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you like five times.”
    Leandra was wasted, and so were her four sorority friends. “That party sucked. We wanna dance ! Tell this gorilla to let us in!”
    â€œYou hate house music. And you hate dancing.”
    â€œAccording to your friend here,” said Vinnie, “you promised them a table and bottle of Belvedere. Is that true?”
    Sophia gulped. It was a hard rule at CRUSH that staffers’ friends were not to be given preferential treatment. They weren’t allowed to cut the line, wave the cover, get free drinks, or sit at a table for free. If her friends wanted to come to the club, that was fine, as long as they paid and didn’t distract Sophia from doing her job. She’d made no promises to Leandra, ever, but if she called Leandra on her lie in front of her college friends, she’d never hear the end of it.
    â€œTell you what,” said Leandra, pressing her melon boobs into Vinnie’s arm. “Come on, Vinnie. You could use some pretty young thangs at your table.”
    Leandra’s friends howled. Vinnie’s ego was too big to understand that Leandra was making fun of him. He owned a club, which made him something of a local celebrity. But Leandra had her sights set on the type of guy who owned the bank that held the mortgage on the club. For whatever reason, tonight Leandra was in the mood to slum it and flirt with men she’d rather cut off her own hand before touching with a ten-foot pole. Sophia had zero sympathy for the pseudo-VIPs who treated her like meat and dropped thousands on booze to impress girls who were into that. But she liked Vinnie. He was a sleaze and a crook, but he didn’t deserve to be played by sorority girls in Prada dresses after dealing with creeps all night.
    Leandra had been a rock for Sophia at some pretty low times in her life, like during the breakup, after countless audition rejections, and when she got lonely and missed her family in Vancouver (she’d learned never to talk about missing Demi; Leandra would just go off). But sometimes, Leandra tried her patience with her sense of entitlement.
    Sophia said, “It’s freezing out here. I’m going in.”
    â€œHey! What about our table? Come on, Sophia. We’re college graduates!” The girls started cheering for themselves, and got some people on line to applaud them, too.
    Vinnie was won over. “Okay, ladies. You can sit at my table, and Sophia will get you a round on the house.”
    Unheard of. Vinnie was in a generous mood, or he genuinely thought he had a shot at Leandra, an ethereal, delicate beauty who looked particularly fetching tonight. As usual, Leandra glided through life, managing to get what she wanted with a smile. If Sophia had been on the other side of it, she would have shaken her head in amazement at what she got away with. But Leandra’s free ride meant just extra work for Sophia. It was the last straw. She clicked back into the club, steamed past her section, and ignored the people frantically waving at her. She went down the back stairs, and into the employee locker room in the basement. Sitting on a wooden bench, she unzipped her boots and intended to put on her Tory Burch flats. If Vinnie said anything about it, a single word, she’d quit on the spot.
    She opened her locker, and noticed her phone screen lit up with a notification from Demi. “Thanks for checking in,” she texted. “Means a lot. Good to know you care.” Sophia’s stomach dropped.
    Immediately, Sophia called Demi, but it went to voice mail. She started to text, but her hands were trembling. She had no idea what to say. “I’m sorry” or “I had a rough day” sounded like excuses. Good ones! But Demi would take it the wrong way. In frustration, she threw her phone in the locker and slammed it shut.
    She sat on the bench for a few minutes and willed herself to calm down. She just had to get through another couple of