Both Kristin and Mia headed behind the counter to speed up the delivery of drinks and, at the sight of her only a few feet away, Lou couldn’t help but flinch.

“One of these days you’re going to have to tell me what you have against that girl,” Amber whispered in her ear. “You two have more of a history than just having gone to the same school. Of that much I’m sure. How about you come to dinner tomorrow night? It’ll just be me. Martha won’t be there. We can talk. Really talk.”

Lou didn’t know how to say no to her boss. She also figured she would need to tell Amber at some point. Maybe then it wouldn’t be so awkward when she didn’t come to the Pink Bean on her breaks. “Okay.” Then Lou and Phil’s drinks order arrived—thankfully placed on the counter by Kristin, not Mia—and she and Phil went to find their seats again and wait for the performance to begin.

“The names she used to call me,” Lou said. “I’m sure kids say much worse things these days, but still. It was the ferociousness of it and how it never stopped. It was like clockwork. Every single morning when I arrived at school, she would be there, with a big, evil smirk on her face and her cronies lined up next to her. There was only one way in and there was nothing I could do—not if I wanted to go to school. I felt so powerless. And she was so mean, Amber. I know it’s probably hard to believe looking at her today, but by god, I have never come across anyone meaner in my life.”

Amber shook her head. “If Kristin had only had a whiff of this, she would never have hired her.”

“It was fifteen years ago. I honestly didn’t think that seeing her again would still affect me so much. I’m sure it will get better with time, but… it’s hard to be in the same room with her, because she has no idea what kind of damage she did. To her it might all have been fun and games, but for me it was hell, not only in the moment when it was happening and I was being called a half-breed and my father a traitor for marrying my mother. I was young and impressionable enough to believe I must have done something to deserve to be treated like that. That it was all my fault. It took me years to realize it had absolutely nothing to do with me. Years of painful counseling and agonizing low self-esteem.”

“Do you think she has changed?” Amber asked.

Lou shrugged. “It doesn’t make any difference to me whether she has or not.”