Mister Greengrass’s soft call out to her felt like it came across a great chasm, and Ida realized that after her admission her expression must have stonewalled completely. She could feel the tension in her jaw. This was a hard habit of hers to break, when things felt overwhelmingly difficult. It was how she went for over a year without speaking a single word to anybody after her mum passed. Ida shut herself down.

Something about her newfound love tonight validated something in her heart she hated, and her inability to escape it left her fretful over her loss of control. Even as he insisted she need not apologize she worried her lip over it. Though she managed to crack a smile, clocking his tease for what it was: a genuine effort to make her feel better about it all.

For a moment, Ida had the presence of mind to wonder if he genuinely enjoyed getting to know her for a bit. Perhaps enough that he might not hate her too much, once he found out all his time had been wasted on someone as mad as she.

“Well, I don’t wish to cause a scene to embarrass you,” she played off, taking another shaky breath to bring herself down from her ledge. “Though I admit that I don’t know if it’s one of those situations where things will get worse before they get better. What the–” She noticed a sprinkle of white on her forearm, and turned up to catch a rogue cloud of cotton candy that soared overhead. It coated everything in its path with fine dust of powdered sugar and this time, Ida was the victim.

“Oh I cannot stand these rich parties,” she seethed, aghast as she shook out her hair.

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