“I know.”
“I feel bad about it, though. I don’t like being a rat, but if something were to happen to you…”
I look her up and down, and try to get a sense of whether she would actually care if I died. She’s too hard to read.
“Word of advice?” She raises her eyebrows. “Play it up. My brother always had a soft spot for broken, pretty things.”
Is she referring to other women? And why would I even care?
Elena chuckles as if she can read my mind. “He found a bird with a broken wing and a crushed leg on the balcony you’re standing on when he was a teenager. Maybe he was even younger. I can’t remember the details. But I do know that he poured himself into helping the bird: reading books on ornithology and veterinary medicine. Eventually, he nursed it back to health, and it flew away.”
“So I should act like a hurt animal?”
“Maybe. How have you been acting so far?”
I pause, fighting a smile. “Like a standoffish bitch.”
“Entertaining. But you aren’t going to get anywhere with that.” She takes a few steps towards the door, then spares me a glance. “You good?”
“Yeah…” I nod my head, remembering why she asked that question in the first place. “It was only a stupid, impulsive thought.”
She nods her head and leaves me alone. It seems cold of her to leave me this quickly. Or maybe she saw right through me and realized that wasn’t a mental health crisis.
I hurry back inside, my mind racing and wondering how I should act when Alessandro inevitably comes storming back in here, angry at what I almost did. If he even cares. Elena could be wrong in her assessment of her brother.
I might as well try to play it up and act depressed to test her idea. I make my way into the bathroom, realizing I look too put-together right now. My hair is in a tight ponytail, my face made up since I’m so bored in the morning that I don’t know what else to do with myself.
I start by cleaning off my foundation and my lip gloss. But with my eyes, I realize I shouldn’t use makeup remover and should use water as a crude way to smudge up that area to look as though I’ve been crying. Then, I head into the closet and put on the rattiest t-shirt and pajama pants I can find to replace the outfit I was wearing.
Then I lie in bed and wait, wondering if I’m capable of forcing myself to cry. I think about all the saddest things I can—missingmy family, various funerals I’ve attended, the saddest movies I’ve seen. But nothing comes up. I’ll have to settle for looking despondent.
I hear the main door open to Alessandro’s apartment, followed by hurried footsteps.
I roll over to my side, facing away from the door as I attempt to look as blank as possible.
“What happened?” he growls in a way that makes me jolt when he enters the bedroom.
I stay silent as he walks over to where I’m facing. Then he crouches down. And maybe Elena was on to something, because I’ve never seen him look more concerned in my life.
He quickly masks this, though.
“I was feeling really sad.”
“You didn’t show any signs of this sort of thing before.”
I shrug. He’s not wrong. I’ve mostly been silently glaring at him or trying to subtly fuck with him.
His eyes narrow, and for a moment I worry that he can see right through me. “What do you need from me to avoid this happening again? I’m very busy.”
Wow, he’s such an asshole. What if I were legitimately suicidal? I think about what he’s asking me, and even though I can usethis as an opportunity to get something I want, I’m worried he’s skeptical, and I should take his brief moment of concern as a win.
“Nothing. Pretend it never happened. I don’t want to distract you from your job or whatever weird hobbies you have going on in that room.”
“Just answer my question, Sofia. I don’t want to worry about you all day. I’ll figure out how to bring in a psychiatrist if I have to.” He rubs his chin. “I’ll need to find someone willing to accept a bribe to look the other way about your current predicament, but I’m sure I can find someone.”
“No… I don’t need all of that.” He seems to relax at this. “I’m so stir-crazy though. I’m used to being busy and leaving the house every day.”
He swears under his breath, taking what feels like forever to respond to me.
