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“I said it’s nothing!”she repeats, louder this time. “It’s none of your business.”
“It is ifitinterferes with my life,” I add for consideration. “And ‘none of my business’ is not nothing. You’re hiding something from me.”
She groans and turns away from me, facing the window again.
“We’re done talking,” she decides, speaking in such a low voice that I can barely hear her.
“No we’re not.”
“Yes, we are!”she insists, louder this time.
“Who says you get to decide that?” I want to know.
My hands curl into fists and I have to pull myself together not to yell at her.
“You can’t force me to talk,” she says, throwing me an annoyed sidelook.
“Oh yes, I can,” I object. “You know I can.”
Our eyes meet and she releases anexasperated sigh, her eyes wide and her lips slightly parted while she searches for the meaning behind my words. Her shoulders are up to her ears, a faint blush coloring her cheeks and her lashes fluttering nervously. She’s as aghast as she is intrigued, I can tell that much.
“Well, good luck trying,” she says eventually, relaxing her shoulders as she averts her eyes from mine.
I notice the way her fingers intertwine, her knuckles turning white as she hardens her grip. She’s not as cool and unbent as she wants to appear.
We don’t speak for the rest of the drive, and she keeps her distance when we reach home and walk into the lobby, shying away from me when we’re inside the elevator and scurrying through the doors as quickly as possible when they slide open on our floor.
I watch in silence as she kicks off her shoes in the entry area and storms into her room as if she was being chased, not looking back at me once.
This is not how I imagined this evening to go. I had an image in my mind. Her, smiling and happy to see me when I come to pick her up. She was so cute this morning, when she told me about all the wonderful things this Mrs. Warden has done for her and what a great teacher she was in general. I loved seeing her smile, and had set a plan in motion to make her day. I was looking forward to picking her up and bringing her home, anticipating to see her reaction when she saw what I’d gotten for her.
I’m still standing in the entry, moving slowly as I take off my shoes and my coat, prick-eared as I wait for her reaction. She’s run off straight to her room. She must have seen it by now, but I don’t hear a single noise coming from her bedroom.
Did she not notice? Is her mood sour enough to blind her to the change inside her room?I linger in the entry area, my eyes locked to the archway of the hallway that leads to her bedroom as I wait to see or hear anything.
“What the hell!”
A smile tugs at the corner of my mouth when I hear her curse. I hear her stomping down the hallway a moment later.
“Where the fuck are my books?!”she yells at me, her voice and face tinged with fury. “What did you do to my books? Did you throw them out?”
“What? No! I’d never do that!” I assure her, raising both hands in an appeasing manner as I close in on her.
“Where are they? Why did you take them away from me?”
She’s screeching and fuming with rage, her lips quivering and her hands rolled into fists while she glares up at me.
“Come with me.”
Kat flinches when I reach for her hand, but doesn’t pull away when I take it into mine and lead her down the corridor. I never had any use for the rooms in this hallway before she moved in, leaving the whole area pretty much empty after I’d settled into my own space on the other side of the penthouse. I ordered her bedroom to be furnished when she agreed to give our charade a try, but left the room opposite to it empty—until now.
“What’s going on?”she presses behind me as I lead her down the corridor. “What did you do to my books?”
I don’t deignto givehera response, but let the room speak for itself, whenwecome to a halt in front of it and I open the door for her.
I step aside, stretching out my arm to invite her to step inside and see for herself.
She follows my invitation, but freezes as soon as she’s inside the room. Her gaze flits back to me, an unspoken question written across her face, before she turns back to the room that has now been turned into a library with a proper reading corner. Brand new shelving, airy and light, giving the impression that the books are floating along the bright walls. And a little reading nook right beneath the window, with an armchair and a chaise lounge positioned opposite to each other, each with its own reading light. I asked the decorators to add new curtains, too, and a small coffee table with a glassy vase and flowers.
