“You’re welcome, sunshine.”
“Don’t push it.”
I tear mine open with my teeth and squeeze half of it down. It tastes like medicinal berries and regret. Tilda drinks hers slower, eyes fixed somewhere past the wall, already thinking three moves ahead.
I lean one hip against the table and watch her.
It’s not just that she’s tired. Everybody here is tired. Everybody has bruises, aches, camera fatigue, emotional damage, and a growing spiritual relationship with caffeine. But Tilda’s exhaustion is different. She carries it like she’s trying to hide a knife in formalwear. Her shoulders hold too much tensionwhen she thinks no one’s looking. Her eyes go slightly unfocused at odd moments, like some part of her is never fully here because it’s always doing inventory somewhere else. Food. Risk. Timing. Worst-case scenarios. The woman looks at rest the way some people look at crime.
She senses me staring and cuts her gaze toward me. “Why are you making that face?”
“What face?”
“That one.”
I try innocence. “I have no idea what you mean.”
“The concern face.”
“I do not have a concern face.”
She snorts quietly. “You absolutely do. It’s less annoying than your flirting face, but only barely.”
That makes me laugh. “Flirting face. Brutal.”
“I call them as I see them.”
“Then what does your face mean right now?”
“My face means I’d like a shower and six hours of unconsciousness.”
I push off the table. “You didn’t sleep.”
She takes another sip. “I slept.”
“That is a lie so lazy it didn’t even put on shoes.”
Her jaw shifts. Tiny thing. Easy to miss if you haven’t spent enough time studying her mouth in better circumstances. “Bron.”
“You look wrecked.”
“I look normal.”
“You look like you’ve been holding yourself together with spite and scheduling.”
She gives me a long, unimpressed stare. “Aren’t you charming.”
“Thank you.”
“That wasn’t admiration.”
“Still choosing to hear it that way.”
She crushes the empty packet in her fist. “I’m fine.”
I tilt my head. “You keep saying that like repetition makes it true.”
Her expression cools by degrees. Not icy yet. Just controlled. Deliberate.
