By late afternoon, the storage room was warm and close.
Ray stood on a low step ladder with a clipboard, counting boxes on the back shelf. The fan overhead turned lazily, doing more for the smell than the heat.
The shop took up the front of the Montrose house. From the street, it looked narrow. Inside, it ran deeper than people expected. Glass shelves lined the front with neat rows of bottles, while the back was crowded with refill stock, loose price tags, shipping boxes, and a perfume scent that had soaked into the place over the years and never really left.
From the front, where weak sunlight filtered through the display window and the door chime kept mixing with low customer voices, his mother called, "Ray. More Fleur d'Or. Small bottles."
He looked up, found the box jammed behind two others, and reached for it.
"Yeah."
He had just pulled it free when Rina appeared in the doorway. She stopped there first, like she was still deciding whether it was worth interrupting him.
"What can I do?"
Ray climbed down with the carton under one arm. "Nothing."
Rina frowned immediately. At twelve, she already looked too much like him for his comfort. Same dark hair. Same face shape. Same mouth whenever she got annoyed. If you took Ray, made him a teenage girl, and gave her a bright, sunny personality, you got Rina.
"I can help," she said. "You just don't want me to."
"You are helping by not knocking anything over."
"I wouldn't."
"You said that too fast."
She folded her arms. "You won't let me get a summer job."
"You're twelve."
"I'm thirteen next month."
"You're still twelve."
Rina gave him a look so familiar it was almost annoying.
Ray adjusted the box under his arm and sighed. At the front, he could already hear his mother slipping into her customer voice.
"Alright," he said. "Clean the front display. Glass only. Don't touch the testers."
Rina brightened on the spot. "Glass only. Don't touch the testers."
She reached for the cloth by the counter just as the house door opened.
Ryan came in first, with Rose right behind him, both of them talking before they were fully inside.
"Rose took my red."
"You had two reds."
"The other one was ugly. It doesn't count."
"That's because you peeled the wrapper off."
"We're hungry," Ryan said, like that settled the matter.
Ray watched them a second longer than he meant to. They had the same eight-year-old face, the same dark hair, the same stubborn way of standing like the world should move around them.
From a distance, they were identical.
Up close, the difference was obvious.
The eyes.
Ryan had the amber ones, the kind Ray hid behind fake glasses at school. Rose had their mother's black eyes, steady and clear.
Kinder, too. A lot more than Ryan ever bothered being.
Rina, already wiping down the display table, said without looking back, "You two ate crackers."
"Fifteen minutes ago," Rose said, then looked at Ray. "Can we have food now?"
Their mother glanced over from the counter, but she couldn't step away yet. "Ray?"
He jerked his head toward the house. "Come on. Both of you."
Ryan went first because hunger had apparently made him cooperative. Rose followed with more dignity.
Ray dropped the perfume box onto the counter as he passed.
"Fleur d'Or."
"Thank you."
Millicent Montrose was still helping a customer, sleeves rolled up, short dark hair tucked behind one ear. She had the kind of kind middle-aged face people trusted right away. The kind that made customers linger and ask questions they did not really need answered. Put her beside Ray and most people would not guess she was his mother. The black eyes went to Rose. The amber ones had come from somewhere else.
He headed into the kitchen with the twins behind him.
The Montrose house always looked lived in. Shoes crowded the rack by the wall. A notebook lay open on the dining table beside a pack of crayons with a half-torn wrapper. A small plastic dinosaur missing one leg sat near the hallway. The perfume from the shop still drifted in, but here it mixed with rice, dish soap, and the usual chaos of two under-supervised eight-year-olds.
Ryan dragged a chair out with as much noise as possible. Rose climbed into hers more carefully.
"What are we eating?"
"Food."
"Good food?"
"No."
Rose put both elbows on the table. "He's in one of those moods."
Ray opened the fridge. "You say that like there are others."
He took out leftover rice, eggs, and the sausages his mother had cooked earlier. Good enough. Better than whatever Ryan thought he was entitled to.
Ryan leaned farther over the table. "Can I have two eggs?"
"You can have one egg and a normal attitude."
Rose laughed. Ryan looked offended.
Ray had just set the pan on the stove when Rina's voice came flying in from the shop.
"Ray."
He did not turn yet. "What."
"Big sis Mia's here."
The spatula stopped in his hand.
A second later, he heard it himself. His mother greeting someone at the front. Mia answering, her voice tired around the edges.
Ray turned the heat down, wiped his hands on a towel, and stepped into the hall where the voices carried in from the shop.
Mia came in from the front with one hand still on her bag strap. She looked as neat as always. Hair pinned up, bow in place, blouse still smooth. The rest of her looked tired all the way through.
His mother noticed first.
"Mia, you look drained."
Mia smiled, but only half of it got there. "The review center is trying to kill me."
His mother clicked her tongue softly. "Don't run yourself into the ground."
"I'll try."
