Page 96 of Hot Summer

“Okay.” Cas started shuffling down the corridor and Skye and Aisha followed.

“We left your door open,” Aisha said, “so it didn’t get musty.”

“And we gave it a refresh last night,” Skye said. They flung Cas’s suitcase onto her bed, and now that she was looking, it did look nice in here. Nicer than Cas had left it.

Her pillows had been recently fluffed and the throws she normally had balled at the end of her bed were now artfully draped over her white duvet, the patterns layered so they looked intentional rather than random selections Cas had picked up over the years. Her desk, too, had been dusted, and the assortment of cups and mugs that nearly always lived there or on her bedside table was gone.

“I see you remembered to water my plants,” Cas said, nodding toward the collection around her room.

Skye nodded. “I knew you’d kill us if we didn’t, so we set up a rotation.”

Cas’s lips twitched with a smile. “Really?”

Aisha nodded and dropped down into the round wicker chair Cas had in the corner near the window. “It started with passive-aggressively putting the watering can into each other’s rooms, but we upgraded to a magnet for the menu board in the kitchen a few weeks ago.”

Cas huffed a laugh before moving over to the bed. She intended to open her suitcase, to start unpacking, because the faster she washed the villa off everything, the better. It was easier thought than done, though, because her hands froze on the back of the case.

They were all silent for a few seconds before Skye cleared their throat. “I’ll go make tea.”

Skye walked off down the corridor, and Cas counted their footsteps before taking a deep breath and, unable to come up with any more reasons not to, unzipped her suitcase.

Aisha watched as Cas flipped open the lid, stopped to stare at the things she’d shoved inside.

“Do you want help?”

Cas shook her head, still just looking at the contents.

Aisha let her process silently for a few seconds before she got quietly to her feet, walked over, and sat down on the other side of Cas’s bed.

“So, obviously you’re upset,” Aisha said. She lifted a handful of clothes off the top and dropped them to the floor.

“What gave you that impression?”

“It’s a mystery, for sure.”

Cas took out her toiletries bag and set it on her nightstand.

“I mean, yeah, I’m not thrilled.” She grabbed her trainers and one of her pairs of sandals and threw them toward her wardrobe. “But I’ll get over it.”

“Will you?”

Aisha’s expression was too intense. Too earnest. Cas couldn’t look at her, just more shoes onto the floor.

“Look, I’m not saying this to upset you, and I’m sure Skye will kill me—”

“Why will I kill you?” Skye walked in, three mugs of tea balancing between their fingers.

“She’s about to confront me about something,” Cas said, walking over and grabbing the most precarious mug from Skye’s hands.

“There are treats in my pocket,” Skye said, nodding at the kangaroo pocket on the front of their hoodie. Cas reached inside as Skye handed Aisha her tea and pulled out an entire packet of ginger biscuits.

Cas raised an eyebrow. “Do we need the whole pack?”

“We probably need two if Aish is confronting you already,” Skye said. They plucked the biscuits from Cas’s hand, took one for themself before handing one to Cas.

“I just feel like we should get it out of the way,” Aisha said, accepting her own biscuit from Skye. “There’s no point dancing around it when we’re all thinking about it anyway.”

“Okay, but we didn’t need to bombard her the moment she walked in,” Skye said.

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