Chapter 47: Terms and Conditions
At seven forty-eight on Monday morning, April Mendoza stood beside the stone pillar at the school gates, holding two paper cups and trying to look like she wasn't waiting for anyone.
It was not research. She had decided that on the bus. Research was Chloe's word, and this was something else. This was a debt. Nobody left April Mendoza a coffee and walked away with the last word. Her mother would have called it pride. April called it accounts.
At seven fifty-one, a boy turned the corner from the direction of Meridian Street.
At seven fifty-two, exactly, he reached the gate.
Jun-Ho slowed when he saw her. Only slightly. If she hadn't been watching for it, she would have missed it, a small hitch in a rhythm that had held for two weeks.
"You're early," he said.
"You're on time."
"That's usually how I do it."
She held out one of the cups. "Black. One sugar. Cinnamon stick." She paused. "It's not poison. I'd like that on the record."
