Chapter 32

The door to Rosa's room creaked open. She appeared at the doorway. In her background a man in orange overalls was drilling screws into her cabinet.

"Hi," she said. "I thought I heard someone shouting."

Elena watched her very keenly, and saw it: the tiny flash of anger that appeared on Rosa's face when she saw Elena and Liam together.

"Oh," Rosa said, failing at trying to smile. "You two seem busy." Then she added excitedly: "You wanna come see my room, Elena?"

"Er, Liam wanted us to go somewhere," she said.

But to her horror, Liam replied: "It's nothing, actually. You can join your friend. I need to go wash up. I have a virtual conference by 8 pm. Would have loved you to be there, too."

"Oh," was all Elena could say.

"Are we slowly switching back to the old culture?" she thought. Just when I believed something was going...

She felt colder when Liam's arms left her. He walked upstairs to his room, and Elena wondered what it'd take to run after him, smack his face, then drag him to the