Page 62

"Stop, Laia." Claudia cuts her off, sharp. "Stop selling yourself short, damn it, and stop comparing yourself to everyone else. You're the best person I've ever met, and it bothers me that you think I choose women based on where they stand."

"That's not what I mean," Laia pushes back, more flustered by the second.

Claudia looks at her and steps a couple of paces closer.

"You've had me completely confused lately. You said you'd wanted to be with me for a long time, and then after we slept together you said you didn't want us to talk about it again. And now I don't know if I did something wrong that night, if I pushed too far, if I made you uncomfortable, if you didn't enjoy being with me, or if you just don't want a woman who's almost thirty-five and still hasn't taken control of her own life. Clear it up for me, Laia—do me the favor of being honest for once, because I'm trying to get my life in order, and the two of us spending our days playing cat and mouse isn't helping me at all, and—"

"I'm in love with you," Laia interrupts, point-blank.

Claudia freezes where she stands, mouth half open, eyebrows so high they almost reach her hairline.

"What?"

"I have been since the first day." Laia fans herself with her hand, flushed. "Since the first time I saw you. Nothing like this has ever happened to me before"—she says it all in a rush, her face so red it looks like someone slapped her cheeks—"but it did, and now I've said it. You know."

She turns around and practically throws herself into her car before Claudia can say a word, feeling like a coward who can't stay there for fear of hearing that she'll never be loved back.

Chapter 24

"See you Monday, don't be late," Remei says with a smile as she and Claudia push through the factory door.

"Wouldn't dream of it," Claudia murmurs as they cross the lobby. When she pulls open the street door, she hears quick footsteps on the first-floor landing, and when she turns, she sees her aunt at the top of the stairs.

"Come up for a minute before you go, Claudia. See you Monday, Remei, have a good weekend."

"You too," the woman says, stepping out through the door as Claudia heads up the stairs. Just as she's about to walk into Elvira's office, she catches a glimpse of Laia inside her own.

So you're hiding, she thinks. She hasn't seen her since the conversation they had Tuesday in the parking lot, because Laia walks past the pattern-making section every morning but makes sure to have Irene with her, and in the afternoons she simply doesn't come out—she stays shut up in her office, waiting long enough to be sure Claudia has already left before heading downstairs.

"Come in, don't just stand there," Elvira says from her chair, but Claudia lingers another moment, because Laia has looked up and the two of them are locked in place, eyes caught on each other.

"Give me a second," Claudia says to her aunt, and without thinking she walks straight to Laia's office and stops in the doorway.

"Don't go anywhere. I want to talk to you. Can you stay and wait for me, or are you going to run again?"

Laia hesitates and bites her lip, but finally nods and murmurs an "I'll wait" so quiet Claudia almost has to read it off her lips. Then Claudia turns and goes back to Elvira's office.

"How was your week?" the owner of the company asks, getting up to sit next to Claudia.

"Really good. I like being with Remei, and you were right—she has an answer for every question I have."

"Do you like being with Remei, or do you like being in the pattern-making section?" her aunt asks.

"Both," she answers right away.

"I see. Would you like me to keep you in pattern-making for the rest of your time here? It'll be a couple more weeks, but if that's where you want to be, I have no problem with it."

Claudia's eyes light up like a supernova.

"What about the contract? My parents wanted me to go through every department, and I still haven't been in—"

Elvira raises a hand to cut her off.

"This isn't about what your parents want anymore, Claudia. It's about what you want. So if you want to stay in pattern-making, you can stay there—they don't need to know."

"Then yes, I want to stay there with her," she says with a huge smile.

"I have one condition for that," Elvira says.