Chapter Six

Mac eyed her best friend and eyed Wallace on the other side of her. Wallace had his earbuds in and his music blasting while Veronica was idly flipping through the ridiculous items for sale in the Sky Mall magazine. They'd been seated in an exit row so they had extra room but still, that meant the noise was a much higher volume than Mac would typically prefer. Somehow, Mac had gotten the window seat while Wallace had the aisle. Veronica was stuck in the middle because both her friends knew that an added layer of security when a Mars was involved was never a bad thing.

Snickering to herself, Mac looked over Veronica's shoulder before elbowing her in the side. Veronica gave her a questioning look and Mac motioned with her head for Veronica to lean in closer. When Veronica had made the subtle movement, Mac asked both as quietly as she could and as loudly as she dared, "What's the deal with you and Piz?"

Veronica sighed but glanced over her shoulder to make sure Wallace was otherwise occupied before she moved her lips till they were close enough to Mac's ear that she could be fairly sure that no one else would hear and said, "There's no deal. He was just...there. We'd been broken up for ages, the reason we broke up was no longer an issue, things were still easy between us just like they always had been so..." she paused to shrug, "He asked if I wanted to give it another try and I figured, why not?"

Eyes narrowing, Mac studied her friend before moving to speak directly into Veronica's ear, saying in an almost accusatory manner, "I thought your dad said you two moved in together before you were even dating."

Snorting derisively and rolling her eyes, Veronica responded snidely, "He would focus on that! Ugh, dear old dad," then she shook her head and explained, "It was more a coincidence than anything. He'd just moved to town and I was itching to live off campus. The city is so expensive, though, that I was already looking for a roommate or two or three to be able to afford it. When I ran into Piz, he said he was looking for a place, too. His job was gonna either put him up in a studio or give him a certain amount towards a bigger place. He asked if I wanted in on it and it was a sweet deal, definitely an offer too good to pass up," she paused and backpedaled a bit when she saw Mac's look of disbelief, "Ok, so I did hedge a bit at first but he's always been harmless and he gave me his puppy dog eyes...he sold me and I caved."

Now it was Mac's turn to roll her eyes. She mumbled something under her breath that Veronica couldn't hear save one word: Logan.

Immediately, Veronica's senses were on high alert and she looked Mac square in the eye and demanded, "What did you say?"

Mac tried to brush it aside but Veronica was persistent, pestering Mac until she finally held up her hands and said, "Ok, ok! All I said was that if that had been Logan who had just shown up all hum-de-dum and casual like that and suggested you get a place together, you would have bolted so fast we wouldn't have even been able to find skid marks on the floor to try to track you by!"

"Logan has nothing to do with anything," Veronica insisted, trying hard to mask how easily shaken she could be just by the mere mention of her ex's name, "Besides, last I read was that he was with some pop star now. I'm hoping maybe he'll be on tour with whoever she is and won't bother to show for the reunion." Her words were bold and brave but she could feel how cold and clammy her hands were getting and fought the urge to do something that would be an obvious give away like wiping them on her pants.

"Oh he'll show," Mac said with so much certainty that Veronica's gaze sharpened before she pressed insistently, "And you know that how?"

"I ran into him at a club not long ago and he told me," Mac shrugged casually, turning to look out the window before Veronica could see the sly and mischievous grin turning up the corners of her mouth, bringing out her dimples.

Veronica's eyes widened and she immediately began calculating whether it would be possible to launch herself out the exit hatch before either of her friends could get in the way.

Wallace must have seen or sensed Veronica's panic because it was just about the time that she began to squirm in her seat that he pulled the buds from his ears and asked with furrowed brow, "What's the problem, Supah Fly?"

Realizing that her friends had put her between them as more than just a friendly gesture, Veronica glared at Mac before turning to Wallace with venom in her tone, "That's a question you should be asking HER. And if I find out that you were in on this, too, so help me, Wallace!" Her threat remained incomplete but it didn't matter. He knew her well enough to know that whatever it might have been finished with would be ominous for sure.

His gaze sought out Mac's, asking an unspoken question that Mac responded to without even a hint of remorse. "I may have mentioned who else will be at the reunion that we know besides the three of us and Piz."

Wallace groaned and Veronica smacked him, exclaiming in an outrage, "You knew?!"

Reluctantly, Wallace nodded, glaring at Mac as he said, "You weren't supposed to find out till the night of, V. I mean, it's not like you didn't know he'd be invited and seriously? The man's best friend is STILL Dick Casablancas. Even IF Logan would consider missing a party, do you really think his BFF would let him miss THIS?"

Wallace's rationale notwithstanding, Veronica gritted her teeth and gripped him by both arms, looking him square in the eye as she enunciated each of her words with extreme care and infinite precision, "You. Will. Pay." She released him roughly and determined that for the next four hours, she would refuse to speak as she began to plot and plan how she would manage to catch the next flight back to New York the second the landing gear hit the airstrip.

Mac caught Wallace's eye and with the most miniscule of nods, she gave him the signal to execute Plan B. Wallace pulled out his cell phone and plugged his earbuds back in, making it look like he'd gone back to listening to music while in reality, he was crafting a crucial message to be sent to one Keith Mars. Then, without fanfare, Mac pulled her laptop from its case and set it to show 'airplane mode' while she set about pulling some strings to make Wallace's S.O.S. communique able to go off without a hitch. Sometimes, she thought to herself, Bond needed Q to go a little rogue to get the job done.