Christopher's mood soured. He sat up slowly and gave me a single, flat look.
"Every time you scare her, that's one more hour I have to spend calming her down." He jerked his chin toward the bakery across the room. "Go wait for me there."
I didn't push it. I went where he told me to go.
He was right about one thing. The girl wasn't easy to soothe. I stood by the window and watched them for an hour.
The first words out of Christopher's mouth when he walked in were designed to put me in my place. "Picking on a kid isn't a good look. I want this to be the last time you go near her."
I kept my voice even. "How long have you two known each other?"
"Three days."
I'd braced myself for three months. Maybe a year. But the real answer cut deeper than anything I'd prepared for. My nails dug into my palms so hard they nearly broke skin.
Then, somehow, a laugh slipped out. "I thought our cold war came out of nowhere. Turns out it was because of her."
Christopher lit a cigarette and held one out to me.
"I don't even know what started it," he said.
I wasn't the kind of person who could lie to myself the way he did, so I said it for him. "You got bored."