Page 28

"Fair enough. Hey, look—our little protégée is flirting again."

Claudia turned sharply and felt her neck go stiff when she saw a girl roughly her own age leaning against the bar next to Laia, telling her something that was apparently hilarious, because her parents' watchdog was laughing out loud.

"I didn't know she was into women," Pol remarked.

"She's not, I mean—" Claudia stopped herself, because the truth was she didn't know anything about Laia except her age and the fact that she was impossibly charming. "They're just talking. That doesn't make her a lesbian."

Pol raised an eyebrow and let out a mocking laugh, draping his arm over her shoulders.

"I'll bet you anything that in ten minutes she has her backed into that corner and is making out with her."

Claudia didn't understand or know what was happening to her in that moment—where the burning sensation behind her ribs was coming from, or why she was suddenly in a foul mood again. She turned in the other direction, because Pol was rarely wrong about these things and she wasn't about to watch someone devour the mouth she'd thought about more than once. She froze the instant she became aware of that, and when she noticed a woman a little older than her step up beside her to order, she didn't hesitate to use every bit of her charm to distract herself.

"First time here?" she asked, leaning over the bar with her forearms resting on the counter.

The effect was immediate. The woman turned toward her voice, and her eyes moved between Claudia's face and the strip of skin visible through the first few buttons of her shirt.

"Yeah, I've never been before—though it's pretty clear I should have come sooner."

Claudia liked the boldness of it and looked her up and down with a slow, predatory smile—one she had to drop when another woman appeared out of nowhere, this one younger, worked up after watching her girlfriend flirt with someone else right in front of her. Within seconds, the girl—who also seemed pretty drunk—was shouting things Claudia couldn't quite make out, but they were aimed at both her and the other woman. She stepped back with her hands raised, expression neutral, ready to explain that she had no idea the woman was taken and that now that she did she wasn't interested, and that she should calm down—but the woman was completely unhinged, and suddenly there were shoves and chaos all around her. People were scattering, and Pol was saying something that Claudia, still rattled by how fast things had gone sideways, couldn't quite follow. And in the middle of it all, she saw Laia appear at almost the same moment as security, stepping into the fray without thinking, trying to grab the woman and pull her away from Claudia. The woman, who was thrashing like an animal at that point, headbutted her without meaning to—and Laia took it straight to the mouth and flew backward, into Claudia's arms. Claudia caught her without hesitating, turned, and pulled her away from the chaos while security grabbed both women and threw them out. No one looked twice at Claudia—they knew her, knew she didn't cause trouble, and on top of that she was the owner's close friend; asking her to leave would have been as good as signing their own termination papers.

"Are you guys okay?" Pol asked, still shaken by what had happened.

Claudia didn't even answer him. Her eyes were fixed on Laia, who was lowering herself onto a barstool and pressing her hand to her lips—the hand shaking so badly it was practically hitting her in the face.

"Why did you do that?" Claudia snapped, nerves and anger tangled together. "I had it under control. You didn't need to jump in."

She moved Laia's hand away from her mouth with a gentleness that clashed with her tone, and ran her finger along her lower lip while Laia kept her eyes fixed on Claudia's collarbone.

"Where did it hit you? Do you feel blood or anything? I can't see anything on the outside."

Laia wasn't listening. Her breathing was ragged and her whole body was shaking from the adrenaline and the shock. Claudia was braced for the lecture—for Laia to tell her she'd gotten herself into trouble and that she was to blame, along with the headbutt—but that wasn't what came out when Laia finally blinked and opened her eyes wide.

"Are you okay?"

Claudia felt the world tilt sideways, like the words had knocked her off balance. She looked at her and felt a deep urge to cry when she realized that Laia—who had just taken a headbutt because of her—seemed to have only one concern: how Claudia was doing.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she answered, her voice unsteady.

"Here, I grabbed some ice," Pol said, holding out a cloth with ice cubes wrapped inside.

Claudia took it from him and kept her full attention on Laia.

"Can I take a look?"

Laia ran her tongue along the inside of her lip and felt nothing—no blood, no cut, just the dull ache of the impact.

"I'm fine, it's nothing," she said, and Claudia studied her face with a slight frown.

"Let me put this on it just in case. A little cold will help."

She held the ice-wrapped cloth against Laia's mouth for almost a minute, her other hand cradling the back of Laia's neck—and Laia felt like she was going to melt from the contact, even as the cold was numbing her lip.

"I think that's enough."

"Thank God you're okay," Pol said, finishing his drink.

"We're leaving," Claudia decided. "Grab your bag and say goodbye to your hookup."