ALICE Ch 330

“And?” Glynda asks. “What happened then?”

“It was decided,” Lotte says dramatically, “…by the great council of wise women that Lara would give us a show if she lost.”

Sun catches Glynda’s eye. “We were all annoyed with her at the time, remember. She was thinking if it went that way, she’d get laid. We were all thinking that we’d throw her out in the hall and someone would have to take one for the team with Julieta.”

Lotte makes quotes with her fingers. “Someone.”

Sun points at Aki, then at Julieta. “Everyone thought that after Amelie left, Aki would…” She trails off. “You see, Glynda, Julieta is what’s called a,”

Julieta cuts her off in French.

Sun turns to Aki. “What’d she say?”

“She says that you should respect her privacy and boundaries and that many years have passed and how do you know she’s still the same person?”

“She didn’t say all that.”

“Glynda wants to hear the story. You’re getting off track,” Aki says.

“Yes,” Glynda agrees.

Sun shrugs. “That was the deal. So Lotte, of course, jumps on Ingrid and kisses her.” Ingrid gets redder and redder as Sun goes on. “And Lara knows she’s lost at that point, because she’s just like Riley and Adella. They all get turned on by anything they see. But Lotte wasn’t trying to get her hard like that, she just wanted to get Ingrid’s bra off because she figured that having her boobs totally out would seal the deal. I think a sneakier way to cheat would have been to take off your own top. Lara wanted you.”

Lotte shrugs modestly.

“Ingrid,” Glynda says, startling the blonde.

“Yes?”

“This woman kissed you without your consent and you allowed her to take your clothes off? Have you no self-respect?”

Ingrid shifts uncomfortably, face blazing. “We were young and there were drinks.”

“And twenty minutes earlier we’d just listened to Adella blow Riley’s back out through the wall,” Sun adds helpfully. “There was just something about the Lodge, Glynda. There was a mood there, OK? Don’t judge. Didn’t you ever go to college?”

Glynda cocks her head. “Did you?”

Lotte cackles and squeezes Julieta, resting her chin on her shoulder. “Fight. Fight,” she says.

“Shut up,” Glynda, Sun, and Aki say in unison.