The night wrapped around us like a velvet shawl, warm and perfumed with jasmine drifting from somewhere below by the way jasmine is my favorite scent .
Betha and I sat beneath a canopy of fairy lights that blinked like lazy stars strung across the heavens.
The rooftop restaurant clung to its rustic-chic charm: candlelit mason jars, linen napkins that felt too expensive to stain, and jazz playing low enough to make you lean in to catch each note.
Betha was buried in the menu, chewing her bottom lip.
I knew that face—torn between indulgence and guilt.
Probably weighing the merits of the truffle burger against another joyless quinoa salad or a pizza napoletana .
I let her concentrate for a moment longer than she deserved, cause seriously she is ordering food not a car !
Then, casually, I dropped the match.
“betha i got news , I merged Foody with Tasty this morning.*”
The menu stilled mid-air, her fingers frozen on the page.
She blinked.
Once.
Twice.
Third .
“*You…
what?*” she gasped, blinking as if I’d confessed to high treason.
“*You gave him what he wanted?!
, are serious cossete you told me you want revenge and the next time you give him what he want from you on a golden plate ?
*”
I reached for my iced tea, letting the glass sweat against my fingers.
One sip.
Two.
Then I smiled.
“*No, Betha.*” I placed the glass down gently.
“*I gave him what he *thinks* he wanted.
There’s a difference.*”
Her brows furrowed, confusion crinkling into admiration.
“*I still control Foody,*” I went on.
“*The branch, the branding, the direction.
The merger isn’t a surrender—it’s a Trojan horse ( Its a horse used in greek mythology in war ) with my name engraved in gold.
If Frost falters, I don’t go down with him.
I climb over the wreckage and damage .*”
Her lips parted in slow disbelief, then curled upward like the crescendo of a laugh.
using greek mythology in your revenge plan spicy !
you absolute maniac.
That’s…
that’s genius.*”
I lifted one shoulder in a modest shrug, like I hadn’t just rewritten the rules of power with a dotted signature.
Then, as if mentioning the weather:
“*Do you still have ties with Ray Lether?*”
Betha choked on her lemon water, coughing like she’d just swallowed a live wasp.
“*Ray Lether?
As in…
CEO of Eat & Like?
Cossette, are you serious right now , whats your insane plan again ?*”
I didn’t blink.
“*Completely , yes that ray lether .*”
She narrowed her eyes like she was trying to read the unwritten footnotes of my plan.
“*We’re barely on waving terms .we talk sometimes ‘Hey at the awards banquet’ friendly at family one but were not at the point to ‘let me call him and ask for a favor’cossette whatever you want its a no .*”
“*Still counts,*” I said, leaning forward across the flickering candlelight.
“*I need a meeting.
One chance to talk, and you are my only chance .*”
Betha sank back into her chair like I’d suggested skydiving without a parachute or swimming with some barracudas .
“*He hate you, Cossette.
You’re married to the man he’s been trying to crush for the last six years.
And now, with the merger?
You might as well send him a bouquet of roses with thorns !
.*”
I didn’t speak.
I just tilted my head, widened my eyes, and gave her the look aka puppy eyes : that a normal bestie never can’t support its too cute !
( not for her its a horror movie ) .
Betha groaned.
“*Ugh—*not* the puppy eyes.
I hate you.*” She pulled out her phone.
“*If this gets me blacklisted from every industry brunch for the next decade…*”
She dialed, adjusted her hair, and brought the phone to her ear.
“*Ray?
Hey!
” Follow the newest chapters on g.com.
There was a beat of silence.
Ray : ” yes who is it ”
“It’s Betha—Betha Kelman.
From the innovation summit, last quarter?*”
Ray ” oh hey betha ”
“*Yeah, that’s me!
Hi.
So listen, I was wondering if you know cossette jonas ?
*”
Click.
Betha lowered the phone like it had personally insulted her.
“*He hung up.*”
I sighed.
“*Charming as always.*”
“*I told you,*” she said, exasperated.
“*He didn’t even let me say a thing after your name .
Cossette, seriously, just let this one go.
He’ll never meet you.*”
But I was already smiling.
That smile.
The one that curls slow and sharp.
The kind of smile that should come with an evacuation warning.
“*Oh, I’ll see him very soon even *” I folded my napkin neatly, placing it beside my untouched plate.
“*And you, dear Betha…
you’re going to help me.*”
Betha stared at me like she was plotting which foreign country she could flee to.
“*Cossette.
Please—whatever you’re planning, tell me it’s not insane.*”
I stood, smoothing my blazer, tossing my ginger hair over one shoulder with the flourish of a queen preparing to step into battle and win it .
“*It’s not insane.*”
I gave her a slow grin over my shoulder.
“*It’s called strategy , betha thats what we use in war !.*”