Ray stepped out of the hall. "That usually means nothing good."
Mia turned toward him.
For one second, she looked less tired.
"Hi," she said.
"Hi."
He took another look at her face. "Stay for dinner."
She blinked. "That was quick."
"You can leave if you want."
"I wasn't going to."
Ryan had heard enough to get involved. He ran out of the kitchen with Rose right behind him, both of them crashing into Mia before Ray could stop either of them.
"You haven't come in forever."
"You're late."
"We thought you forgot us."
Mia laughed properly then. She bent a little to hug Rose against her side with one arm while steadying Ryan with the other as he bounced forward.
"I didn't forget you."
Rina appeared behind them with the cloth still in her hand and immediately gave up on cleaning.
"You still look pretty even when you're tired," she said.
Ray looked at her. "Strong opening."
Rina ignored him. "And your hair still looks good. Your bow too. I need to ask later if silver clips are too much for casual clothes."
Mia smiled at her. "Later."
His mother finally stepped in from the shop, one hand on Ryan's shoulder, the other on Rose's. "Move. Let her breathe."
They moved badly.
Ray looked at all three of them. "Living room. Now."
Ryan made a face. Rose obeyed. Rina drifted back toward the front after telling Mia she already had several questions lined up and planned to ask all of them.
Mia adjusted her bag again. "I can help."
"You can sit."
She followed him into the kitchen anyway.
Of course.
He did not bother arguing twice.
She set her bag by the table and slipped into the spot beside him, matching his movements with practiced ease. She reached for the green onions and started slicing, but after a while her hand slowed. The knife hovered. Her gaze stayed on the board, but not really.
Ray looked down at it. "Give me that before you cut your fingers off."
"I am not."
"You've cut the same piece three times."
She frowned at the board. "Rude."
"Accurate."
He plated the rice while she pulled bowls from the cabinet without needing to ask. He shifted left, she moved right, and the kitchen stayed intact.
"The review center is brutal," she said.
"That part was obvious."
She let out a tired breath. "The modules are bad enough. The students are worse."
He handed her the spoons. "How."
"They're all good." She leaned a hip against the counter and rubbed her forehead with the back of her wrist. "You look at one problem too long and someone in the next row has already moved on with their life."
"You'd fit in."
Mia gave him a look. "You would."
"I enjoy mediocrity."
She snorted. "No. You enjoy lying."
He set the plates on the table. "That too."
After that, she kept talking, too tired to sort what mattered and what did not.
It came out in bits.
Grant came first, mostly because he noticed things before she even asked. He caught the wrong packet on the first day and started giving her better notes when the official ones stopped making sense.
"He's annoyingly good at catching what I miss," she said, opening the rice container. "It helps. I just don't like that it does."
"Useful, then."
"It is."
Then she started talking about Julian, though not in any real order. She kept circling back to him because he was always there and she was too tired to pretend she had not noticed.
"He's not what I expected," she said, setting spoons beside the bowls. "I thought he'd be..." She made a face, searching for it. "More full of himself."
"Terrible news."
"I'm serious." She reached for the cups. "His father is a senator. I thought he'd act like one too."
Ray poured water into the glasses. "At least then his attitude would match his lineage."
Mia ignored that. "He's actually nice."
"Horrifying."
She shot him a look. "And he explains things well. Some of the subjects I've been falling behind on, he helps."
That got his attention more than he wanted it to.
"Show me."
She blinked. "What."
"The module."
Mia pulled it from her bag and handed it over right away.
He flipped through it while she stood beside him, close enough that her shampoo cut through the kitchen air. First page. Second page. Problem set clipped in the middle.
He knew most of it.
He could have taught it.
That bothered him more than it should have.
He could also see how tired she was just standing there. Even if he offered to help, there was no easy version of that. She would come over after review center already worn out and still stay for another hour just because he asked.
Mia looked surprised. "You actually find some of it difficult."
He shrugged. "Some."
Her face changed a little at that. Not smug. Concerned, almost. Like he might need help. That part was insulting.
"If I have time," she said, sliding the module back into her bag, "I can come by and teach you some of it too. So you get a head start."
Ray looked at her.
She meant it. No jab in it at all. Just Mia deciding the people around her should be pulled up if they needed it.
"I don't need a head start," he said.
Mia picked up the serving spoon again. "Not everyone can cruise through St. Aurelius."
"I can."
She looked at him properly then. "No. You're just good at acting like you don't care."
He said nothing.
Mia went back to moving around the kitchen. She always did better when her hands had something to do. "Even Julian works hard. He already has more than most people, but he still studies like he'll lose something if he slows down."
Ray leaned back against the counter. "Good for Julian."
Her head turned sharply. "I mean it."
"So do I."
"He has dreams."
Ray gave a short laugh. "That's nice for him."
Mia looked too tired to soften it. "You don't."
The kitchen went quiet.
