Lily couldn’t sleep because the bed beside hers remained empty.
Eva’s suitcase still lay on top of untouched covers. Whenever Lily looked—at midnight; at 2 a.m.; at 4 a.m.—she was confronted with the same sight.
Nothing.
Where was she? Eva said she’d be out late, but not all night. Had something happened? Should Lily be worried? Or was this Eva’s way of staying out of her way?
Did Eva have an ex-girlfriend out there, in the city, whose bed she was crawling into?
Lily shouldn’t care. It shouldn’t bother her. She didn’t have a right to know. Yet, every time Lily glanced across the room, it felt like a knife was being jabbed between her ribs.
Lily just needed to stop thinking about Eva, and for the love of God, she needed to go to sleep.
But when the hotel room door clicked open at 6 a.m., Lily was still awake.
She closed her eyes, not wanting Eva to know, opening them to sneak a peek as Eva ruffled through her suitcase. Her clothes were the same ones she’d left in, and Lily wondered if the creases on the skirt were from spending a night discarded on a bedroom floor.
Lily clenched her jaw and rolled over, staring at a spot on the wall, instead. She listened as Eva shut the bathroom door, the shower starting up a moment later. Washing a sense of regret off her skin?
Groaning, Lily rubbed at her eyes. What would Eva say if she knew Lily had been up the whole night because of her?
This trip was a mistake. One Lily wished she hadn’t made, but it was too late for her to do anything about it now.
Eva stuck around long enough to shower and change, but this time, Lily didn’t breathe easier when she was gone.
Any attempts to snatch a few more minutes of sleep were futile, so she dragged herself out of bed and dressed in a sluggish haze before going down to the lobby for breakfast.
Much to her surprise, Lily wasn’t the first one there. Three of her fellow teachers—including Paige, who waved as Lily walked into the hotel restaurant—sat at one of the tables, a few of the kids dotted around the others.
She wasn’t particularly hungry, but with a full day ahead of her, Lily knew she should eat something from the buffet breakfast. She settled on eggs on toast, with a mug of black coffee to go with it.
“Didn’t sleep well?” Paige said, when Lily dropped into the seat beside her.
Lily hid a yawn behind the rim of her coffee mug. “It’s hard to sleep when I don’t have the dulcet tones of my hangry cat lulling me to sleep.” Hades would be hounding Lily’s parents for her breakfast as she spoke. “Excited for the Capitol trip?”
“I’ve done it so many times I could take the tour myself.”
“Maybe you could earn some extra cash as a guide while you’re here.”
“If I thought I could get away with it, believe me, I would.”
Lily grinned, feeling more human by the time she’d finished eating. She gave up her seat to one of the stragglers—Mr. Jones, one of the history teachers—and walked with Paige into the lobby.
She regretted it when she saw Eva leaning against a pillar, a paper cup of coffee clutched in her hands. Lily didn’t blame her—the hotel coffee was lacking.
Once again, Lily wondered where she’d been. Was Eva going to do that every night? Stay out late and come back in the early hours of the morning? Surely not. But Lily wouldn’t put it past her. If there was one thing Eva was good at, it was avoidance tactics.
“You all right?” Paige asked, and Lily blinked, realizing she’d been staring at Eva.
“Fine. Just mentally preparing myself for the rest of the day.” Which she’d better do. All the kids were going on the Capitol tour, which meant she’d still be spending the day with Eva despite their different groups.
“You’ll love it,” Paige said. “I promise to make my tour much more interesting than the regular one.”
Lily chuckled, relieved she had someone to chat to over the coming days, because Eva obviously wasn’t going to talk to her. Lily had a feeling Eva wasn’t going to be giving her much of anything.
As they gathered the kids into groups to do a headcount, Lily tried to pretend it didn’t sting.
Chapter 20
