When you can't even say my name. Has the memory gone? Are you feeling numb?

Tension hung over the Master’s Suite. No one was looking at Cinder, which she was perfectly fine with. But everyone was walking on eggshells all the same. No one could be sure what might set the irritated woman off.

So that resulted in total silence. Furtive glances were exchanged by the five other people in the room.

“Yahoo! I’m back! Oh, what a coincidence! Nick, Dani, Kim, you’re back here already? I of course would have no way of knowing that because I was off by myself doing leprechaun things and not following you around on your date all afternoon!”

For maybe the first time, Nola’s loud entrance into the Master’s Suite was seen as a relief. The sunshiny smile on the petite girl’s face lit up the whole room, and like a breath of fresh air she washed away all the discomfort and tension.

“Nola, we already caught you,” Dani bluntly pointed out.

“Yeah, Mary, if you’re gonna send her to stalk Nick, maybe work on her stealth skills a little bit,” Kim said, snickering.

“I-I didn’t want her to stalk him!” Mary protested, her face turning red. “I just thought, well…” She glanced warily at Nick. The guilty expression on her face was incredibly common and Nick recognized it well; it was easier to count the days when Mary didn’t look guilty about something.

But he let her off the hook.

“Mary, it’s fine,” he said, reassuring his wife with a smile. “I appreciate the gesture. In fact, Nola was actually a lot of help today. She got the three of us talking about some important stuff, and she provided us with some useful insights, too.”

“Really? Wow.” Holly looked at Nola in amazement and then turned back to Nick. “When do I get to stalk you on a date? I can do useful insights!”

Nick gave her an exasperated look that turned into an amused smile as the small girl giggled playfully and winked at him. Mary sighed, relieved.

“It’s not that I didn’t trust you,” she mumbled, adjusting the knot on her shirt. “I just worry sometimes, you know?”

“Well, there’s no need,” Dani said, giving the redhead a hearty slap on the back that made her jump. “Nick and I are totally cool! Sure there were some weird moments here and there, but you should have more faith in your guy, Mary.”

Mary giggled awkwardly. “O-okay, I will…”

Nick didn’t miss the way Mary’s eyes flickered over to Nola for a moment before returning to rest on him.

In defense of Mary, I think her motivation was also partially to get Nola out of her hair for a couple of hours. Nick hid his suspicions behind a polite smile. Mary would never lie, and hated being dishonest. But she also hated hurting people’s feelings. A concoction of mixed emotions was definitely behind her actions just now.

“So how’s the date been going so far?” Nola butted into the conversation again. “When I got here, everybody was being so weird and awkward and quiet, that’s never the case! You guys were talking a whole bunch back when I… uh, ran into you earlier. Coincidentally. Because I definitely wasn’t stalking or anything.”

Mary just stared at Nola with a look of sympathy that the leprechaun ignored.

“Well, we were taking a breather, that’s all,” Kim said, glancing at Cinder in spite of her best efforts not to. At least the maid still had her back to them, even if she was probably listening in on everything. “No big whoop.”

Nola blinked. “Oh, okay.”

“We should get back to it, though,” Dani said, seizing the initiative before everything could return to an awkward silence. “Which reminds me, Mary, you don’t mind if I cook dinner for us tonight, do you?” She asked.

Mary’s face lit up with wonder. “Really, Dani? You’d like to do that? Of course you can, that would be great!” Mary remembered how opposed Dani had been to cooking when they first met. Since the cooking competition though, the tomboy had developed a real interest, and Mary had been helping her cultivate it.

She was excited to see how much her student had progressed!

“…Oh, uh… just… don’t put any semen in the food? Please?” Mary still had some bad memories from last night.

Dani looked at her and turned a little green.

“Uh… dude… I’m not gonna do that,” she said, shaking her head.

“I know, you wouldn’t, but even so, please don’t?” Mary requested sincerely.

“Gross,” Kim said, making a face.

With that, things got awkward again. Luckily, Dani had an escape route picked out. But as she turned towards the kitchen, though, she paused and looked back at Mary.

