1 Hot Scheming Mess Read Online Free

raised his eyebrows and tilted his head. She looked over to the center of the empty stage, calculating the merits of this bad idea.
    She wadded up the note, slammed it down onto the table, and picked up one of the shot glasses. Looking over at Dewey she raised the shot glass to her lips making sure he saw it, and when he smiled, she threw it back, swallowing fast.
    The flood of fire on her throat bent her over, one hand flying up to cover her mouth as she coughed, gasping for a breath, while the other hand flapped in the air as if she were trying to wave a manicure dry. It made perfect sense that a dive like this place would only carry the cheap stuff, strong enough to melt plastic and bring a corpse back to life. She caught a glimpse of Dewey laughing at her.
    “What are you doing?” Spenser asked her. Madison didn’t want to give her a chance to talk her out of it so she grabbed the next shot and threw that back, too. More burning and coughing as her eyes watered, her shoulders scrunched up, and her face contorted in sympathy with her stomach. Her pores began to open.
    “Madison, what the hell?” Spenser grew alarmed, rising from her chair.
    Madison couldn’t talk, the last few coughs escaping her, so she frantically dug around inside her purse as Spenser grabbed the wadded up note, trying to open it. Madison whipped her car keys out of her purse, thumped them down on the table next to the camera in front of Spenser and grabbed the third shot, throwing it back. The burning eased up quite a bit on her throat and her eyes took it a little better this time, but now her nose was running and her stomach lurched for a second. She felt shaky. She sniffed hard, trying to clear some of the runniness in her nose and saw Spenser’s lips form a hard line of annoyance as she read the note. She threw it down and reached for Madison’s last shot.
    “Nnno!” Madison’s raspy voice finally showed up as she dove for the last shot glass.
    “Don’t be an idiot—” Spenser said, grabbing the shot glass at the same moment, launching the girls into a tug of war.

Chapter Three
    Madison knew Spenser’s instinct would be to try to be neat and not spill anything, so Madison bent over the table and wrapped her lips over the shot glass as Spenser was pulling it out from under her. Madison managed to get about half of the whiskey in her mouth before Spenser won ownership of the glass.
    “Spenser,” Madison dropped back into her chair, “they said they’ll follow my lead. If they do, everything will be fine. Please understand,” she begged, “I can’t face my mother with my rent overdue. She has a way of finding these things out!”
    “God damn it, Madison! It’ll serve you right if you break your neck!”
    “I know, but… will you send flowers?”
    Spenser covered her face in her hands, expelling her breath. Her voice came out muffled from talking into her palms. “Yes, but only the kind of flowers you hate. Which ones do you hate?” She looked up at Madison, her cheeks pink, and Madison knew her dear friend was having a hard time remaining humorous with this one.
    “Uh, Venus flytraps?”
    “Fine! When you break your neck I’m bringing a bouquet of Venus flytraps.”
    They were silent for a moment.
    Spenser said, “I’m sending a note to Daniel to tell the guys he’ll kill them if they don’t follow your lead as promised.”
    In a small voice Madison said, “Thank you.”
    As her pores opened and added to the heat already in the room, she picked up her original rum and Coke pulling out an ice cube. She crunched on the ice and looked around the room. It was very carefully painted and arranged to appear dilapidated. Even the low hanging pipes over the stage, instead of being painted to blend in or disappear, were made into a feature looking like battered industrial chic. Wouldn’t want anyone to think they gave a shit. There were tattered posters on the wall with loose staples sticking out of shows that were already