Jasmine laughs and winces at the same time. “Like the fairy, yeah. It’s… I don’t know. Cheesy, obviously. I needed something to make me laugh when I picked it, because otherwise, I was going to cry.”
She bends down to touch the boy’s back and whisper back to him. He nods, grins, hoists his violin case, and scampers down the stairs and away.
Jas looks at me sidelong. “Do you… I mean, you can come in if you want. But it’s my last lesson for the day, so if you’re tired, my apartment is—”
“Let’s just sit for a second, if that’s okay. I’m… It’s been a very long few days.”
“Of course. Yeah, come in.” She holds open the curtain and I duck through.
I sit on the first thing I come across, which is an overstuffed armchair, formerly red, now faded to a pale pink by sun slanting through the wind
