Daniella opened up the top of the coffee maker and of course—of course—there was still a mess of coffee grinds in there. Eli hadn’t thought to clean out the grinds or even to empty the pot. All he’d thought to do was pour out the majority—but not all—of the drinkable coffee left in the coffee maker and then sit with his stupid mug on the chair and act like he had done a good deed by not entirely finishing off the coffee. As though rational humans went around pouring themselves a quarter of a cup of coffee from the last of the drip-coffee sludge.

Typical Eli.

Daniella took the coffeepot into the bathroom, dumping the coffee grinds in the trash along the way. She pointedly did not look at the floor, knowing that it had to still have Imogen’s hair all over it. Everyone was in fine form today, and Daniella would have to ignore all of them in order to avoid murdering someone. She focused on the bathroom sink, on rinsing out the last remaining dregs and sludge of the coffee. She turned the pot upside down, letting the final drips of water fall out before heading back into the main break room.

Of course, that’s when she got to the pantry, pulled out a filter, and realized there was no coffee left in the jar.

Eli was still staring at her.

And Daniella couldn’t help it. This time she looked over at him. Saw the way his eyes were taking her in. The way he missed nothing, not the tension in her eyebrows, not the clenching of her jaw, not the way her hands had curled themselves into tight fists. Daniella hadn’t even noticed that, her fingers had so gradually moved together, as though by their own will. She stretched her fingers out so that they were wide, and the move made her hands feel electric.

Made Daniella feel electric. “What the hell are you doing?”

Eli had the gall to look absolutely flabbergasted. He pointed to himself and everything. “I’m sitting.”

Irritation flared in Daniella’s chest. How dare he give a smart-assed answer. Her ears were ringing, and her anger was at a low-level chant in her ears that nobody else seemed to notice. How dare he how dare he how dare he.

“Why are you sitting there?”

“Because I want to talk to Jo when she gets back?” Eli took the most casual sip of coffee in the entire world.

Daniella snapped. “Get out.”

“Honestly, Danny, I would love to. But I’ve been having lots of hard conversations today, and I’d really like to not avoid this one with Jo. She deserves better than avoidance.” And then Eli smiled like Daniella was in on the joke. Like she could be in on the joke.