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Laia looks up.

"Nothing. I'm just tired."

"Maybe you should talk to your boss and drop that new assignment she gave you. You've been staying out late on weekdays and going to work without enough rest. We don't need that money. We managed before and we'll manage again."

"Yes we do need it—it's a great extra, and I'm fine. You know I don't need a lot of sleep to function. It's just—"

Sonia watches her carefully and Laia wraps both hands around her cup.

"What is it? Is something going on? Elvira's niece—what's her name?"

"Claudia."

"Has she said something that upset you?" Sonia probes.

"No, not at all," Laia answers with a silly smile. "I told you, she's wonderful—I mean it. She's very kind and polite, and thoughtful—" Laia stops when her mother raises an eyebrow. "Anyway. No, everything's fine."

"Then what is it?"

Laia hesitates, taking a sip of coffee that she draws out while she decides whether to talk to her mother about this.

"Have you ever felt invisible and at the same time like you're the only thing another person could possibly want?"

Sonia thinks it over, turning the question around in her head, trying to make sense of it.

"I don't think so—but I'm also not sure what we're talking about. Do you mean—?"

"I like Claudia, Mom. I've liked her since the first day I saw her."

Sonia runs a hand through her hair and then gets up to pour herself another cup of coffee.

"You hadn't told me anything," she says, worried. "Is that why you took this job?"

"No, it wasn't because of that. I didn't even know who Elvira's niece was when she offered it to me. I'd seen her around the factory a few days before, but I didn't know who she was."

"And you liked her."

"Yes."

Laia leans back and starts running her fingers along the hem of the napkin.

"I need you to be clearer, Laia. I'm not sure what you're trying to tell me, but you know you can talk to me."

"I don't just like her. I'm in love with her."

"Oh, God," her mother says, alarmed, and Laia gives a sad smile.

"You know Claudia goes out, and sometimes she spends time with girls…"

"She's a lesbian too?" Sonia asks, starting to understand how serious this is.

"Yes."

"For God's sake, Laia—does she know you like her?"

"No, of course not. She's just—she's on a whole different level, Mom. She moves in a different world, with a different kind of people—people at her social level. People with money."

"Who blow it all on parties," her mother snaps. "I don't know what kind of social level that is."