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Confused, Nicola ignored it. They weren’t friends, and there was no way that Abagail wanted her to spend time with Elia and her, not when their time together was already so limited. Nicola would just be a burden and she’d drag them down.

“I’ll let Elia know so you don’t have to.” That was the mature thing to do, right?

Without another word to Abagail, she walked out of the kitchen with her dinner in her hand and started toward the library. She stepped just inside, making it clear that she wouldn’t be joining them. “I’m going to head to bed early. I have a late night tomorrow.”

“All right.” Elia gave her a small smile. “I can make breakfast in the morning, if you’d like.”

“Sure.” Nicola frowned, knowing full well she wouldn’t be joining them for breakfast. She was going to hide out in her room as long as possible. “But I might not be here because my Aunt Simone is in town, and I’d like to spend some time with her.”

“Simone?” Elia furrowed her brow.

Nicola nodded slowly, an odd feeling swimming in the middle of her stomach.

“Does she work at Windermere?”

“Yeah.” Nicola froze.

“I teach with her.”

Panic swelled in Nicola’s chest. How much did Elia already know about her? How much did Simone tell? And the fact she’d just told Simone basically everything that day meant that Elia would know everything, wouldn’t it?

“Cool,” Nicola managed to squeak out the word. “It uh… was good to meet you.” She turned around and walked out.

She brushed past Abagail and made for her room, climbing into her bed and closing her eyes in an instant. She was insane to think that Abagail would ever want anything more than sex from her. She knew better than to think that someone could love her, because when she let her guard down, she’d never meet expectations.

She couldn’t do that with Warren, and she certainly couldn’t do it with Abagail.

Nicola was no one. She had no education, no job, and she couldn’t even manage to keep a roof over her head. The only reason Abagail was interested in her was because they were compatible in bed.

Tears burned in her eyes again for the second time that day. And the last thing she wanted to do was cry over someone who wouldn’t even notice when she was gone. Nicola took a few more minutes of self-pity before she dragged herself up and forced herself to eat the dinner she’d warmed. Food was the last thing on her mind, but she knew she’d need it tomorrow when she had that long shift at work.

But right then, all she wanted to do was hide away and never emerge from the bedroom.

Surely that’d be better for everyone, wouldn’t it?

thirty-two

“Mind if I come in?” Abagail knocked on Nicola’s door and opened it a crack.

She wasn’t quite sure what she was expecting, but it wasn’t a pristine, clean room. Abagail hadn’t been in there in days, and she’d assumed Nicola was as messy a person on the outside as she seemed to be on the inside—something that Abagail had come to appreciate lately.

She’d seen Elia off just after breakfast, which Nicola hadn’t come downstairs for, but Abagail knew that she needed to have this conversation with her, immediately. They had to stop putting it off any longer. And Elia had told her as much before she’d left to head back to the school.

“Sure.” Nicola was sitting on her bed, phone in her hand, and she barely even looked up at Abagail.

She hadn’t intended to have this conversation in here, but since Nicola didn’t seem to be moving, Abagail walked inside and stood by the edge of the bed until Nicola finally focused on her.

“What did you want to talk about?” Nicola asked, seemingly like she hadn’t been paying attention to the last few days of turmoil that had been going on in the house.

Abagail frowned. “We need to talk about our relationship.”

“We don’t have a relationship,” Nicola answered, innocently. “Nowhere did we ever commit to each other.”

“You’re right.” Abagail drew in a deep breath, her stomach in knots over this. She could fire all of her staff before she could face down this young woman who seemed to never have a care in the world. What was so intimidating about Nicola Bolsinger? “But we still need to talk about it.”

“You won’t fuck me, so you won’t pay me.”

Abagail stuttered. She hadn’t ever heard Nicola say something so crude before. But it added to her theory that all she cared about was the money that Abagail could pay her. Abagail sat on the edge of the bed, one foot firmly planted on the floor, and she stared in awe at Nicola.