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“I wanna go on a girls trip,” Breanna said, flopping across the counter and pouting at Sophie.
“No you don’t,” Sophie replied, pointedly refusing to watch Breanna’s theatrics in favor of tidily packing her bag at the bar. “You want to play that loud video game, Last Chance Fantasy Twelve or whatever, with your brother and eat piles of snacks all weekend while we’re between jobs.”
Breanna broke character long enough to glare at Sophie for the willful butchering of the video game title before slumping back against the bar.
“It’s Final Fantasy Seven: Rebirth, the game of the year, and it's the first time in three months that Hardison has been free to play, and no, I don't want to go do whatever girly stuff you have planned this weekend, but I do want to meet Tara.”
“And you will,” Sophie said. “Just not this weekend.”
She finished transferring her necessities to her travel bag and looked around.
“Where did I put my phone?”
“Here,” Harry said, tapping the phone beside him and sliding it down the bar to Sophie. The phone spun and stopped just short of its target, landing instead in front of Parker. The motion caused the lock screen to flicker open; Parker gasped and grabbed the phone before Sophie could claim it.
“There’s a text from Maggie!” Parker said. She bounced with excitement. “She says that her flight is set to be delayed another hour and for you and Tara not to get started without her- Wait. Why is Maggie telling you about her flight, and how does she know Tara? SOPHIE is Maggie going with you??”
“Whoa, hold up, Maggie is going where?” Hardison's face appeared on the screen; bottles of orange soda were lined up beside him in preparation for the gaming marathon.
“Excellent timing,” Sophie muttered. Eliot, drawn in by the sounds of Hardison’s virtual arrival, peered over Parker’s shoulder to read the text. Sophie leaned across the bar to try, unsuccessfully, to wrestle the phone from Parker.
“Maggie’s going too?” Breanna looked betrayed. “No fair.”
“Wait, who’s Maggie?” Harry glanced around at the group.
“Nate’s ex-wife.”
Harry jumped slightly on his barstool as the five others spoke as one.
“Oh,” Harry said, “That actually opens up a lot more questions, but first, what does she mean, don’t start without me?”
“And how does she know Tara?” Parker finally released the phone but continued to glare at Sophie.
“Sophie,” Breanna said, her expression shifting from shock to glee, “are you…doing crimes with Maggie?”
“Have you already done crimes with Maggie?” Eliot’s voice was low and just shy of dangerous. Sophie winced.
“Maggie is an art historian and a very good person who just happens to have been married to Nate at one point,” Parker told Harry, providing a bit more context for his original question before glancing over at Sophie, “but she is definitely not a criminal and very definitely not available to help with cons. We agreed!”
Everyone - except Harry who was still wrapping his mind around “Nate’s ex-wife” - glared at Sophie.
“Well-” Sophie floundered for a moment before caving under the others’ intense stares- “it’s not like we planned it!”
“Really?” Eliot crossed his arms.
“Of course not! It just, kind of… worked out that way.”
Several years earlier
“Sophie?”
“Maggie!” Sophie’s surprise was interrupted as she was tugged into a tight embrace.
Maggie pulled away just slightly and glanced at the crowd around them.
“Are you here on a job?” She glanced at Sophie’s ear and lowered her voice. “Am I talking to everyone right now? I don’t feel Nate’s oppressive grumpiness blanketing the area but that doesn’t mean he’s not around.”
Sophie laughed. “No, I’m just enjoying a weekend away with a friend. What are you doing here?”
“I’m in town for a conference. There were too many stuffy academics hanging around the hotel, and I’d heard there was a party across town, so. Here I am.”
“A party crasher, I think I like her already,” Tara said, emerging from the crowd and looking Maggie over curiously.
Sophie hesitated slightly before making introductions.
“Maggie, meet Tara Cole, an old friend. Tara, this is Dr. Maggie Collins.”
“A doctor?”
“Art history,” Maggie said, finally pulling herself away from Sophie’s side to shake Tara’s outstretched hand. “Less profitable than the medical field, but very nearly as bloody.”
“Well it’s always good to have a doctor around,” Tara said. “Especially the ones who know their way around a museum.”
Maggie clocked the sharp look from Sophie that Tara was pointedly ignoring.
“Do you work with Sophie?” Maggie asked, raising an eyebrow.
“From time to time,” Tara said. “Though I typically operate alone.”
Sophie sighed.
