Chapter 3

Sutton was as nervous for her second Monday of work as she had been for the first. But this time, it wasn't because she was new. This time, it was because she didn't want to face Ada after her humiliating drunken night at Meehan's.

The Monday morning meeting lasted longer than the previous week's. Marta wanted to give them all a detailed preview of their upcoming corporate retreat. Wyatt sat next to Sutton and tapped a pen on his loafer the whole time, save for the random occasions he tossed it up in the air to see if he could catch it.

Sutton had never been on a corporate retreat--or a corporate anything, for that matter--and didn't know what to think of the upcoming excursion. Her colleagues' expressions, as they listened to Marta speak about the retreat, ranged from bored to jaded to mildly interested. When Sutton risked a glance at Ada, Ada was sitting upright in her chair, her posture as perfect as always, with her eyes glazed over. She was clearly lost in thought.

"So what's the deal with the retreat thing?" Sutton asked Debbie and Javier at lunch.

Javier paused from wolfing down his Moe's burrito to answer her. "We go out into the woods. Company pays for us to get drunk and bond. Everyone acts awkward when we come back on Monday."

"That's it?"

"It's supposed to be rejuvenating," Debbie said. "We're supposed to gain a fresh perspective on our company's goals and our role in reaching them."

"Does that actually happen?"

"No. Javi's right--we mostly get drunk and bond. And before we even leave for the retreat there's a big passive-aggressive contest over who rooms with who."

"I roomed with On-Delay last year," Javier says, with salsa dripping out of the corner of his mouth. "Do you know what it's like to share a room with that guy? 'Hey, Craig, can you turn that light off, man?' Three minutes later: 'Yes, okay.' It was brutal, dude."

"Why did you room with him?"

"'Cause Wyatt was a douche and joined up with this guy from sales. That guy quit, like, the next month, though. He said he needed to go 'find himself' in the Mojave Desert."

Sutton stared. "So we do choose our own roommates?"

"Usually," Debbie said. "Oh! Do you want to room with me?"

Sutton hesitated for only a moment. Sure, Debbie was annoying sometimes, but if Sutton committed to her, she wouldn't have to worry about the possibility of rooming with Ada.

Because there was no way in hell she wanted to room with Ada. Absolutely not.

"I would love to," she answered.

"Perfect! I'm a fantastic roommate," Debbie said, bouncing in her seat. "I'm not a snorer, I can sleep through anything, I take short showers...I mean, the list is infinite. You're lucky I asked you!"

"I am," Sutton replied.

Just then, Marta poked her head into the breakroom. "Oh, Sutton, there you are! Making friends, huh? When you're finished eating, come see me in my office. No rush."

Then she was gone, and anxiety erupted in Sutton's stomach. Was this about Friday night at Meehan's?

"Why do you look scared?" Javier said with his mouth full.

"What? I don't."

"You so do," Debbie said, with a tinkering laugh. "It's not like going to see the principal, Sutton. She probably just wants to check in with you about something."

"Or she might want your opinion on her plants," Javier said, his teeth coated in beef and cheese. "Sometimes she asks people what they think of her sunflowers. She stopped asking me, though, because I told her that artificial was the way to go. But some people just can't hear the truth, man."

Whatever Javier and Debbie said, Sutton was still worried Marta wanted to scold her for her behavior at Happy Hour the week before. She approached Marta's office with her heart beating hard and her palms sweating.

But Marta only wanted to hear how her first week had gone. She leaned back in her chair and plopped her hands over her belly like some kind of Mrs. Clause figure, her big shiny gums commanding Sutton's attention.

"Everyone's really nice," Sutton told her. "And they've been so helpful to me."

"That's what I like to hear," Marta said, popping her finger into the air. "And you and Wyatt are working well together?"

"Yeah," Sutton said easily. "No problems."

"Good. Has Wyatt told you much about us trying to buy out that little Florida start-up?"

"No, he hasn't."

"I wanted to brief you myself. Wyatt's very good at what he does, but he doesn't always take the time to explain things to others. So. Let me give you a rundown of this Florida company so you better understand the kind of paperwork that will be involved in a buy-out. Ada and Debbie can help you too because they've been working with the sales team down there."

Sutton's stomach twisted.

"I always like to frame it with a story," Marta said, her gums elongating with her grin. "This one starts with a guy named Paul Case who built up a--"

There was a knock at the door, coupled with "Marta?"

Sutton shifted around: Ada was in the doorway, her knuckles still folded together in a knock, her eyes staring determinedly past Sutton.

"What's the hibbup, Ada?" Marta said.

