I’m surprised you can feel anything at all with that stick shoved up there.”
Pierce bites back a smile. He does a pretty good job of hiding it too, but I catch it just in time. This whole thing is fucking amusing him. Well, good for him, but I’m getting tired of it.
I sling an arm around Saylor’s neck, tugging her in close to get a whiff of her scent. God, she smells good. “Why don’t you two go fight it out in bed while the rest of us go home?” I say.
A red flush climbs Maeve’s neck. She’s always had a propensity for blushing at the slightest things—one of the main reasons I love to taunt her—but I’m not sure I’ve ever seen her quite this rosy. Pierce doesn’t exactly look like a cool cucumber anymore, either. Holy shit, are they—
“I have an idea,” Walker says, bravely approaching our two psychopaths again. “What if we held some kind of competition?”
Maeve and Pierce slowly break eye contact to look at her. Leave it to the word “competition” to get their attention. “What did you have in mind?” Maeve asks.
Walker gets a sort of deer-in-the-headlights look. She obviously has nothing up her sleeve.
I step forward, reluctantly leaving Saylor behind. “We’ll work out the details. A challenge of sorts.”
Pierce narrows his eyes, considering.
Maeve frowns but nods. “Winner gets the friend group,” she says.
There’s silence as everyone takes this in.
“Maeve, you can’t be serious,” Lux chimes in, finally interested in what’s going on.
“I’m dead serious,” Maeve says. “Unless you all agree that I was right?” No one meets her eye, and she takes a triumphant step backward. “Then it’s settled. We’ll fight for the right to poker nights and revenge plots.”
I’m relieved to see that Pierce doesn’t look any more gleeful about this arrangement than the rest of us.
It seems Maeve has officially gone off the deep end.
She actually plans to kick Pierce out of our group if she wins?
And what the hell would we do without Maeve plotting the best takedowns and keeping everyone’s sensitivity at bay with her cutting remarks?
Everyone else seems to mirror my thoughts, but no one says anything. There’s no reasoning with her when she gets like this anyway.
When no one protests, Maeve gives a half-assed smile and tosses her hand up in a wave. “Call me when you have the challenge planned. Better make it a good one, too. I wouldn’t want Pierce to say I cheated.” She throws one more glare at him before turning her back to us.
“Hey, Maeve,” Pierce calls as she walks away. “Don’t forget your hot-air balloon.”
She sticks a finger in the air and keeps walking.
Fuck. What the hell did we just agree to?