Chapter 3

The instant the elevator doors slid open, I saw Mavis pull Neil into the stairwell.

I opened the camera on my phone and slipped it toward the gap in the door she'd shut too fast to close all the way.

The boy's voice cracked. "Ms. Harding, is he here to stake his claim?"

Mavis brushed the pad of her finger lightly across the corner of his eye and gave a soft laugh.

"What are you talking about? The claim was always his."

"But he's already accepted that you exist. Don't worry so much."

Neil's voice dropped low.

"Once his face heals, are you going to stop wanting me?"

She twirled the button on his collar between her fingers. "Why waste time worrying about something that hasn't even happened."

The boy bowed his head, tears falling one after another.

"All right, all right. I never said I'd stop wanting you."

She sighed, wrapped her arms around his waist, and murmured to soothe him.

Listening to her gentle voice through the door, I reached up and wiped the wet from the corner of my eye.

I put the phone away, turned, and stepped into the elevator.

It was already eleven at night when Mavis got home.

The lights came on, and there I was, sitting dazed on the couch.

She crossed to me and crouched down to look at me.

"Why are you sitting in the dark? Have you eaten?"

My eyes drifted slowly to her face.

"No."

"The moment I'm not around, you stop taking care of yourself."

Her tone was exasperated as she shook the box in her hand.

"I brought cake home. Come eat."

The concern in her eyes didn't look fake, and still I only shook my head.

"I don't want someone else's leftovers."

Half an hour earlier, Ray had sent me a video and a screenshot.

The cake shop downstairs from the office. Mavis feeding a dessert into Neil's mouth.

The boy's eyes were still red, but a smile lingered at the corner of his lips.

The screenshot was a post he'd put up.

【Someone who loves you won't let your bad mood carry over into the night.】

Four photos beneath it.

One selfie of him flashing a peace sign at the camera.

One staged shot of the dessert.

One from an amusement park.

One candid of Mavis carrying several shopping bags.

She'd stayed with him, coaxed him, all the way into the small hours.

And handed me a cake with its cream caved in.

"What are you throwing a fit about, out of nowhere?"

"Fine, don't eat it. Put your ointment on yourself and go to bed."

Her voice went cold. She dropped a tube of ointment and went into the bathroom.

"Oh, and stay away from the office from now on. Neil's young, he reads too much into things."

I watched the bathroom door close and let out a bitter laugh.

A legally wedded husband with a ruined face, and the lover who was at her side day after day. Which one of them was really more likely to read too much into things.

After that day, I didn't go back to the office.

But Ray's photos and videos never stopped.

She brought him to all kinds of business dinners, made him a permanent hire ahead of schedule, gave him an office of his own.

The old-timers had seen it all before. The newer staff were talking.

Ray said that ever since I'd shown up at the office that day, the coworkers who hadn't known filled in the blanks about me and Mavis, learned where the scars on my body came from, and started looking at Neil differently.

The gossip kept building.

Until today, when a few of them were in the break room talking about that jewelry set, and Neil happened to come around the corner. His eyes went red at once and he dropped his head and hurried off, a few muffled snickers following behind him.

【I heard he gave that whole jewelry set back to Ms. Harding, untouched.】

I didn't say anything about it.

What did giving it back change?

The Mavis who used to share her location wherever she went, who only ever wanted me to come get her when she was drunk, was never coming back.

She came home from work that evening with a dark look on her face.

"Frank Swanson, didn't I tell you to leave him alone? And yet you went and got the whole office to freeze Neil out."

I stared at her, dazed. "What are you talking about?"

"Don't play innocent. He gave back everything I gave him, so upset he won't say a word."

Her voice sank, edged with a faint, particular disappointment.

"Frank, I thought you were different from those jealous men."

"He just graduated. He came to this city alone with nothing, fighting to make it."

"And you don't have to work, you never want for anything. Can't you give a little ground? What do you get out of bullying someone weaker than you?"

I laughed, absurdly.

She'd told me herself it was just a fling with him. Now she'd already started aching for him.