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Nothing about how the day was going had been out of the ordinary. In fact, it felt just like every other day that I’d come in a little later. And because I wasn’t expecting anything abnormal or unusual, when I walked through the front door, I was caught completely off-guard.
“I just… I’m not sure why I didn’t do it right from the start, and now I’m realizing that I made a huge mistake, so I’m desperately hoping you can find a way to accommodate what I’m looking for.”
I stopped in my tracks just inside the front door.
Even though I was behind her, I knew it was Ellery that had just said them. She was standing at the front reception desk, talking to Avalon, and there was no missing the panic in her tone.
“I’m sure we can work it all out for you,” Avalon assured her. “In fact, Kane just walked in now. I’m sure he’ll be happy to discuss your concerns with you and figure out something that’ll work for you. But I think it might be important to discuss the specifics of what you’re looking to do first before I start scheduling things.”
At the mention of my name, I started moving again, and when I was standing right beside Ellery, she twisted her neck to the side and looked up at me. One look at her face told me everything I needed to know.
Or, maybe not everything.
What it did tell me was that something was wrong.
Every time she’d come in for a class, she’d always have a bit of a determined and even confident nature about her. Nothing about what I was seeing now was even remotely close to that. If it weren’t for the fact that I’d memorized each and every one of her features when she’d asked for some additional help after the last class she’d taken, I might not have thought I was standing beside the same person.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
Ellery’s chest was rising and falling rapidly. Her eyes were practically bulging out of their sockets, and the desperation was written all over her face.
Before she had a chance to respond, Avalon spoke and forced my attention in her direction. “Ellery’s looking to start some private lessons, and she’d like to begin weapons training as well.”
My eyes shot back to Ellery’s gorgeous face as confusion moved through me. Without her saying a single word, my suspicions had been confirmed.
Something was very wrong.
Instead of trying to pry it out of her here, I thought it might be better to talk in private. So, I jerked my head toward the conference room behind where we were standing and suggested, “Why don’t we go and have a seat in the conference room, so we can talk about what’s going on?”
There was a brief moment of hesitation before Ellery simply nodded her head at me.
With her agreement in hand, I turned and led her to the empty conference room. “Have a seat,” I urged her while I closed the door behind us.
I slid my jacket off my shoulders and sat down in the seat beside the one she sat in. I could feel the nervous tension coming off of her in waves, and I could see it, too. Her leg was bouncing uncontrollably with her anxiety.
“What’s going on?” I asked gently.
She swallowed hard and shared, “Well, it dawned on me that I wasn’t taking full advantage of all of my free time. This is important to me, so I thought the best thing I could do was fill my schedule, or, at least, as much as you can accommodate, with more personalized instruction.”
She was hiding something.
While I guessed it was possible she could have had a change of heart, I didn’t believe that was the case here.
Maybe if she came in seeming far more relaxed than she was, I would have bought it.
But since the woman sitting in front of me now had the same look that she did when she was standing at Avalon’s desk—a look of utter desperation—I couldn’t pretend that this was merely about Ellery deciding she wanted to occupy her free time differently.
“So, you want to stop taking the group classes and replace them with private classes?” I asked, trying my best to keep the sound of my voice neutral, so I could fully assess the situation.
Ellery shook her head. “No. No, I’d like to continue taking the group classes and add private classes to the mix.”
I tipped my head to the side and allowed my eyes to search her face. I didn’t know what I expected to find there, but I was hoping I’d get something.
Anything that might indicate to me what was really going on with her.
When I took too long doing that and didn’t manage to come up with any answers, Ellery added, “Unless you think that it might not be a good idea to do both. If you think that things might get confusing or something, then I’d probably just ask what you recommend.”
“What I recommend?” I repeated.
