Dinner at the Cole house was already on the table when Ethan came in.
Alexandra had cooked. Isabella was arguing with her about salt. Veronica had her phone face-down beside her plate, which meant she was present and still not done with the day.
Ethan sat. He had Sophia’s card in his pocket and the lobby still sitting under his skin.
Alexandra looked at him first, the way she always did, checking for damage. "You were gone after class. I texted. You didn’t answer, which I decided to interpret as you being alive and rude instead of dead in a ditch."
"I had a meeting downtown. I should have answered you."
Isabella pointed a fork at him. "A meeting. He says that now. Last week he didn’t have meetings. He had walking and looking tragic."
"It was work."
Veronica picked up her water. She did not look surprised. That was worse than surprise. "Sophia called me from the car. She said you showed up on time and that she gave you a trial. She also said I should hear it from you before I heard it from anyone else."
The table got quieter without anyone announcing it.
Alexandra set the serving spoon down. "Sophia Bennett? Your Sophia?"
"She is not my Sophia," Veronica said. "She is a friend with a company and very little patience. Ethan, I told you not to turn one introduction into a project."
"I didn’t call her." He kept his voice even and let the version he had already chosen come out clean. "She asked you for my number. She texted me. I went to the Halston because she had two hours and I was not going to miss that so I could look obedient at home."
Isabella sat back, impressed against her will. "She summoned you to a hotel lobby and you went. That is either serious or stupid."
"It’s work. She needs listings walked in Westhaven. I tell her if a building is bad. She pays me. That is the whole meeting."
Veronica’s gaze stayed on him. Strict. Measuring. The soft thing she never gave him in daylight stayed put.
"And you told her you did not want the money coming from me."
"Yes."
"That is going to sound like a slight to her, coming out of my house."
"It sounded like the truth. She said she preferred that to a story."
Alexandra looked between them, already trying to keep the temperature down. "If it is real work, that is good. He cannot live on mixer cash and pride. You know that."
"I know that," Veronica said. "I also know Sophia Bennett does not hand out errands because she is feeling charitable. If she kept you in that lobby, she saw something she could use."
Ethan did not look away. "Then let her use it. I want that more than I want to sit here and be protected from a job."
Isabella whistled under her breath. "He is in a mood again."
"Eat," Veronica said, and the rule closed over the rest of it until the plates were emptier.
She caught him in the hallway after Alexandra had claimed the sink and Isabella had disappeared with the leftovers.
"I am not angry that you want your own money," she said. "I am angry that I keep finding out who you are becoming from other people. Saturday it was a tray. Today it is Sophia. I would like, for once, to hear it while it is still yours to tell."
"I’m telling you now."
"You are telling me after she already called." Veronica’s voice dropped, not softer, just private. "She is thirty-nine years old, Ethan. She is not a girl from Ashbourne. If you go into her work and start acting like last weekend’s version of yourself, she will cut you off and I will be the one who looks like I sent her a child."
"I wasn’t planning on acting like last weekend."
Veronica looked at his face as if she could see the mixer and the courtyard and the thing she had told herself was only air on Sunday.
"Good. Then walk her buildings. Send her clean notes. Do not make me explain you." She paused, and for a second the strictness thinned. "And eat something that is not toast when you come in late. You look like you are running on nerve."
She left him in the hall before that last part could become anything else.
[Choice Locked: B]
[You told her Sophia came to you.]
[+150 CP]
[Veronica Cole: Watching → Disturbed]
[Disturbed is not distance.]
[Current CP: 3,650]
Ethan went upstairs.
The room was the same guest room it had been a week ago. He was not. He sat on the edge of the bed, let the shop open because he wanted it to, and looked at the number until it felt like a tool instead of a score.
Tomorrow he would walk a building for Sophia Bennett. Madison was already sitting differently in class. Veronica was already looking at him like he had moved.
He did not need a quest to spend.
[Skill Shop]
[Upgrade: Wicked Fingers I → II — 300 CP]
[Effect: Sensation travels from the point of contact. Wrist to chest. Neck lower. Still no compulsion.]
[Wanted Scent I — 200 CP]
[Effect: Close-range scent that reads as warmth and sleep. Stronger after contact.]
[Perfect Physique I — 350 CP]
[Dirty Voice I — 250 CP]
[Recovery I — 150 CP]
He left Physique alone. If his face changed tonight, breakfast would become an interrogation he was not ready to spend.
He bought the upgrade first.
[Purchase Confirmed: Wicked Fingers II]
[CP Remaining: 3,350]
The knowledge settled in behind the first version, not as heat, as range. A hand on a wrist could arrive somewhere she would not want to name in a hallway.
Then the scent.
[Purchase Confirmed: Wanted Scent I]
[CP Remaining: 3,150]
Nothing in the room smelled different to him. That was the point. It was not for him.
Ethan lay back and stared at the ceiling.
Sophia had told him to start behaving like he was not going to make her explain a student in a lobby. He had touched her anyway. Tomorrow he would show up on time, walk the listing, and see whether Wicked Fingers II made a woman like that lose one more breath than she planned to.
He was looking forward to it in a way he did not intend to tell Veronica.
[No New Quest]
[Work tomorrow: Westhaven listing]
[Sophia Bennett will read what you send.]
[Madison Blake still feels Sunday.]
[The house is awake.]