Page 55 of Thin Ice

Are you in a place where you can read private texts?

STEVIE:

Yes. Tell me all your secrets.

ME:

Noah made me come today.

STEVIE:

Like really, really? You didn’t fake it?

ME:

I didn’t…

STEVIE:

What is the … for?

ME:

Our mentor might have had a hand in it?

STEVIE:

LIKE HIS ACTUAL HAND?!

My phone rings, and I pick it up without looking at the caller ID.

“Like with his actual hand?!” Stevie cries.

I cringe at her volume before laughing. “No, not with his actual hand. That was a bad way to phrase it.”

“Tell me the good way to phrase it.”

I pick at the hem of the short yellow sundress I changed into. “You’ve been to this retreat before.”

“I have.”

“Then don’t you know what I mean?”

“Mentors can take part in exercises, I know that. That’s why I’m asking if you meant an actual hand.”

I picture Beck’s hand alongside Noah’s on my pussy and immediately feel hot…then guilty again.

“Are you still there?” Stevie asks after I pause for too long.

“Yeah, I’m still here.” I sigh and scrub my hand over my face. “I need to tell you something.”

“This sounds serious. Do I need wine?”

I laugh lightly. “Maybe.”

I hear her get up and the sounds of clinking before she speaks again. “Okay, vino secured. Spill.”

“The mentor we have, he’s someone from Noah’s past.”