ALICE Ch 203

Glynda’s phone starts to ring. It’s facedown beside the sink. She takes a deep breath and ignores it, gazing hard at her reflection with a sour expression. Two more deep breaths later, she closes and belts her robe. The phone is no longer ringing. Glynda leaves it there and pads out of her suite. In the hall, a click draws her attention. She turns to see Kylie and Lora emerge from Kylie’s room. Kylie wears a bold, flattering blue two-piece. Lora’s wearing something similar in red, but she’s got a hotel towel wrapped around her waist to hide her lower half.

As soon as the door closes, Kylie yanks the towel away.

Glynda sees why Lora’s being modest; the suit’s a bit tight on her, not that it matters.

“Kylie!” Lora seems annoyed.

Kylie just puts the towel over her shoulder and rather cruelly grabs the back of Lora’s bottoms and tugs upward. Lora jumps and whirls on her, furiously reaching back to fix it.

“I’ll kill you with a hack saw,” she promises.

Kylie doesn’t reply because she’s just noticed Glynda there.

“Boss,” she says soberly as they pass. Or not so soberly; she stumbles and Lora has to catch her. Face red and eyes downcast, Lora follows Kylie without a word, too mortified to even acknowledge Glynda.

Glynda’s not feeling particularly judgmental of whatever she’s just seen, which appears to be some drinking and going for a swim. She just didn’t know that Kylie and Lora were so chummy.

FF1

The hotel pool is all but empty; this is a nice hotel and it’s a race weekend. The rich people staying here are either part of an F1 team or here to watch a race. They don’t care about a heated pool.

And neither do the Amazons. There’s a hot tub near the pool, although it’s only big enough for four Amazons at once, and even that is tight. Three sit in the water while the other three lounge around, awaiting their turn. There’s a sense of melancholy about their gathering. They wear the official, licensed FUTA Racing tankinis in pink and blue.

“They look like their dog died,” Lora murmurs to Kylie as they enter the pool area.

“They’re sad that Colby’s being cold to them,” Kylie replies as though she knows what she’s talking about. Maybe it’s true; Lora doesn’t know anything anymore. She’s still messed up from waking up in bed with Mio. And did Glynda just see Kylie give her a wedgie? There isn’t enough vodka in the world to fix this.

“G’day!”

Lora cringes, flashing back to her teenage years as Kylie boldly strides forward, waving to the Amazons, who all turn to look. She’s even doing that thing with her hips as she walks. Lora wants to drown herself.