To say Magenta was angry would be like saying the Incredible Hulk had muscles. She was way past angry. She was livid. Furious. Murderous. And she knew exactly whom she wanted to kill. No, maim. Maybe torture first.
The twins fell into step beside her. Sandwiching her between them.
“Notice that we picked you over our cousin,” Megan said.
“Even though he’s no doubt lying there maimed, unable to father any children and crying for his mummy,” Claire added helpfully.
Magenta rolled her eyes. “I didn’t kick him full force. Just enough to make a point.”
“Yeah, I’m sure he noticed the difference,” Megan said.
“He deserved it.”
There was silence. Magenta stopped on the rocky path, making her friends stop along with her.
“What?” she said. “You don’t think he deserved that?”
They shared one of their telepathic looks, and Magenta felt her hackles rise.
“What we think is that he went to all that trouble to get you alone. He was clearly worried about rats in there, but didn’t let it stop him from spending time with you,” Megan said.
“He gave you a superhot orgasm. Selflessly. We didn’t hear him say, ‘Hey, babe, now it’s my turn,’” Claire said.
Magenta growled at them. They shared another look.
“We think it’s kind of romantic,” Megan said.
“Urgh!” Magenta stomped away from them, heading back down to town.
“Come on.” Claire elbowed her. “You have to admit, it was kind of romantic. He went to all that trouble to get you alone, and then he took care of you.” She paused. “As in took care of your sexual needs.”
“I know what you meant,” Magenta said through clenched teeth.
“I wish someone would do that for me,” Megan said, sighing.
“Seriously? You wish a guy would lie to you to get you to spend the night with him, then let the town listen in while you get physical? Really? You think that would be super romantic? Pair of bubble heads.”
“Hey,” Claire said. “No name-calling.”
“Fine. Sorry. I’m furious. And embarrassed. The whole town heard me. It’s humiliating. I gave in to his charms. I fell for his tricks. Argh. I want to march back up there and kick him again.”
“Honey.” Claire threaded her arm through Magenta’s, and Megan immediately did the same on the other side. Magenta suddenly felt like Dorothy on the yellow brick road. All she needed was some skipping and singing. And a yappy, annoying dog. No, wait. Betty was behind them. They had yappy and annoying covered.
“You don’t want to waste precious time and energy being angry,” Megan said.
“Yes, I do. I really, really do,” Magenta told them. Because as soon as the anger calmed down, she’d have to deal with the humiliation, and that was not something she was looking forward to.
“No, you don’t. What you need to do is get even.” Claire grinned. “When we were kids and the boys did something that was mean or embarrassing to us, we’d hit them harder. They soon learned that they couldn’t mess with the girls. You need to teach this lesson to Harry. Sure, he was sexy and unselfish in the mine, and it was kind of romantic—although I can totally see why you don’t think so. I do get that he manipulated you and then publically humiliated you. What you need to do is repay that favour. A swift kick is great, but you aren’t thinking big enough.”
“Or being creative enough,” Megan added.
“Don’t worry,” Claire said. “We’ll help you turn this situation on its head so that people won’t be talking about the time Harry conned Magenta into getting naked in the mine. No, they’ll be talking about what Magenta did to Harry afterwards.”
“He’ll be a lesson to all the men of Invertary,” Megan said.
“Yes,” Claire said. “You can’t mess with the women of this town.”
Magenta found herself smiling at the twins. They were right. She shouldn’t get mad. She should get even.