He was teasing, but she couldn’t turn it off like that. Maybe she couldn’t make him take this seriously, but she was serious—she couldn’t forget. Not this. “It doesn’t matter anymore.”

“What does that mean?”

“I’m done,” she said very quietly. And with that, she walked away, heading to the back.

He got there first, placing one of his big hands flat on the door above her. She dropped her forehead to the wood.

“You’re done?”

“As in stick a fork in me,” she said tightly. “Are you going to go or should I?”

He turned her to face him and looked down into her eyes. “Let me get this straight. I have a question, I come to you, you get pissed about it, and you what, just walk away again? Is that it? Is that how this is going to work, Lily?”

“Yes, and speaking of work,” she said past a burning throat. “I have to go. Or am I fired?”

He stared at her. “I’m not your boss. And I’d never fire you. Lily—” His radio beeped. He turned it down but she could tell by the look on his face that he was up.

“You’d better go,” she said, weary from the fight. Weary and surprised at how sad she felt that something she couldn’t even name was truly over. She headed back to the front.

Rosa was waiting for her. They’d arranged for Lily to cut her hair when she had a break. “You okay?” Rosa whispered when Aidan had left, her gaze searching.

“Never better,” Lily said with a calmness she absolutely didn’t feel.

Rosa reached out and patted Lily’s hand. “Men can be so stupid, but in his defense I don’t think he meant to be stupid.”

Lily choked out a laugh. Better than crying.

“No, really,” Rosa said. “I mean honestly, they think with their wrong head when they think at all, but he looked pretty devastated. What happened?”

“He asked me if I was sleeping with someone else. And he also thought maybe I’d said some private stuff about him.”

Rosa bit her lower lip.

“What?”

“Well, I’m not an expert on the good guys,” she said. “But I am somewhat of an expert on the rotten ones. And they never ask. They tell, or worse yet, they don’t ever call or text. They take what they want and then they vanish. No talking at all. Seems to me if Aidan was asking, that’s better than nothing, right? Maybe he wanted to make sure. Or maybe he just wanted to hear how you feel about him. I mean, I know we think we’re obvious with our feelings, but we’re not.” She chewed on her lower lip. “Please don’t give me a bad haircut.”