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The end of the week came so fast that it gave Gaia whiplash, Friday arriving before she had even realised that Thursday was over and she couldn't wrap her head around the swift passage of time. An entire fortnight had passed since Evan's accident, a third of the way into his recovery already and she couldn't believe that her original plan had been to say goodbye to Max in just one month. Her official contract ended on the 23rd of July, just four weeks away, but that was far too soon. They needed her as more than just a temporary replacement: for all her humming and hawing, Gaia was one hundred percent sure of that.
She was also one hundred percent sure that something wasn't quite right today. As she finished up with a customer, she glanced over at Max who had both hands planted on the base of her spine, fighting the urge to screw up her face as she stretched out her back. She had seemed a little off all day, a little slow off the mark as she fought off a cough and stretched out her aching bones. Gaia had bitten her tongue for hours, but she couldn't hold back the question any longer when she saw Max wince the way Evan did when he took too sharp a breath.
"Are you ok, Max?" she asked, peering at the girl who instantly straightened out her back and gave her a smile.
"Yeah, fine," she said, smoothing out her top, though she brought her elbow to her mouth when she had to cough, her shoulders heaving.
"Sure? You don't look well, hun. You don't sound well" Gaia said, eyebrows pulling together above her nose.
"Just a bit under the weather," Max said with a smile, "but I'll be fine. Nearly the weekend, anyway."
But Gaia didn't back down, latching onto a train of thought that she intended to follow. "You've been coughing like that all day. You know, from what you've told me, your flat is probably making you ill, Max. Is it damp?"
Lifting one shoulder, Max said, "Not really."
That earnt a frown from Gaia, who pressed her lips into a thin line and folded her arms. There were no customers waiting, nor any on their way in from the mildly warm outside: she had time for a little interrogation. "You shouldn't be living there, Max. You need a proper flat." She wondered if it had been wise to let Zara stay there two nights ago. She can come home in one piece in the morning, and she had stayed there – albeit reluctantly – when Evan had asked her to give him a hand with the little ones, and that was where she was right now.
"I'm fine, Gaia, really. It's probably just a cold or something." She tried to give Gaia a convincing smile, but it would take a little more than that once she had fixated on something. Evan was the only one who could shake her once she set her mind on something, and Bree. It was a Cooper thing, she had decided, until she had realised they were the only two people she had grown close to in adulthood.
As she looked at Max, all she could do was picture the tiny bedsit she lived in. She had googled the flat last night, finding photos from the last time it had been on the market, and the results had been seriously depressing. The place was hardly enough for even one person, with a sofa that doubled as a pull-out bed in front of a boxy old television, while the pathetic excuse for a kitchen took up one corner. It consisted of little more than a grimy oven and a sink, between which was two feet of counter space, and Gaia's frown had deepened as she had scrolled through the photos that saddened her, until Evan had peeled her away from the computer and towards the bed. But it was all she could think about.
