Free Katwalk by Maria Murnane

were no more available stools, so after Reid ordered the drinks he stood behind Katrina and Brittany, forming a little half circle between them and the bar that succeeded in slightly insulating them from the noise.
    “That was Reid who texted me before,” Brittany said. “He was asking what I was up to, so I told him to come join us for a drink.”
    Katrina glanced at her watch. “Did you just come from work?” It was close to nine o’clock.
    He nodded. “Yes, but let’s not talk about that. Work is the last thing I want to be thinking about right now. So Brittany says you and she met in college?” He narrowed his eyes and looked back and forth between them. “Let me guess. Same sorority?”
    Brittany shook her head. “I wasn’t in a sorority.”
    “Were you represented by the same modeling agency?”
    Brittany rolled her eyes. “Spare us, please.”
    He snapped his fingers. “I got it. Cheerleaders for the football team?”
    “Stop it. I was Katrina’s RA.”
    He looked confused. “What’s an RA?”
    Brittany gave him an are-you-serious look. “Resident adviser? In the dorms?”
    Reid nodded. “Ah, got it. Sorry, it’s been a long time since I lived in the dorms.”
    Brittany took a sip of her margarita. “My senior year I got free room and board for keeping the freshmen out of trouble.” She leaned over and squeezed Katrina’s knee. “Not that this one ever got into trouble. She was as pure as the driven snow.”
    Katrina felt her cheeks flush again, but neither Reid nor Brittany seemed to notice her embarrassment. How could they know how little she had changed since then? Her history of getting into trouble read more like a greeting card than a novel.
    As Reid made eye contact with Katrina, she felt a shiver of anxiety course through her. “So, Snow White, is it? What brings you to New York?” he asked with a polite smile.
    She swallowed and tried frantically to think how to respond, desperate to sound more fabulous than she felt. “I guess you could say . . . adventure.”
    His smile grew into a grin. “Oh really?”
    “She quit her job and came here by herself to have fun for a couple months,” Brittany said. “Pretty badass, if you ask me.”
    “That is pretty badass,” Reid said. “You sound like my kind of woman, Snow White.”
    Brittany playfully batted him on the arm. “You should be so lucky. So how’s life at Morgan Stanley treating you?” She looked at Katrina. “Reid’s in banking too. We used to work together.”
    “I’m hanging in there. The European market sure took it on the chin today. That’s why I was at the office so late.”
    “Ugh, let’s not talk about the European market.” Brittany stuck out her tongue. “I’ve been hearing about that disaster all day.”
    Kevin brought over the drinks, and as he set a second margarita in front of her, Katrina quickly picked up her first one and took a sip, hoping it wasn’t too obvious how full it still was. As she took another big gulp, she tried once more to ignore the burning in her throat. She also tried not to notice the fact that sh e’d just knocked over her coasters.
    Brittany was holding up her margarita for another toast. “Here’s to old friends and new friends.”
    “And future friends,” Reid said.
    “Hear, hear,” Brittany said. “Can’t forget future friends.”
    Katrina clinked her glass against theirs, then forced herself to take another big gulp. Then another, and another. Each one set her throat on fire, but she finally finished the first margarita. Her eyes watering, she set down the empty glass and picked up the full one. Brittany and Reid didn’t appear to notice; they were staring across the room at someone they thought used to work with them.
    “I don’t think that’s her. She’s not that tall, right?” Reid said.
    “I think it is,” Brittany said. “I always hated her.”
    Reid turned back to face the bar, then pointed at the full glass in Katrina’s hand and smiled.