Chapter 4: Soup

Cora was already at the corner table of the Daily Grind when Matilda walked in.

She had a thermos on the table and two paper bowls, and her eyes were pink.

"Tillie," she said, and stood up with her arms open.

Matilda sat down instead.

She slid her phone onto the table between the bowls with the recorder running, face down.

"You brought soup," Matilda said.

"Tomato. The one you like." Cora poured it. "I didn't sleep. I can't stop seeing your face."

"Neither can I."

Cora pressed a napkin under each eye.

"I need you to hear this from me," she said. "That dare was nothing."

"Was it?" Matilda asked.

"Zach drank too much, and everyone was shouting. He panicked and picked the person who felt safe."

"Safe," Matilda repeated.

"Because I'm your friend. It could have been anybody."

"He kissed you for a long time."

"He's a competitive idiot, you know he is." Cora's voice cracked. "I felt sick. Eli wouldn't even look at me afterward."

Matilda stirred her soup and did not eat it.

"I saw the bank paper," she said. "A hundred and eighty thousand dollars, from my building, into your studio."

Cora's spoon stopped.

"Zach said it was his money," she said. "He told me it was a bonus from a big sale. I swear on my mother."

"It's my grandmother's building."

"I would never have taken it. Tillie, I'd have torn the check up."

"There was no check. It was a transfer."

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