Elena's POV
"Okay, spill. You've been weird on the phone for a week and I'm done waiting."
Mia slid into the booth across from me, two coffees already in hand, her eyes narrowed with the particular determination of someone who had cleared her entire evening for exactly this conversation. The little café near my apartment buzzed quietly around us, ordinary and warm, a welcome contrast to everything I'd been carrying since the safe house.
"I'm not being weird."
"You've cancelled on me twice, you answer texts a full day late now, and last week you told me 'family drama' was the reason you looked like you hadn't slept, which, no offense, felt like a lie even through a phone screen." She wrapped both hands around her cup, studying me with the same unflinching attention she'd been giving me
