Status Updates From Hot Toy

“So you’re not a cop,” Trudy said. “You’re a double agent for the Chinese, you rat—”
“He told you that?”
Trudy stopped. “That is pretty far-fetched.”
“Trudy, he’s the double agent for the Chinese.”
Trudy glared at where she thought he was in the darkness. “Do you guys just make this stuff up as you go?”

“Oh, hell.”
“What?” Courtney said.
“I got birthday paper,” Trudy said. “I need Christmas paper, and this is birthday—”
“Trudy,” Courtney wailed.
Nolan held out his hand. “Give it here.”
“You’re going to fix this?” Trudy said. “How are you going to fix this?”
Nolan wiggled his fingers. “Gimme.”
She handed the paper over and watched while he took out his pen again and wrote Jesus under every Happy Birthday.

The eyes of the woman in front of her followed the Mac box. A man with a cap with earflaps, standing in front of the woman in front of Trudy, looked back idly and then froze “Is that a Major MacGuffin?”
“Last year’s model,” Trudy said to him, and shifted the boxes again. It’s like being on the veldt. Gazelle vs. lions.
The woman in front of her stepped closer, and Trudy backed up and bumped into Nolan.
Lots of lions.