Free Overture (Rain Dance, Book 1) (Rain Dance Series) by Elle Devrou

him. Not the fake kind of
sweet this time, of course. "This little girl won't tell me what she's
doing here. She says she's not here to see you, but why else would she be up
here? Or are one of those clients looking for a new pet?"
          … The fuck? I
kept calm and looked at Ethan again, who was now frowning disapprovingly. Oh.
It's an inside joke, I think.
          "I was
just telling her how gorgeous her eyes are," I said to him, looking back
at Karina. "I've never seen eyes so green."
          It was Karina's
turn to frown.
          Ethan came to
stand beside me, placing one of his hands on my shoulder. Dammit, do not
blush. "Miss Myers is an artist," he explained. "She's been
coming in for a few days, now." He looked down at me and spoke gently,
"Has this woman been keeping you from your work, Daphne?"
          My name. He
said my name again. My eyes fixed on Karina as I answered. "Yes. Does
she work for you, too?" I don't really know why I asked.
          "She does.
Sometimes," he added.
          "That's unfortunate."
          When she
scoffed, I realized that I'd just spoken out loud. Whoops. Was I
supposed to apologize now?
          ... Not to
her.
          I bit my lip,
looked up at Ethan and said quietly, "I'm sorry. May I go now?"
          "Of
course." I was glad to see that he wasn't angry. He just eyed me
curiously.
          I quickly made
my way towards the hallway, eager to escape. What was the phrase? Oh, that's
right. I knew I should have stayed home today.
          By the time I
was safe in the blue room, I realized that there was nothing that could
possibly make me want to work. I wanted to leave, put on my comfy clothes,
bundle up on the couch, eat more pizza, and seek comfort in the lovely Mr.
Knightley. Or perhaps Mr. Tilney - it'd been a while since I'd last seen him,
after all.
          I gazed up at
the glass ceiling. The clouds, all gray, coated every portion of the sky now. It
would be raining soon. When I yawned again, I knew I could no longer put it
off. I dug into the shopping bag that I hadn't touched yet. The one holding the
comfort items. From it, I produced the pillow, the fuzzy blanket, and the
stuffed rabbit. I pulled off the tags and threw them back into the bag. I
wasn't even sure why I had gotten the rabbit. The last time I had slept with a
stuffed animal, I was nine. I'll have to think of a name for it. Not
bothering to take off my shoes, I hooked up my iPod and selected my sleepy
tunes playlist.
          You could say
that sleepiness made me a bit reckless. Instead of taking the floor, I decided
I'd take my chances and give it a go on the scaffold. Luckily, I knew I didn't
move much when I slept. Hopefully, my body would have the instinct to not turn
over onto nothing. I trusted my body to know things like that. Anyway, I wanted
to be closer to the sky.
          How I wish
there was no glass… I would've given anything for a source of fresh air. I
wanted to feel the wind on my skin. I wanted the cold chill.
          The scaffold
wasn't comfortable. In fact, it was probably worse than the floor would have
been, but I managed to make it work for me. I'm not sure how much time passed
once I settled onto the platform. I breathed evenly and cleared my head, not
wanting to think of anything. Not wanting to imagine what kind of relationship
Karina and Ethan had. Although, I did happen to notice how he kept his distance
from her, which made it very likely that they weren't seeing each other at the
moment. But who knew, right?
          At some point,
I fell asleep.
          The great thing
about naps was the lucid dreaming that came with them - for me, at least. There
were a few times where, although aware, I could only watch in fear as my body
moved on its own, running in slow motion, unable to get away fast enough.
Luckily, this wasn't one of those. I was in control this time, walking along
the shoreline in a state of quiet bliss.