Chapter 3

Getting Guy to come to dinner turned out to be easier than I'd expected.

Because I cleverly invited his girlfriend too.

Funny how it worked out.

When I went to knock on the door, she was standing there with a takeout box from the dining hall, in the middle of an argument with Guy.

I knew exactly which counter that food came from.

Because it was the cheapest one.

And there was no way Young Master Fisher could stomach that kind of thing.

I named off tonight's menu on the spot.

An hour later, four people sat around the dinner table.

The mood was strange.

I bustled back and forth, serving dishes and fishing for topics.

Almost no one paid me any attention.

Melanie's eyes kept drifting to the two across from her, and she barely tasted her food.

Guy shot me the occasional mocking glance, one corner of his mouth curling.

His girlfriend was the only one who played along, praising my cooking, saying guys who study science are clever.

She even offered to help me wash the dishes after we finished eating.

The smile on Guy's face froze all at once.

“What are you doing? Since when is it your place to wash dishes……”

“It's fine, it's fine, I've got it——” I jumped in to smooth things over.

She wasn't the least bit intimidated.

“A person should have a sense of gratitude.”

Guy's voice was shaking.

“One meal and now you owe him gratitude? I gave you a place to live——”

“I never wanted to live there in the first place.”

“Mavis Winfield! Do you have to be like this all the time?”

“I've told you, if you think we don't fit, then let's break up.”

……

I watched, dumbfounded.

I hadn't expected them to blow up like that at all.

I hadn't expected, either, that someone could actually live off a man and still refuse to bend.

In the end Guy slammed the door and left, and Mavis didn't stay to wash my dishes.

By all rights, the two of them fighting should have made Melanie happy.

But she sat at the table, and at some point she'd lit a cigarette.

She rarely smoked.

The last time was the day I found Guy's photo.

That time she'd blown the smoke straight into my face without a care, laughing, asking if I minded.

This time there wasn't a trace of a winner's pleasure on her face. Her eyes settled on me, dark and unreadable.

“No one to wash your dishes. That must sting.”

I froze for a second, then shook my head hard.

“I like washing dishes.”

Miss Gilbert really was hard to please.

I could tell she'd been driven half out of her mind.

And she still had to take it out on me in the pettiest way.

I had no choice but to swallow it.

Luckily her phone rang and pulled her attention away.

There was crying on the other end of the line.

Melanie was out the door almost before she'd thought about it.

Afraid something had happened next door, I trotted a few steps after her.

And then I saw it: Guy had pulled her against him, his head bowed against her neck, silently crying.

I looked for a few seconds.

Then I turned my eyes away.

Back in the kitchen, I knocked a bowl to the floor by accident.

A sharp piece of porcelain cut my finger, and blood welled up at once.

I didn't feel any pain, and I didn't go for the first-aid kit.

I just crouched on the floor, staring at the beads of blood that kept seeping out.

But my head was still on that scene from before.

Until, behind me, there came a scream.

Then a woman's furious shout.

“Ian, you think you can get away with this?!”

I looked up, dazed. Melanie's head lifted from the man's arms, and the look in her eyes was pure, towering rage.

When had they even come in?

I asked her quietly:

“What's wrong?”

She was so angry she laughed.

“You have the nerve to ask what's wrong?”

“You knew the door was open, so you broke a bowl on purpose to get my attention. Do you have any idea Guy faints at the sight of blood?!”

I glanced at Guy, still clinging to her, refusing to let go, and opened my mouth.

“I didn't know, and I didn't……”

She cut me off, her voice cold as frost.

“Ian, the least a person can do is know their place.”

“Don't pull these cheap little tricks in front of me again, or I can't promise I won't take back what I've given you.”

I went rigid.

After a long moment, I found my voice.

“All right. I'm sorry.”

She looked down at me from above.

“Clean this up, then get out. You can come back in once Guy's recovered.”

With that she didn't spare me another glance, taking Guy by the hand and walking into the bedroom.

I wrapped a tissue around my still-bleeding hand and cleaned everything up.

Then I pulled on my coat and stepped outside.

The empty hallway was bright with light.

Late autumn was closing in, and when the cold wind blew through, I slid slowly down the wall into a crouch.

Then I took the vocabulary book out of my pocket.

For a long while, in all that quiet, I heard myself sniff.

The polished floor tiles held a faint reflection of what I looked like just then.

I smiled at the me down there.

It was fine.

Melanie and I were only ever two people in a deal, after all.