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She blinks, brow furrowed.

"Yes. Sorry, I'm heading back to my desk."

She turns abruptly and starts walking toward the far end of the hallway, and Laia stays behind, unable to name what she feels in her presence, because it isn't only attraction—there's something else, a kind of connection that lets her sense when Claudia is sad or shut down, and Claudia seems sad to her almost all the time, even though she hides her pain behind her warmth, as if her sadness is simply something to be ignored.

Chapter 7

"Can I ask you something?" Claudia says as she walks toward the parking lot, with Laia following her like a shadow.

"Sure, go ahead."

Claudia stops beside her Mercedes, arms crossed, key fob in hand, while Laia sighs hard and tries to hold her gaze for more than two seconds—but she can't take it, her heart is racing too fast in this woman's presence and she needs to look anywhere else, anything to distract her from those lips she can't stop thinking about.

"Is it worth it? Following me around, I mean. You get here at eight in the morning, you do your shift, and when it's over you follow me and wait outside my door for God knows how long. How many hours do you sleep?"

"I've never been much of a sleeper, that part doesn't bother me," she half-lies, because it's true she doesn't sleep much, but there's a difference between getting off work and resting at home and driving to Barcelona and sitting in her car until eleven—the cutoff she's set for herself—eating a sandwich instead of her mom's home-cooked food.

"So is it worth it?" Claudia repeats. "Do they pay you well for those hours?"

"I can't complain about that either."

The Vidal heiress smiles.

"How vague. Well, if I were you, I'd ask for a raise—I guarantee my parents would gladly pay it if you manage to get their wayward daughter to start behaving herself." Claudia unlocks the car and a beep sounds, one that Laia has already come to associate with her and that, in some twisted way, also sends a little flutter through her stomach.

"Are you going out tonight?" Laia asks.

"I'm afraid so. Why don't you save yourself all this?" Claudia gets in the car and speaks to her with the door still open. "I think it's been made pretty clear that you can't stop me."

The line of Laia's jaw sharpens with tension. Tuesday brought exactly what she'd been expecting all the previous week. She was sitting in her car, about to leave, when the building door opened and Claudia came out wearing her coat buttoned up, a pair of skinny jeans peeking out from under it, heels, and her bag over her shoulder. Hands trembling, Laia pulled the keys from the ignition, grabbed her phone and jacket, and got out of the car as fast as she could to catch up with her.

"Where are you going?" she asked—a pointless question that made Claudia turn toward her with a mischievous smile that knocked the air clean out of Laia's lungs.

"Are you seriously still here?" she said, eyebrows raised. "Go home, Laia."

"You go home," Laia shot back, abruptly. "Tomorrow's Wednesday and you have to be at work, remember?"

"Perfectly."

"Oh." Laia felt stupid for a moment and bit her lip in a way that made it impossible for Claudia to look away. "Okay, I'm asking you, please. Last week you were late two days, and—"

"I'll be on time, don't worry—I'm just going out for a couple drinks and then I'll come back."

"You can't drink alcohol," Laia whispered, stressed. "You'll have a hangover and—"

"Laia," she cut her off, running a hand along her neck because a loose strand of hair was tickling her skin.

Laia exhaled so hard it came out like a gasp, and she dropped her gaze, embarrassed.

"I'm going out and I'm going to drink, and there's nothing you can do to stop me—do you understand? This whole performance is absurd."

Laia's blood ran hot through her whole body. She knew Claudia was right—there was no forcing her, and no convincing her either—but for her, this absurdity was work. Elvira paid her for those hours and she needed the money, so she was at least going to make use of that.

"I'm coming with you," she blurted out.

Claudia stared at her as if she'd just sprouted three heads, but then she broke into a smile that Laia would have loved to swallow with a kiss, and tilted her head.

"Fine."