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Elvira looks at her, waiting for her to go on, but her niece doesn't add anything.

"So, are we done?" Laia asks, wanting to get out of there as fast as possible.

"Yes, on my end there's nothing more to add," Elvira says, relieved not to have to correct her niece once again—three weeks in a row now, the two she spent with Remei and this one.

"Okay." Laia stands. "If you don't need me for anything else, I'll get back to it."

Elvira waves her toward the door, releasing her, and Claudia gets up and walks out right behind Laia, following her to her office.

"Why did you do that?" she asks as soon as they're alone.

"Do what?" Laia stops beside her desk, and Claudia moves a little closer so she can lower her voice without being heard from the hallway.

"The fight isn't in there, and neither is the beach—and I seriously doubt you forgot to mention either one. Why didn't you include them?"

"It doesn't matter…"

"It matters to me. I didn't ask you to cover for me, Laia. I don't need that," she says, annoyed.

"I'm not covering for you, okay?"

Laia swallows. She's flushed and tense, as if she's just been caught doing something illegal.

"Then what exactly are you doing?"

"God…" Laia shakes her head, walks to the door and closes it, then turns back to face Claudia. "I couldn't put the beach in there, all right? I was there too." She points to herself, then wets her lips, and Claudia's lungs fill all at once, as if the gesture has stolen the air right out of her. "I didn't want to go, but you pushed me into it—you didn't give me a choice—and if your aunt finds out I used a work trip to take a walk by the beach with the person I'm supposed to be keeping tabs on, she'll think I don't take my job seriously." Her voice shakes with nerves. "I have never done anything like that. I go out, I do what needs to be done, and I come back, because that's what I get paid for. Your aunt trusts me because I have never given her a reason not to."

Claudia opens her mouth, not entirely sure what she's going to say, but Laia stops her, because now that she's started she needs to get it all out.

"You can afford to get chewed out because she's your aunt, and no matter how angry she gets at you, she's not going to fire you. But she would fire me. I'm an outsider, no ties, and if I don't do my job right, I'm out and someone else takes my place. That's how this works, and that's why I couldn't put it in the report—because even though the decision wasn't mine, I was there, and that makes me just as guilty as you."

Claudia's neck is so tight she feels like it might snap in two at any second.

"Okay, I get that. But the fight—"

Laia shrugs and rubs her forehead with her fingers.

"If I was leaving out the beach to protect myself, it didn't seem fair to include the fight to throw you under the bus."

Claudia stares at her. Laia's eyes are wide and her face is as red as a stoplight, and Claudia can feel something twisting in her gut as she processes the conversation and starts to put herself in Laia's shoes. Then a wave of shame washes over her as she understands that by deciding to take that detour the other day without asking—out of pure whim—she put Laia's job at risk. She exposed her without giving her any choice, acting out of pure selfishness and without even stopping to consider the consequences her decision could have had for Laia if it had come out.

"I'm sorry," she says, shaking her head. "I didn't think about any of that. I just—" She stops and bites down hard on her lip. "I was selfish and thoughtless and inconsiderate. I put you in an uncomfortable position, and I'm asking you to forgive me for it. It won't happen again, Laia. I won't do anything that puts your job at risk—I promise. And no one will ever know we were there."

They look at each other, and Claudia is the first to look away, because the shame won't let her do anything else.

"All right. I appreciate that you thought it through."

Claudia nods and leaves the office to head down to the factory floor.

The day moves at a different kind of slowness—more bearable than other times, because she spends the hours thinking about what she did, cursing herself for having put at risk the job of a woman who didn't hesitate for a single second to jump into a fight that had nothing to do with her, just to make sure Claudia didn't get hurt.

When the bell rings, she says goodbye to her coworkers, grabs her things, and goes straight to the parking lot. She's surprised not to see Laia's car—it seems odd that she'd leave without saying goodbye, since they usually head out at the same time—but when she gets in her car and pulls forward to merge onto the street, she spots her turning the corner from the building on foot. She pulls up beside her and rolls down the window.

"Where are you going?" she asks, trying to make sense of the situation.

"Hey. To the bus stop."

"What about your car?"