He looked at her. "I know."
And because she was too tired to dodge it, she just said, "I know."
It sat there between them, a little heavy, and neither of them moved to fix it.
They did not get long with it. The door opened, and his mother came in with Rina right behind her.
"Dinner time, everyone," Millicent said.
The table filled quickly.
Ryan reached for the bigger egg and complained when Rose got it first. Rose said fairness had nothing to do with speed and kept eating.
Rina slid into the seat beside Mia. "Are light blue ribbons childish now?" she asked. "And is there a polite way to look expensive when you're not?"
Mia answered all of them as they came while eating more slowly than usual, like she was trying to keep pace with her own day and losing.
His mother watched for a bit with that warm look she only ever had at home.
"I'm glad you came by," she said to Mia. "I was starting to think Ray had finally ruined your friendship with that icy face of his."
Ray kept eating. "Thanks."
Mia smiled at his mother over her glass. "He didn't."
Millicent lifted a brow.
Mia's smile softened. "I'll always be Ray's friend."
She could have stopped there.
She did not.
"I already think of all of you as my second family."
The second the words were out, she seemed to hear them too. Color climbed into her face. She looked down at her plate, then at his mother, then nowhere useful at all.
Rina looked delighted. Ryan did too. Rose hid a smile in her rice.
Ray almost laughed, but stopped it before it showed. It was very Mia. Too tired, too overwhelmed, and suddenly saying exactly what she meant before she could decide whether it sounded embarrassing.
His mother reached over and squeezed Mia's hand once. "Good."
Mia's ears went even redder.
Ray looked down at his plate and kept eating.
After dinner, Mia helped clear the table despite his mother telling her not to. Then she picked up her bag, thanked everyone twice because tired Mia got extra polite, and let Ray walk her to the station.
The evening had eased a little by then. It was still warm, but at least the road no longer clung to your skin.
Ray walked slower than usual without meaning to. Mia noticed halfway down the block, because she always picked up on small things about him when he least wanted her to.
At first she talked about easy things. Rina's ribbon crisis. Ryan's war with crayons. The train schedule.
Then she looked at him properly.
"Sorry."
He glanced at her. "For what."
"For unloading all that on you again."
He did not answer.
Mia tightened her hold on her bag strap. "And I didn't even ask how your summer's been."
Ray looked ahead. Streetlights were coming on one by one. Near the corner, a dog barked once and then lost interest.
"My summer's great," he said. "I've been stacking perfume boxes and telling customers that names like Velvet Mourning do not smell like mango."
That got a laugh out of her.
"Some people probably just want mango."
"Then they can buy mango."
They kept walking.
Mia drifted a little closer and bumped his sleeve. "How is it. Actually."
He let out a breath, like he thought about fixing the answer and then gave up on the effort. "Busy."
She gave a small nod.
"Ryan lost a shoe yesterday," he added after a second. "Tried to make it everybody's problem."
That got a smile out of her. "Of course he did."
"Rose cried over her handwriting."
Mia huffed, softer this time. "Yeah. That tracks."
He shoved a hand into his pocket. "Shop's fine."
She did not answer right away. She only nodded and tucked it away somewhere.
A few steps passed before she spoke again.
"I need your opinion."
He glanced at her.
There was just enough hesitation before the next line to make him dislike it already.
"Julian offered me a position in the student council."
He knew the title before she said it.
"Vice president."
He pictured it fast enough to annoy himself. Mia spending more time in council rooms. Standing beside Julian in front of everyone. Becoming part of a larger part of school that had never really included him.
He kept all of that to himself.
"What do you think," she asked.
Ray looked at her. "What do you think."
She made a face. "I asked first."
Of course she did.
He let out a breath and looked ahead. She needed that. More space. More people. More chances to learn how to handle the kind of pressure she would have to face anyway.
"It'd be good for you," he said.
Mia waited.
He kept going because stopping there would only make her ask again.
"Especially if you really want to be a nurse. That job isn't just grades. It's people too, and council's good practice for that. You'll have to talk to strangers, trust them, let them trust you back, and deal with pressure whether you're ready or not."
She stayed quiet.
Ray shoved his other hand into his pocket. "And you can't stay inside the same small group forever. Even if you want to."
Mia nodded after a while. "That's what Julian said too."
That should not have annoyed him.
It did.
Still, she looked relieved.
"I think I already knew," she admitted. "I just wanted to hear what you'd say."
He did not know what to do with that, so he kept walking.
The station came into view, crowded even from a distance. Voices spilled onto the sidewalk, and the train announcements blurred into the noise.
By then, Mia had decided. He could tell from the way she looked at him.
She seemed more awake now than she had back at the house. Talking about next year did that to her.
"I think I'll join," she said. "Student council."
Ray nodded once.
Mia smiled, small but real, then turned toward the station.
He stayed where he was until the crowd swallowed her, with his own advice still sitting badly in his mouth.