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Melanie rolled her eyes to the ceiling and tipped her head froument “That was kind of rude of you”

“Yes, I know”

Melanie fidgeted with exasperation “You’re not sayingor you’ll choke” Piper waved her coffee spoon at the offending baked good “I need you conscious and lucid right now”

“What did he look like?”

Piper sighed and let the spoon fall with a clatter onto the table She was exhausted and she had dragged her friend away fro business at one of her busiest times “Oh, I don’t know, a cross between Brandon Flowers, Adaer than the real Downey, though”

“That’s a relief” Melanie did a duh face “Sounds pretty good to me”

“He was or, at least, that’s the way it seemed by the time we’d drank all the rum on Sanibel Island” The le “Fewer tattoos than Levine, but pretty ones And he was bigger”

“Bigger?”

“Muscles! Talk about a filthy ranite “And er in the other departht stand with the other three”

Melanie bit down on her bottoh questions Eat up, so we can talk seriously You really ht choke when I tell you what happened today” Piper wasn’t ready to ad Sanibel the way she did, no note, no thanks for a great tiht tiht about that

“Okay, I’m done” Melanie popped the last piece of food into her rinned “I can’t wait to hear this!”

A fewabout Matt DeLeo froht-headed fro blackht-stand who turns out to be my new boss, and I feel totally stressed Got any ideas how I can ertips over the screen of her iPhone “The definition of the verb blackmail is to de co infor threats or ”

“He’s not de money from you, is he?”

“There’d be little point in that noould there? He’s athreats, the teedly told him when I was drunk that could affect iven back, God helpme”

Melanie put her phone slowly down on the table and pursed her lips thoughtfully “Fair enough, but it’s just a word, really If you take a step back and look at this with a cold, clear heart, it’s the nicest fored “Sometimes the truth hurts, and sometimes we can’t even see it until somebody points it out That’s why you called me here today, isn’t it? For some perspective? For so out to be “I guess so, but—”

“But nothing You were attracted enough to this guy to have a one-night stand and it was hot, so he’s not repulsive And he’s not de you become his sex slave for a month You’re flat broke, and this job will pay over three tiet to have a brand neardrobe and attend a bunch of aweso beans in a back office with a bunch of nasty women and bitter ! Use this to your advantage Make it work for you”