“I don’t mean talk. I mean action. Is she really that much of a sweetie?” Ripley asked Mia.

“Apparently. Ripley, in her own delicate way, is suggesting that you lure Zack back to bed and soothe away your troubles with a bout or two of hot jungle sex. Which is her answer to all manner of pesky annoyances, including hangnails.”

“Bite me. Mia’s given up sex, which explains why she’s such a bitch.”

“I haven’t given it up, I’m simply more selective than a cat in heat.”

“It isn’t about sex.” Making the statement, making it firm and fast, was Nell’s only solution to fending off another argument.

Ripley snorted. “Yeah, sure, right.”

Mia sighed. “It pains me, more than I can say, to agree with Ripley. Even partially. Certainly your relationship with Zack isn’t, as all of Ripley’s are, based on sex. But it’s a vital part of it, an expression of your feelings, a celebration of them, and your intimacy.”

“You can put flowers on it, it’s still sex.” Ripley gestured with her glass. “However high-minded Zack is, he’s still a guy. Being around you and not getting laid—”

“Ripley, please.”

“Not having intimacy,” she said in a prissy tone after Mia’s reprimand, “is going to make him edgy. If he’s going to deal with your L.A. asshole, he should be in top form.”

“He’s been very careful to keep me at a distance, in that area.”

“Then close the distance, in that area,” Ripley said simply. “Here’s what we do. You drop me off at your place. I’ll bunk there tonight. You go over to the house and take care of business. You’ve been hanging out with him long enough to know what buttons to push.”

“That’s sneaky, deceitful, and manipulative.”

Ripley cocked her head at Nell. “What’s your point?”

Despite herself, Nell laughed. “Maybe I will go over. To talk,” she added.

“Whatever you want to call it.” Ripley polished off her wine. “Maybe you could take these glasses and things back into the kitchen, get your stuff together.”

“Sure.” She rose, began to gather the glasses. “I’ll just be a minute.”

“Take your time.”

Mia waited until Nell was out of the room. “It won’t take her long, so say what you didn’t want to say in front of her.”

“What I did tonight doesn’t change anything.”

“That’s redundant.”