“Um… maybe… I could use some help, though,” she admitted, giving the redhead a hopeful look. “Would you mind? You don’t need to cook anything! Just look over my shoulder and make sure I’m not screwing things up.”

“Oh of course! Absolutely!” Mary was looking for any excuse to get out of here, especially because she could still feel some negativity from Cinder wafting towards her. She didn’t know why the other woman was so mad at her, but she figured that the best thing she could do was remove herself from the situation entirely.

So with Mary and Dani escaping off to the kitchen, that left Nick alone with Kim, Holly, Nola, and the elephant in the room.

Not the best gang for problem-solving, sadly.

Kim kept glancing over at Cinder. Now that she was aware of the other woman, it was hard to put her out of her thoughts. Especially considering how irate she seemed to be, for no discernible reason. Kim had dealt with her share of difficult customers over the years, and she knew how to talk to them for the most part, but Cinder was just a pain.

A quick look Nick’s way let her know that he was just as concerned as she was, if not more. She took him by the wrist and pulled him aside as the others went off to do their own things. For Holly that was going back to watching TV, and for Nola it was following after Mary to see if she needed any help providing help to Dani.

“Are you thinking about Cinder too?” Kim whispered to Nick, making sure to keep her voice low enough that she wouldn’t hear.

Nick glanced at her out of the corner of his eye and then nodded back to Kim. “Yeah. Not because she threw up, though… but how she was acting before, that… it made me concerned.”

Kim winced. “Yeah, I really screwed up, didn’t I? I shouldn’t have been so snippy.” Kim really needed to know when to keep her mouth shut. She could be completely professional on the job, but as soon as she was off the clock it seemed like she couldn’t help herself sometimes.

Nick shook his head. “It’s not your fault,” he assured her. “It seems like she was in a bad mood before we even got here according to Mary and Holly.”

“Yeah, but I definitely didn’t help,” Kim pointed out. “Look, maybe the best thing to do is just leave her alone. It seems pretty clear that’s what she wants.”

They both turned to look at her. Cinder was fastidiously dusting the unused furniture, her face locked into a cold expression. If prickliness was a person, then it was currently attending the golden leather armchair.

Nick understood where Kim was coming from, he really did. And usually if someone wanted to be left alone, as Cinder seemed to, he would oblige them.

But he just had a feeling like that wasn’t the right move here. He couldn’t really explain why. But something about the woman in front of him, it seemed like she was plagued by something. Haunted, almost.

The indescribable air he got from her was that of someone shouting “DON’T TALK TO ME!” at the top of their lungs while also clinging onto you with all their might.

So even though he knew he should leave her alone like she asked, he couldn’t bring himself to do that. Not tonight.

“I’m gonna talk to her,” he decided.

Kim looked at him in amazement. “Seriously? Didn’t she tell all of us to, paraphrasing here, ‘leave her the fuck alone’?”

“Yeah, I know, and you can make fun of me all you want for once again being nosy and getting involved when someone doesn’t want me to,” Nick sighed, scratching his head. “And if I end up pissing her off, well… what else is new?”

Kim had to agree there, it wouldn’t be the first time Nick had gotten in his own way and made a problem worse than he had to due to his big mouth. But still Kim couldn’t help but support him all the same.

She sighed and shook her head. “Whatever, don’t say I didn’t warn you.” She took a step back and let Nick get started on making the situation even worse. At least I hope she doesn’t kick him in the balls or anything. He’s gonna need that dick tonight.

Nick cautiously approached Cinder, working up the courage to speak to her. As he did though, he wondered if maybe he should be using this time to figure out what to say. Talking to Cinder without a plan kind of felt like trying to maneuver through a minefield with a blindfold on. He was more likely than not to make a fatal wrong step.

Unfortunately his feet didn’t seem to care about that, and his brain didn’t seem to be listening to his request, either.

Then Cinder raised her head, and the look in her eye made any chance of formulating an intelligent response evaporate.

A tense look was exchanged between the two of them. The space that separated them both dropped to sub-arctic temperatures, and Nick’s flight or fight response was telling him to get the hell out of dodge like she’d asked.