“Maggie is familiar with our work,” she said. “But she is strictly a friend of Leverage and is not to be drawn into anything.”
“I appreciate the caution, Sophie,” Maggie said, “but I hope it’s not some stupid rule of Nate's that I can’t-”
She caught Tara’s look.
“Nate is my ex-husband.”
Tara gave a startled laugh, catching more than a few admiring glances from the men around. She laughed again, this time tossing her hair just slightly as she did so and drawing even more attention. Sophie rolled her eyes.
“This is fantastic news,” Tara said. She looked Maggie over again. “How would you like to join us in a little game this evening?”
“Tara,” Sophie’s warning tone did nothing to temper Tara’s glee.
“I’m not part of the team, but that doesn’t mean I can’t have a little fun,” Maggie said, giving Sophie’s arm a light squeeze.
Tara snagged two glasses of champagne from a passing tray. She passed one to Maggie before tapping the lip of her own glass against it.
“Oh, I think we could have a lot of fun,” Tara said. Her eyes sparkled as Maggie grinned.
Sophie sighed and grabbed her own glass of champagne from another waiter, signaling her resignation to this scheme. Tara tilted her head to indicate that they should follow her to the railing overlooking the ballroom floor.
“Now, let’s have a little chat about the evening ahead.”
Maggie broke away from her latest dance partner and breathlessly made her way back to the other two women.
“Well?” Maggie said as she accepted a glass of water from Sophie
Tara opened her bag and allowed Maggie a brief glimpse of their latest mark’s passport.
“Slipped into his room during the last dance,” Tara said. “The safe was nothing, and now that we have all of his passports, he won’t be able to slip away once we alert the authorities to his whereabouts.”
Maggie bounced on her toes and caught the eye of another man they’d discussed earlier.
“This one next” Maggie said. She beamed and handed Sophie her empty glass, glancing over her shoulder at the others before she headed off again. “This is fun.”
“Yeah Sophie,” Tara said, nudging her with her hip. “Remember fun?”
“I’m having fun!” Sophie said defensively. She lowered her voice. “But someone has to be cautious. Maggie has a legitimate life we could ruin if we’re not careful. And no matter what business travel-Maggie says, or does, she’s not a criminal.”
“Yeah, but she has a devious streak,” Tara said, watching as Maggie gently led their mark close enough for Tara to swipe his phone. “It’s good to let that out now and then.”
“As if you ever hide yours,” Sophie said.
Tara waved the mark’s bank account numbers under her nose and Sophie couldn’t help but smile. Tara laughed.
“Oh shut up,” Sophie muttered, doing nothing to wipe the smug look from Tara’s face. “You know, Maggie’s Spanish is better than yours.”
Tara’s indignant mutterings provided a pleasant backdrop as Sophie deftly transferred the mark’s millions.
Present day
“So you see,” Sophie explained to the group, “I was the voice of reason, a moderating influence even-”
“Damn it, Sophie, we agreed-”
“If I’d known criming with Maggie was an option-”
“Did Nate know about this?”
“He most certainly did not,” Sophie said, cutting off the cacophony of angry voices and glaring at Hardison’s giant face watching her from the screens across the room, “and it was a one time thing, just a chance meeting that led to a very enjoyable night at the expense of some very stuffy art collectors and the arrest of one very scummy venture capitalist.”
Her explanation was drowned out by the grumbling of the others.
“But this is a normal tropical getaway! Just three women, endless beaches, and as many margaritas as the rich men at the bar choose to buy us.” Sophie caught sight Harry’s raised eyebrows. “Of their own free will.”
“So you’re not going to do more crime with Maggie?” Parker asked.
Sophie gasped and clasped her hands over her heart.
“We have not plotted any crimes.”
Parker and Eliot gave Sophie a matching disappointed look before turning away.
Harry and Breanna traded a significant glance and waited until Eliot and Parker had drifted off to chat with Hardison before Harry leaned across the bar.
“You’re definitely planning on doing more crime with Maggie,” he whispered.
“Yes I am,” Sophie hissed, “and don’t you dare say a word or you won’t get to meet her.”
Breanna and Harry threw up their fingers in some combination of pseudo-scout pledges. Sophie rolled her eyes at them and gathered up her bags, heading for the door before the others decide to resume their scolding.
She unlocked her phone and clicked on Maggie’s message, typing out a response as she headed to the waiting Uber.
Wouldn’t dream of it. See you soon xoxo