Chapter 18: You're Welcome to Bully Me

After a good deal of coaxing, Sophie finally climbed down.

The fridge was running low, so Wendy warned her on the way out, "I'm going to grab ingredients. Don't go climbing back up there."

"Just hurry up," Sophie said. "I'm starving."

Not like I was actually going to do it. Just trying to scare her. So dramatic of her to take it seriously.

Wendy came back loaded with groceries and cooked exactly what Sophie had demanded.

By the time the crayfish hit the table, Sophie had calmed down completely, devouring the whole plate until her mouth was ringed in red chili oil.

Watching her eat with such relish, Wendy couldn't help but ask, "Where do you even pick up stuff like that? Threatening to hang yourself over lunch?"

Sophie shot her a look of pure disdain, mouth still full. "You don't know it's a meme?"

Wendy shook her head, genuinely clueless.

Sophie laughed. "Wow. You really are out of touch."

She was laughing hard enough that she didn't notice a piece of crayfish slip off her chopsticks and hit the floor.

Her face crumpled instantly, on the verge of tears all over again.

Wendy slid the serving dish closer. "There's plenty left."

Once the food was gone, Sophie's earlier fury had drained away entirely. She sprawled across the couch in a food coma.

Wendy surveyed the wreckage of the table and said nothing.

"Hurry up and clean this up," Sophie said. "Mom's going to flip if she sees this mess."

Wendy had been about to start cleaning until that sentence changed her mind entirely.

"You clean it up."

Sophie's eyes went wide, clearly not expecting to be handed the job.

"If it doesn't get done," Wendy said, smiling, "I guess your mom gets to see it exactly like this tonight."

"Are you are you threatening me?" Sophie asked, stunned.

"Your call entirely," Wendy said.

A full stomach tended to settle people down, and Sophie needed to learn she couldn't just bark orders and expect compliance forever.

Wendy knew that pattern too well. She'd lived it once already in the Hale house, where she'd thrown herself into every chore trying to earn some goodwill, only to watch them quietly let the staff go and pile everything onto her instead.

She wasn't walking into that trap twice.

Sophie tackled the cleanup with theatrical huffing and puffing, shooting Wendy resentful looks between trips to the trash and her distraction cost her. She stepped on a stray piece of crayfish and went down hard.

Wendy pressed a hand to her forehead and moved to help clean up the spill.

As she approached, something sly flickered across Sophie's face.

Wendy reached down and yelped as a hand clamped around her ankle.

Sophie, grimy and grinning, yanked her straight to the floor.

They landed in a tangled heap, both now thoroughly coated in oil and sauce.

Wendy lay there stunned. Sophie burst out laughing.

"Got you."

She laughed so hard she doubled over, tears streaming.

Wendy caught her breath and studied her.

Sophie was cackling like a kid who'd just pulled off the prank of the century completely covered in the same mess she'd dragged Wendy into, and seemingly oblivious to it.

Wendy sighed. A child. Genuinely, unmistakably a child.

"Okay, enough. Help me clean."

"Give me a second," Sophie said, still catching her breath. "Let me recover."

Before she could, the doorbell rang.

Sophie bolted upright. "Don't answer it!"

"You're sure about that?" Wendy asked, amused despite the chaos.

Sophie was already frantically stuffing trash into the bin, shoving dishes into the sink, anything that wasn't nailed down. "Help me, quick!"

Seeing there was no reasoning with her, Wendy gave up arguing and pitched in.

No matter how fast they moved, it wasn't going to be fast enough.

Whoever was outside gave up on the doorbell and used their key instead.

Sophie let out a strangled groan. "That's it. Mom's home."

She turned pleading eyes on Wendy. "If she asks, just say you ate it all, okay?"

Wendy made a small, helpless noise. Sophie threw her arms around her. "Please. I swear I'll stop giving you a hard time."

"...Fine."

The front door swung open right as she said it.

It wasn't Diane standing in the doorway. It was Julian.

He took in the disaster zone the mess on the floor, Wendy apparently in some kind of hostage-hold and his expression darkened. "Sophie. What exactly is going on here?"

Sophie blinked, suddenly registering how the hug probably looked less affection, more abduction in progress.

She let go immediately. "This isn't what it looks like."

Julian wasn't interested in an explanation. "Go change," he told Wendy.

Then, to Sophie: "Finish cleaning first. Then you change too."

Sophie pouted. Wendy cut in, "We're already covered in this mess anyway might as well finish before changing."

Sophie's expression melted into something almost grateful. "You're seriously the nicest person."

Wendy didn't quite know how to respond to that it was just dish soap and a mop, not exactly a grand gesture.

Still, something in her softened toward Sophie in that moment. The hostility had never really been personal just a little sister guarding her brother against someone she assumed had ulterior motives.

"Okay. Let's clean."

Wendy led the way, and Sophie, suddenly cheerful, stuck her tongue out at Julian and trailed after her happily.

After a mid-afternoon shower, Wendy came out to find Julian still in the apartment. "Why are you back this early?"

"Forgot a document," he said, nodding toward a folder on the table.

"Then why are you still standing here?" she asked.

"We're going out to dinner tonight."

"Just us?"

"No. All of us. Family dinner."

Something in her chest loosened. Dinner alone with him would have felt complicated. This was easier.

"Got it. Anything else?"

"No."

She blinked, waiting a beat. If there was nothing else, why hadn't he left yet?

He ran a thumb along the edge of the folder, then asked, quieter, "I heard you're job hunting?"

"Yes," she admitted, a little sheepish, already bracing for the concern she assumed was coming. "I won't do anything that reflects badly on the family. I'll stay out of the public eye as much as I can."

"Don't worry about that," he said. "Do whatever you want."

She blinked, caught off guard, just staring at him for a second.

"You're part of this family now," he said. "But you're still your own person. Whatever you wanted before all this go after it."

Her lips pressed together, fists curling and uncurling at her sides, before she managed a sincere, "Thank you."

Something about hearing him say that cleared the whole day's weight off her shoulders in an instant.

She could just do what she wanted. That alone felt enormous.

"Whatever you need, just ask. Don't hold back," he added.

She nodded. "I will."

He turned toward the door, then paused, glancing back. "If Sophie gives you trouble, you don't have to take it lying down."

"And if I give you trouble?" she asked, half-teasing.

"You won't," he said, simply.

She gave him a small smile at that, and he added, almost as an afterthought:

"You're welcome to, though. Bully me all you want.”