But he **** himself to take that next step forward, never taking his eyes off of her.

She didn’t react. Not a snarl, not a narrowing of her eyes in anger, not so much as a blink. She just maintained that same ambivalent, slightly-annoyed stare that she always had.

He took another step. Again, no change in the girl’s demeanor. So he took another. And again, no change.

With each step Nick took it was like a weight was being lifted off his shoulders. He took the lack of response from Cinder as a positive, convincing himself that if she was upset with him she would show some sign of it, right? Saying something hostile or even just tensing up like a scared animal, but he saw none of that.

Maybe… part of her wanted him to approach too.

So focused was he, that he didn’t even realize there were no more steps to take. She was standing right in front of him now; in fact, maybe he was even a little too close for comfort. He could hear her tense breaths, and he could almost see his face reflected in the amber of her eyes.

She hadn’t pushed him away yet. That was such a relief to Nick, that he didn’t even realize he had no idea what he should say. But he could tell that she was waiting for it. Whatever anxiety was plaguing him, it definitely couldn’t compare to what the girl in front of him must be feeling.

It was so strange to see her this quiet. Cinder was a lot of things, but “quiet” was definitely not one of them. She wasn’t the sort of girl to stand docile and wait for him to talk, that was more of an Ella thing to do.

And right now? After her outburst from before?

Come on, think! You came over here for a reason! If you don’t come up with something to say then you’re just making her uncomfortable for nothing, you moron! So use your brain and think of something to say, now!

He sucked in a breath and saw her tense up. He fought back the urge to ask how she was feeling, suspecting that would set her off again.

“Cinder… I’m sorry for upsetting you earlier.”

Nick had no idea if that was the right thing to say or not. But judging from her surprised reaction it at least wasn’t the wrong thing to say.

Her eye widened slightly and her mouth twitched. Surprise devoid of anger was an unusual look on the girl, but there it was- clearly, whatever it was she had been expecting him to say, that wasn’t it.

“…Yeah, whatever,” she finally mumbled out. She looked away from him, and Nick considered that a small victory. Almost, anyway. It was better than stubbornly holding his gaze with a glare, which was usually what happened when he had disagreements (or as they were more appropriately known, “conversations”) with Cinder.

Seizing on that moment of weakness, he pressed forward.

“No, not ‘whatever’,” he said, resisting the urge to turn her head towards him. “I’m serious, Cinder. I’m sorry. Things kind of got out of hand earlier. I should have noticed you were uncomfortable and said something to the others, but I didn’t.”

Cinder’s eye twitched and the anger came back. She jerked her head towards him, and there was that glare he remembered so well.

“I wasn’t uncomfortable,” she snarled. “And even if I was, it wasn’t because of anything you did or didn’t do! I told you, I’m fine!”

What should Nick do now? Accept her at her word to avoid escalating the argument? Or press the issue, and probably lead to a blowup?

Ultimately he decided on the latter. It may have seemed suicidally reckless, but he took Cinder’s earlier acceptance of his approach as a sign that she actually did want to keep talking on some level, even if that was just to start a fight.

“I’ll believe you if you say you’re fine,” he continued. “I’m not talking about your stomach. Like you said, you ate too much. It happens. Not a big deal.”

There it was again, that look of surprise. Nick was finding it difficult to weave his way through this discussion; Cinder clearly wanted to push things in a different direction, but he wasn’t letting her. He was using every opportunity he was presented with to try and empathize with the woman, to guide things in a more positive direction.

Was it working? Hard to say. But at least when she was surprised, she wasn’t angry and yelling at him, and that was definitely a good thing.

Cinder chewed on her lip, frustration returning to her face.

“…Fine, you made your apology,” she muttered, turning back to her dusting. “If you’re done looking like an idiot, you can leave now.”

Nick noticed that she didn’t actually tell him to go away like she had earlier. So he didn’t.

“I’d rather stay here,” he said, plopping down on the chair.

Cinder looked like she wanted to smack him with the duster. “…I just cleaned that,” she said through gritted teeth, her amber eyes blazing.

