Ella
The ladies' powder room was empty when I stepped in, and I gave myself thirty seconds against the marble counter, both hands braced on either side of the sink, breathing through the particular exhaustion of having spent an hour smiling at the two people who had once left me for dead.
I was still there when the door opened behind me and Vanessa walked in.
For a moment neither of us said anything. She crossed to the mirror two sinks down, checking her lipstick with the unhurried confidence of a woman who'd never once had to wonder whether a room belonged to her, and I made myself breathe evenly, made myself become Isabella again in the space of a few seconds the way Solange had drilled into me until it stopped feeling like an act of will.
"You danced with Adrian," Vanessa said, not
