“I knew it.”
“Don’t worry, this one doesn’t involve a cookie jar.”
“Hm, yeah. Okay. We’ll see.”
“I can send out for cookies here, you know. Mom isn’t going to threaten to have my jaw wired shut if I eat too much, or whatever. Come on, we can talk about it on the way in.”
He gestures to me to follow him, as he turns to walk toward the front of the building.
I glance back as the gates start to close.
Whatever my kid brother has planned, it’s too late to back out now.
Chapter Seventy-Eight
Robin
When I step back into the kitchen, I catch Katie and Pierre talking quietly, heads close together, bent over a plate of something that looks desert-like. The sound the door makes closing behind me makes them jump apart.
I think I might have ruined a moment.Damn.
Katie’s giving Pierre a sad glance while his gaze fixes on me.
“Um, hey,” I greet, heading straight for the laundry room. “I’m back early. I’ll sort the next loads. You can finish your food.”
Though I seriously doubt I’m back early, I want to give my co-workers the chance to catch their moment before it slips away.
I get into the laundry room and realize the machines are all still going.
They all have a few minutes left on their cycles.
Katie steps into the room a second later, blowing out a weary breath as she leans back against the wall next to the door. It swings closed, and she gives me a wry smile.
“I’m so sorry,” I start.
“Sorry?” she asks, looking confused.
“It felt like you two were having a moment out there, and I rushed in and spoiled it.”
“Oh,” she says, sighing. “Don’t worry about that. It wasn’t special. We always get close, and the tension starts to get all sexy, and nothing ever happens. It’s like he prefers the thrill of the chase to ever actually catching me. Or he just doesn’t like me at all, and I’m generating the tension on my own. Ugh. Who knows? It just sucks.”
It sounds complicated, and I have no idea how to make her feel better, so I keep my mouth shut.
She sighs a little more and pulls a strand of hair free from her elaborate up-do, twisting it around her finger. “Sometimes, I wish I wasn’t into men. They’re way more hassle than they’re worth.”
The machines stop, one by one, and she pushes away from the wall.
“Okay, moping over with. It’s time to get back to work.”
She smiles and chats like normal once we start to deal with the laundry.
The afternoon is mostly spent washing, drying and organising laundry, while other academy staff take away the baskets to bring the clean stuff back to the rooms they came from, and bring us new bundles to get started on.
The system feels streamlined, designed to keep us busy with a few minutes of rest every hour.
It’s a little tiring, which is a surprise, but I guess that’s because I’ve been living like an invalid for a while. I know I’ll get used to it, and nothing about it is difficult to learn.
“Almost there!” Katie exclaims, pointing to her watch as I load up the last of the baskets with cleaned and dried items.