Ada spoke in a low voice. "Mr. Leantree's in the waiting room. He's complaining about the bathrooms again--"

"Oh, Christ on a cracker," Marta said, pulling her hands down her face. "I've told him a million times, it's the McDougallpeople who aren't keeping the bathrooms clean, not our people--Ada, sit here with Sutton. Tell her as much as you can about the Florida deal until I get this settled."

She shuffled past them, her shiny gums hidden beneath a frown.

Ada looked like she'd been duped. She stared after Marta, clearly wanting to follow her back into the heart of the office.

"Better do what Mommy said," Sutton said.

Ada swiveled her eyes toward her; there was contempt in her expression. "Excuse me?"

Sutton shrugged and immediately felt like a petulant teenager. "Nothing."

Ada glared at her for an extended second before she stepped fully into Marta's office and settled herself in the chair next to Sutton. But she stared straight ahead at Marta's window, and Sutton did the same.

They sat and waited. Sutton could hear vague snippets of Marta's voice, which sounded impatient, mixing with the voice of a man who sounded equally impatient. She tried to piece together what they were saying, but she couldn't understand them well enough.

"Who's Mr. Leantree," she said, still staring straight ahead.

Ada cleared her throat before she answered. "Head custodian."

"And why is he mad about the bathrooms?"

Ada sighed like she was having to answer the questions of a five-year-old. "He thinks our group is leaving them messy. Not throwing away trash, not flushing the toilet, that kind of thing."

Sutton was silent. After a moment she said, "That's gross."

"It's probably not us. It's probably the McDougall people, like Marta said."

"Even still."

They lapsed into silence again. Marta's irate voice floated toward Sutton in a surreal haze.

"So have you recovered from your little drunken spell?" Ada said.

Sutton closed her eyes in frustration. "I'm fine."

"You don't have to be embarrassed about it."

"Aren't you supposed to be telling me about this Florida company? Isn't that your job, given that you're Marta's special lackey?"

Ada whipped her head around at her. Sutton refused to meet her eyes.

"I didn't think you were stupid enough to listen to Wyatt and Javier," Ada said, her voice icy.

"I'm not listening to anyone. This is my own opinion."

"Wow, good for you, forming your own opinions now."

"You know what?" Sutton said, her loud voice surprising her. "Why don't you just shut up and leave? Why do you keep trying to talk to me, anyway?"

"Funny," Ada huffed, rising from her chair, "I remember asking you the same question seven years ago."

This left Sutton speechless.

"Oh no, look at me," Ada said cuttingly, pausing at the door, "I'm leaving even though Marta told me to stay put. What a bad lackey I am."

She gave Sutton a lingering look, which took Sutton by surprise because it was more disappointment than anger, then she rapped her knuckles on the doorframe and swept out of the room.

Ada started showing up in Sutton's dreams. There she was, sitting on the carpet of Sutton's childhood bedroom, looking like the fourteen-year-old version of herself. Her hair was frizzy, her teeth were covered by green braces. Her long limbs splayed out on the carpet, sepia on white.

"Why aren't we friends anymore?" Dream-Ada asked, her voice shimmery, her eyes sad. "Don't you realize I miss you?"

Sutton answered with heaviness in her heart. "I miss you, too."

The rest of the week passed in typical corporate mundaneness. Sutton clicked through e-mail, highlighted pages upon pages of paperwork, squinted at her computer screen while she read through PDF files on the Florida start-up company.

Her colleagues were their normal selves. Javier started a witch-hunt when one of his Red Bulls went missing from the refrigerator. Debbie painted her nails a neon orange color during lunch in the break room. Wyatt took regular breaks from working to monitor his Fantasy Football league. Sutton made the mistake of following Holly-Ann into the bathroom, even after she saw Holly-Ann eat two cartons of Activia.

In the midst of it all, Marta sent them periodic e-mails about their upcoming retreat weekend, which would start on Friday afternoon. The most befuddling e-mail was a short list of things they were not permitted to do on the shuttle, which included the sentence "Please do not bring any rodents in your luggage."

Sutton found this absurd until Wyatt explained that Javier had smuggled his ferret onto the bus the previous year.

The only unexpected thing that happened was Sutton eating lunch with Ada on Thursday.

She didn't intend for it to happen. She got swamped with work just before noon that day--mostly because Wyatt conveniently forgot to tell her about something that was due by close of business--and had to pass on Debbie's invitation to join her for lunch at one o'clock. She didn't end up eating until three o'clock, when she could no longer fight the hunger in her stomach and had made enough progress with her workload that she could justify taking a 15-minute break.

She expected the break room to be empty. Because who else would be loony enough to eat lunch at three o'clock?

Ada, of course.

Sutton couldn't control the dropping of her jaw when she stepped into the break room and saw Ada sitting at the round table. Ada, for her part, paused in the middle of eating her microwaveable macaroni and blinked at Sutton once before digging her fork back into the noodles.

