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Claudia watches her walk away and runs her tongue over her lips. She should drop this right here—Laia has made it clear enough with her whole attitude that she doesn't want to talk about it—but she still has questions, and there's one specific question she needs answered, so she picks up her pace and catches up with her right at the foot of the stairs.

"Did you sleep with her?"

Laia stops cold and feels a low hum pass from one ear to the other as she turns around, gripping the railing with one hand, because when she sees Claudia's amber eyes fixed entirely on her and her lips glossy with the wet of her tongue, her legs turn to butter.

"Yes."

Claudia opens her mouth and closes it again, swallowing. She can't manage to say anything—she just stands on the bottom step feeling as if someone has cracked her chest open, shoved a melon-sized stone under her sternum, and sealed it back up, leaving it there, pressing and squeezing from every direction. She can't process what her body is doing with the confirmation of something she already suspected, but the feeling of knowing that Laia slept with that girl is the feeling of having lost something—something she wanted, something taken from her right in front of her eyes while she did nothing to stop it.

Laia is free to do whatever she wants, just like Claudia is, and there's no reason for it to bother her this much that this Marta person undressed Laia and made her breathe hard against her ear. Claudia's arms drift a few inches from her sides and she starts opening and closing her hands while her eyes fix on one of the steps.

Laia watches the moment Claudia's mind goes somewhere else right in front of her—her gaze loses focus, her lips part slightly, two lines crease between her brows. She stays like that for a few seconds until Laia comes down the step and puts a hand on her shoulder.

"Hey, are you okay?" she whispers, giving her a gentle squeeze.

Claudia blinks and moves her head very slowly, looking first at Laia's hand and then at her face, and even though she seems to be seeing her, she still needs a few more seconds to come back from wherever she was.

"Yeah, sorry, I was thinking about something else." She runs her hand over her face and pushes a strand of hair aside. "I'm happy for you."

"Really?" Laia asks very quickly—too quickly to understand why she does it.

"Yeah, of course I am."

Laia looks away, irritated, because that's not the answer she was hoping for. She would have preferred Claudia to say she's not happy, that she's jealous and doesn't want her going home with anyone—some sign that it matters to her, that there's some chance—but the answer only confirms what Laia already knew: Claudia is never going to look at her the way she wants to be looked at.

"Are you going to see her again?" Claudia goes on, and Laia looks back at her, more and more confused about the point of this conversation.

Claudia has never struck her as a nosy person or the kind who pries into other people's lives, but she suddenly seems to care a lot about Laia's, and she can't figure out why.

"I don't know, maybe… No, I don't think so," she corrects herself, feeling her face heat up.

"Why not?" Claudia curses herself for not being able to shut up. What is she even doing? Laia has already answered, and the answer should satisfy her because she doesn't sound sure about wanting to see her again—but Claudia needs it confirmed. "I think you should."

Anger starts moving through Laia's veins—not only does Claudia fail to make it clear she's not interested in her, now she's handing out romantic advice on top of it.

"And why exactly should I?" She crosses her arms and gives her a hard stare.

Claudia shrugs.

"Because giving your body a release every now and then feels good—it clears your head and loosens you up, and you always seem tense."

The answer is vague, even stupid, and Claudia knows it, but it's the first thing she could come up with to patch up this disaster of a conversation that she seems determined to keep going.

"Seriously?"

"Yeah, I mean, it usually works for me."

"And did it work last night? When you slept with Nadia, I mean," Laia throws out, with the feeling of something bitter in her mouth.

Her tone has come out as an accusation and Claudia picks up on it, but she sets it aside because she doesn't have the energy to wonder why.

"No, not last night," she says before thinking. "But most of the time it does."

"And why do you think it didn't work last night?"

Claudia feels like she's walking straight into a trap—one she opened herself—with nothing but darkness at the bottom. She doesn't like the direction the conversation is heading. They were talking about Laia, not about her.

"I don't know, it doesn't always go well. Anyway, I'm glad you had a good time last night. See you."