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GALLANT went in for his interview as soon as the meeting ended. Coraline spent that entire time barfing up the cube they ate for dinner that evening, the memory of Michael's stare haunting her brain. She sat by the bathroom in her suite for almost an hour, waiting for the sickness to stop. Once she was sure that everything was finally out of her system, she wiped underneath her nose and flushed the toilet.
There were tears in her eyes. Coraline hated that she always cried while vomiting. She looked herself in the mirror and rubbed at her eyes. "This isn't happening," she whispered, grabbing a towel and scrubbing at her face. Before she could stop herself, Coraline began to scream into her towel.
She didn't think it was that loud. In actuality, the shriek pierced every ear inhabiting the second floor. It was something out of a horror movie, a wailing cry that someone made as the murderer raised an axe to their head. Coraline thought the scream was muffled as she pressed her face further into the towel, remembering Michael's cold gaze, remembering the way their connection was still there, remembering the way his suit clung to his body –
A knock sounded on her door.
She gasped, throwing the towel to the floor. Biting her lip, she almost expected – or wanted – it to be Michael, but she was wrong. As she cracked open the door just a smidge, Coraline was greeted with the sight of a confused Gallant. She pressed her face into the crack and snapped, "What is it?"
"You look like you've seen a ghost," he chuckled softly.
Coraline swallowed hard. "Maybe I have."
Gallant nodded and cleared his throat. "Well, I just came to check on you. I heard you scream, so –"
"Forget about that," Coraline muttered. She looked around the barren hall and quickly yanked Gallant inside her suite. He stumbled back for a moment as she locked the door shut, straightening her spine. "Did you just get back from your interview?"
Gallant shrugged. "Uh – yeah, why?"
Coraline narrowed her eyes and lifted her hands. Was he seriously being this dense right now?
A moment later, a sly smirk tugged at the ends of his lips. "Ah, so that's what this is about." He fell back on the bed, propping his elbows up and crossing his legs over each other. "You want to know what to expect."
Something like that, Coraline thought to herself.
"He's quite the interesting man," Gallant sneered, looking at his cuticles. "Smells great too, like roses. I almost forgot what those smelled like from being holed up in here for so long. But I think I found my way out, Cora. This interview may have opened up the door for me."
Coraline licked her lips and walked over to sit on the bed beside him. Gallant was still grinning from ear to ear, taking in Coraline's perplexed expression. He wasn't sure if it was curiosity or jealousy, but his ego convinced him it was the latter. She noticed he was still looking at his purple-painted fingernails, which made her smack his hand down on the mattress. "Can you pay attention, please?"