Sutton strode past the round table like everything was perfectly normal. She fetched her lunch from the back of the refrigerator, but when she turned back around and shut the fridge, she was suddenly paralyzed. Would it be weird for her to sit down with Ada, especially after their confrontation on Monday? Would it be weirder to take her lunch back to her desk?

"I'm not gonna fucking bite you," Ada said, stirring her macaroni.

Sutton tsked and looked sideways at the door, trying to gain control of the situation. "I know," she said, adopting a confident voice. She sat down next to Ada and opened her lunch bag like she was completely unfazed by the situation.

They ate in silence. Ada scraped her fork against her plastic macaroni tray; Sutton chewed down on her turkey sandwich, with the bread getting stuck to her back teeth.

But then Sutton pulled out her chocolate Yoo-hoo drink and Ada let out a laugh.

"What?" Sutton said, though she had an instinct about what was so funny.

"You still drink those?"

Sutton faltered. "Yeah? So?"

Ada shook her head. "Nothing. It's just funny."

"Why is it funny."

"It was funny even when we were 17. They make those drinks for, like, elementary school kids."

"They make them for people who like chocolate milk, and I happen to like chocolate milk. You don't have to make me feel stupid about it."

"I'm not trying to make you feel stupid."

"Besides, you probably still have weird eating habits, too. I'll bet you still separate Skittles into color piles before you eat them."

Ada's face changed. Her smile faltered; her eyes were suddenly bare.

"What?" Sutton asked, uncertainly.

"Nothing."

They fell into silence again. Sutton slurped from her Yoo-hoo and scraped for something to say.

"Are you going on the retreat this weekend?"

Ada raised her eyebrows at her.

"Okay, fine, stupid question, of course you are," Sutton blustered. "I was just trying to make conversation."

Ada licked her lips. "It's not that bad, from what I hear."

"The retreat?"

"Yeah. Debbie says it's a beautiful lodge. Gorgeous grounds and wildlife."

"Ugh, great."

"You'll have to get over your fear of bees, I guess."

"I am over it," Sutton said, more defensively that she meant to. "I'm not exactly the same as I was in high school."

Ada fixed her with a look that meant she didn't believe her, and Sutton hated the way she still felt exposed in front of Ada--like everything inside of her was on display, easily readable, easily understood.

"Well, you won't have to deal with my bee-phobic self anyway," she said. "I'm rooming with Debbie."

Ada's face registered shock. "What? I'm rooming with Debbie."

"Bullshit. She asked me on Monday."

Ada stared at her for a long second, her dark eyes blazing, before she leapt up from the table and stalked out of the break room. Sutton followed her, already knowing where she was going and what she was doing.

"Debbie," Ada said, grabbing Debbie's chair from behind and swiveling her around to face them. Debbie's face showed surprise, but Ada didn't stop to explain herself. "Who are you rooming with this weekend?"

Debbie looked back and forth between the two of them, her expression contorted in confusion. "You two. I thought we already established this?"

Ada glared up at Sutton with her tongue poking into her teeth. She looked back to Debbie and huffed, "You asked both of us?"

"Yeah?" Debbie said, bobbing her head forward as if to say So what? "There are some three-bedroom cabins available, didn't you hear Marta say that on Monday morning? I asked her if we could have one of them. I mean, hello, last year I was the only 20-something girl at this company, now there are three of us, so why would I not want to set us up for a fun situation?" She paused to raise her eyebrows at them, signifying exactly what she meant by fun. Sutton could feel a hangover already.

Ada's eyes fluttered closed for a moment. She stood up straight again, her shoulders back and her arms hanging gracefully at her sides. "Sorry, Debbie," she said, her falsely-kind voice on. "I just went nuts for a second thinking I might not get to room with you. I didn't realize you had planned for all of us to room together."

"Aw, don't worry about it, Ada," Debbie said, tapping her foot against Ada's calf. Ada twitched, but Debbie didn't notice.

"Sorry for bothering you, Deb," Sutton said. "I'm so pumped for this weekend. I'll talk to you more about it tomorrow."

"Yeah, girl, it'll be great!"

With that, Sutton turned and huffed her way back to the break room. She felt rather than heard Ada following her. When they had both made it back into the break room, they gathered their lunches together and stood on opposite sides of the table, waiting to know what to say.

Finally, Ada spoke. "I guess I'll see you on the shuttle tomorrow."

Sutton cleared her throat and searched for words. "Make sure you bring your motion sickness medicine. We wouldn't want you barfing all over the place."

Ada shot her a look before she pushed her way out of the break room, leaving Sutton to finish eating alone.