“Jesus, you look like a zombie horde,” Julia remarked when she showed up. She’d left early last night and had obviously gotten the most hours of sleep, looking the freshest of them all in ripped skinny jeans, a cute camisole, and sandals, sunglasses perched atop her head. Her hair was pulled back into a perfect bun, baby hairs slicked down so that not a strand of hair was out of place. Brow hiked up, Julia looked Remi up and down. “Is that the same dress from last night?”

Remi shrugged. “It covers my ass, mostly.” Mostly was right. A slight breeze would have the dress swirling up to show Remi’s entire backside. Cherisse had borrowed underwear too. Ava always kept an unopened pack of the most randomly patterned undies in her drawer. Cherisse was currently sporting ones with turtles. She had no idea what Remi had on under there. As if she knew exactly what Cherisse was thinking, Remi flipped up the back of her dress to reveal Snoopy boy shorts.

“Cute, right?” Remi asked, popping her booty. “I’m keeping these.”

Ava wrinkled her nose. “Why would I even want them back? You wear ‘em, they’re yours. Can we just go, please?” She waved her phone around impatiently. “We have an appointment, and mummy is two steps away from trying to force-feed us some nasty ass hangover remedy.”

That got everyone moving. Their mother was known for always having some bush concoction at the ready for all situations.

Eric had procured a nine-seater van, so they were rolling together, which was annoying as hell because she ended up next to Keiran, who merely grinned and held up his phone.

“Public apology incoming.”

“Now?”

“Yeah, you can witness it firsthand. I really am sorry. I hope you know that.”

She stared ahead as Eric maneuvered the van onto the Solomon Hochoy highway. It was at least an hour’s ride to Princes Town. Keiran’s apology sounded sincere enough, but Cherisse felt the anger brewing all over again.

“Do you even realize the assholes that came out their holes to spew shit on that post? I know I should’ve run far from the comments, but fucking bros talking about my place being in the kitchen or under them, there’s no in-between, made me see red.”

Keiran’s eyes widened. “You read the comments? First rule of the internet, don’t read the comments.”

“Yeah, well, I’m too curious for my own good, clearly. Doesn’t change the fact your joke prompted that.”

Keiran stared down at his phone. “Shit. I’m... I fucked up.”

“We females.” She shot him a pointed look. “This one fucker kept using “females” in his comments. What a gem he was. Know what? I’m not repeating what he actually said, you can read it yourself if you want. I’m tired of having my job looked down on. Oh, you bake? For fun? What’s your real job? Like the food industry isn’t a thing? I don’t get it too much, but once in a blue moon, so your joke? Not funny.”