Bree updated her assessment in January.
She had been watching the situation with the careful attention of someone who cared about Ellie and had strong feelings about people who wasted other people's time. Her initial verdict -- dangerous, actual-dangerous, not interesting-dangerous -- had not changed. What had changed was the context around it.
She had watched Rafe Santos carry soup pots and eat test cookies and sit at the prep table drinking coffee while Ellie worked, not talking, not performing, just there. She had watched him hold the door and fix the broken hinge on the delivery entrance without being asked and leave without making anything of it.
She had watched Ellie -- who had run a business alone for two years with the focused self-containment of someone who had learned not to r