“I know, and you did a really good job,” he said, caressing the arms of the chair as he looked up at her. “Thanks for your hard work.”

Her eye twitched. “You think I want to be thanked for this shitty job?” She spat at him. “You know I don’t have a choice, right?”

Okay, so much for playful banter. Nick probably should have anticipated a reaction like that.

“Sorry, I just didn’t want you to think your hard work went to waste,” he said, holding up his hands. “You don’t have to clean right now, we can talk.”

“Who says I want to talk?” Cinder demanded. He picked up on a strange lilt in her voice. It almost sounded like she was goading him. As if she was challenging him somehow.

He took that as a positive sign, and took another gamble.

“Ella.”

Cinder bristled, and Nick leaned forward in his chair, watching her warily like a coin spinning on a flat surface, unsure of what side it would end up coming down on.

“Plink.” It fell over.

“…You think Ella wants me to talk to you?” Cinder snorted, crossing her arms over her chest and staring down at him incredulously. “Are you fucking mental? You haven’t spoken to Ella all day.”

“No, but you clearly don’t want to be here,” Nick pointed out.

“No fucking shit!” Cinder may have been cursing, but she sounded a lot less venomous than she usually did. “What’s that got to do with anything?”

Nick shrugged. “Sorry, maybe I just don’t understand the two of you as well as I’d like to,” he apologized. “I just assumed that if you didn’t want to be here, maybe the reason you haven’t switched to Ella is because Ella wants you to be out right now instead of her.”

Cinder narrowed her eyes and Nick could tell he was treading in dangerous waters. Like, “BEWARE OF ALLIGATORS AND PIRANHAS” dangerous.

“…Ella doesn’t want to talk to you right now either,” Cinder said bluntly. She poked him in the chest with the duster. Hard. “And when she doesn’t want to do something, that’s when I take over.”

“So neither one of you wants to be here, then?” Nick guessed.

Something flickered across Cinder’s face. What was that look he just saw? Hesitation? Irritation? Guilt? Whatever it was, it was gone before he could really get a good look at it, but he could feel her body language shift significantly.

“…Fine,” she muttered, slumping her shoulders and glaring at him again. “If you want to talk, we can talk. For now.”

She glanced at the clock and her face fell. Nick noted the time out of the corner of his eye and saw Cinder was only about halfway done with her shift. That was interesting. Why was that a reason for her to make that disappointed face? Was she disappointed that she’d have to sit through that long of a conversation? Or was a half-hour too short?

Not that her disappointed face had lasted very long, though.

Cinder turned back to Nick, still radiating that subdued irritation she did so well. “Ella’s not up for talking,” she said, unprompted. “So I guess you’re stuck with me. Sorry to disappoint you.”

A strange non-sequitur. But Nick didn’t care about that.

“That’s okay. I actually wanted to talk to you, Cinder.”

A look of suspicion flickered across her face. “Me?” She asked guardedly. “What kind of fucking brain damage have you got?”

Ouch. She could definitely sting, that was for sure. But Nick wasn’t fazed.

“Why do you think someone would need to have brain damage to want to talk to you?” He asked.

Whatever poker face she was trying to wear, Nick punched right through it with that one. Cinder flinched with surprise.

“I’ve been trying to get to know Ella better,” he continued. “Don’t you think it’s alright if I get to know you, as well?”

Cinder opened her mouth, probably to curse him out or maybe say something harsh and cutting. But her brow furrowed and she thought twice about it.

“…Don’t you have something better to do with your time?” She said, and he could hear the venom edging back into her tone. Cinder narrowed her eyes. “Tonight’s your night with Dani. And you’ve got Kim as well.”

So that was how she wanted to play it. Nick wasn’t sure what to say in response to that, since she wasn’t wrong.

“…There’s plenty of time for that later,” he said cautiously, feeling like he was back in that minefield. “I think they both would rather I share some of my time with you right now. At least while you’re still here, anyway.”

Again, Cinder had no words to share. So all Nick could do was wait for her to come up with a response… or not. Either way, he could feel an overwhelming surge of tension in the air.