Page 19 of (Not So) Mad About You

Or leave her job.

“Take a right out of the door and follow the corridor around,” Luke said. “You’ll hear the others.”

Silently, she nodded, going out of the room like she was sleepwalking.

This couldn’t be happening.

She always managed to get what she wanted. How couldthings be different now? But she honestly couldn’t see any other choices. Nothing at all. She stayed or she lost her job, end of story.

Not only that, she had to stay and complete this stupid program. She couldn’t make a mess of things or… she’d lose her job.

She wandered slowly down the corridor. Two weeks. Could she handle two weeks of this? She shuddered. It all reminded her far too much of boarding school. Those first few days when all of seven years old she’d walked around lost and shy and alone.

Of course, she’d found her voice pretty damn soon. And once she had, there’d been no shutting her up. But she still remembered those first days.

“Hello there, are you Alli?”

She groaned as the tall, sad man greeted her. Charles. She’d always had a good head for names. “What of it?”

He stopped. “Just, well, er, they’re all waiting for you is all.”

She blew out a breath and shook her head. “You know, I’m not supposed to be here,” she said. It made her feel better to say it out loud.

Charles sniffed. “Me neither. I’m not sure anyone is, to be honest.”

Alli wasn’t particularly interested in why he was or wasn’t there. He looked sad and harmless enough, but then she supposed that there’d be a lot less serial killings if all serial killers actually looked like serial killers. “Got a plan to break out?” she asked hopefully.

“Going to do my two weeks and walk out the front door.”

“Oh.” Fantastic. Two weeks stuck with boring people. That made this all so much better.

She turned around and laid her forehead against the cool paint of the wall. She felt trapped, like she had no choices, and it wasn’t a good feeling.

“Are you alright?” Charles asked. “Do you want me to get someone?”

Deep breath. She was no quitter. Alright, she might get angrysometimes. Okay, she might not always be polite. But she was not a quitter. If this was what she had to do, she supposed she’d just have to do it. Lie her way through and be charming until they let her out and she could go back to work.

“I’m fine, thank you,” she said politely, straightening up. “Now, how about you show me where I’m supposed to be?”

A look of relief crossed Charles’s face. He wasn’t the type of man that liked a fuss, she could see that. “Yeah, um, it’s just right down here.”

She followed him down the corridor until he stopped in front of a set of double doors.

“Do you need a minute?” he asked nicely.

Alli shook her head. If she was going to do this, she might as well get on with it. He opened the door and she stepped inside.

It took a moment to place the first face that she saw. But when she did, a slow smile spread across her face.

Chapter Nine

Bea’s first thought was that the woman had chased her down to apologize. Her second thought was that she’d chased her down to get some sort of revenge. The evil-looking grin spreading over the woman’s face didn’t particularly help matters.

Bea felt her stomach drop as she tried hard to listen to Lex’s introductory speech.

“… completion of the program will earn you an official certificate,” Lex was saying.

It wasn’t like she had the money to pay the woman off right now. Bea shuffled in her seat. It wasn’t like she was going to have that money soon either. And anyway, she reminded herself, she wasn’t at fault.

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