By eleven thirty, Alina had already seen that Melissa Ashford was a specific kind of person.
Somehow strange... Unreadable.
Melissa Ashford wasn't rude. That would have been easier to deal with. Rude people were straightforward and you would know where you stood with such people.
Melissa Ashford was polite. Impeccably, consistently, exhaustingly polite, with a soft voice and a pleasant smile that never fully reached her eyes, and she used both like instruments.
Every request came wrapped in sweetness. Every errand she dispatched Alina on arrived with a thank you and a smile that made it very difficult to object to.
While Alina was objecting internally, she found herself obliging externally.
