Chapter 12 - Getting the Party Started Part 2

Kat had batted one of the champagne glasses off of the tray and sent it to the floor to shatter.

Naomi gasped. Kat laughed. Rosie was like a deer in headlights and to too stunned to do anything.

Olivia was uncharacteristically quiet, and then was a long pause before she could be heard choking out a laugh through a mouthful of another crab cake. Several sputtering bursts of crumbs and crab meat joined the pool of champagne on the floor.

Katherine eyed the rest of the glasses mischievously with a gleam that caught Naomi’s eyes.

“Hey. No,” scolded Naomi as she tried to move the tray away.

But Kat’s reflexes were too quick and she swatted another glass to the floor.

“Oops. You better get to cleaning that up,” she teased. It was a remark that was met with a loud snort of a laugh from Olivia.

For the first time in this confrontation, Naomi was at a complete loss. She wanted to lash back out at Kat. Quite frankly, she wanted to just drop Kat to the floor right now and rub her nose in the spilt champagne, but she had no choice but to resist that urge, set the rest of the champagne down and get to cleaning. She would have to keep her desire for revenge in her head.

Rosie went to help her friend, but while looking down at the second puddle of champagne, she neglected to remember the first and slipped. The rest of the crab cakes flew from the platter as it crashed with Rosie to the floor and elicited another round of cruel laughter from Katherine.

Then Rosie watched as Olivia did something thoroughly uncharacteristic. She looked every bit like she was actually going to help Rosie up. This was a rare moment of care, of humanity. Maybe lesson had actually been learned. Kat had gone a bridge too far. Alliances were shifting!

And then Liv simply reached behind Rosie to pick up one of the crab cakes that had fallen to the floor. Liv didn’t even bother dusting the crab cake off before promptly shoving it into her mouth

Olivia then stepped away from Rosie, realized she had partially stepped on another runaway crab cake, and swiftly picked that one up and crammed it into her mouth as well! Her two cheeks were filled like a chipmunk with crab cakes.

Rosie was aghast at the act of Olivia eating this floor cake, so aghast for a moment that she had forgotten about the champagne until a third glass was knocked to the floor.

She turned her head and could see that Kat was standing over the tray at the table that Naomi had set the tray on while she was cleaning the other spills. Katherine looked like she had just eaten the canary.

“Get out of here!” hissed Naomi as she tried to chase Kat away from her tray with the towel.

Kat simply laughed again and easily danced out of Naomi’s way and ran behind her. In doing so, she failed to notice the puddle of champagne that she had caused and slipped. She looked like she was about to end up splayed out on the floor, but instead she managed to jump up, get one leg down and then push herself forward enough to land on her other foot.

Naomi couldn’t explain it for the life of her.

The near fall did seem to knock Katherine out of her current compulsion, and she no longer felt a need to knock over any other glasses. Instead she turned toward Olivia.

“Let’s go, Liv. Time to leave these fat losers to their tasks. We’ve got plenty of other fun to have.”

As Liv followed just behind Kat, she noticed a thin film of oil on her hands from the crab cakes. She casually wiped her hands on the side of the costume as she surveyed the rest of the room, licking her lips at the sight of all the men, and all the food.