Lia called the final meeting of the Young Ladies’ Gardening & Tennis Club of Wingthorn Hall to order. She looked at her friends, her “ladies,” and smiled with genuine affection.
“Well, boss?” Rani said. “What’s the news?”
“We have a problem,” Lia said.
“I’m really starting to hate these meetings.” Georgy slouched deep into Lia’s armchair.
“Is it that bloke?” Jane asked. “The ex of yours Rani wanted to gut?”
“No,” Lia said. “He’s all taken care of.”
Rani’s eyes widened.
“Oh, I didn’t have him killed,” Lia said. “He’s just out of the picture. God, it does sound like I killed him. The point is, it’s over and done with without a drop of blood shed.”
“Then what’s the bad news, boss?” Georgy asked.
This was the hard part, the part she’d been dreading.
“Ladies...the time has come for me to retire my nonexistent garden shears and my invisible tennis racquet,” Lia said. “I’m quitting the biz.”
The three ladies stared at her with heartbreak in their eyes.
“Lia,” Rani said. “Why?”
“Um...because my parents told me I had to.”
“You really have got to get your own place, boss,” Jane said.
“Working on that,” Lia said. “But there is good news. You won’t be left alone and without protection. I found you a new boss.”
“A new boss?” Jane sounded very skeptical. Lia didn’t blame her. “Who?”
“She’s a bit older and she’s had loads of experience at this. She’s got more connections than I do, more money. Also—”
Lia heard a tap on her bedroom door.
Before she could answer it, the goddess Aphrodite threw open the door and sashayed inside, wearing pink faux furs in June and towering over them all on her hot-pink high heels with diamond-encrusted roses on the toes.
“Hello, ladies,” Aphrodite said, a wide smile on her cotton candy lips. Jane, Rani and Georgy stared slack-jawed and wide-eyed at the goddess of love herself. “Call me Mrs. V. We’re going to fuck beautiful men, make enormous amounts of money, and be worshipped night and day like the goddesses we are. Shall we get started?”
Georgy looked at Lia and nodded her approval.
“Well done, Lia,” Georgy said. “She’ll do nicely.”