Page 69 of (Not So) Mad About You

The spark flared and with the greatest difficulty, Alli tamped it back down. Losing it now would be a bad plan. “There must be some mistake.”

He shook his head. “I don’t know how. I fought for you, Al. I swear I did.”

She was reaching down, taking her purse. “No, there’s definitely a mistake. Let me deal with this and I’ll be back. Just give me the morning and I’ll make up the hours later.”

“You don’t have hours to make up.”

“I will.” She gave him a rictus grin. “I will. Just wait. I’ll get this sorted.” She stood up, walked around her desk, but Darren caught her arm as she passed him. “What?”

He loosened his fingers. “Nothing,” he said. “Just… Be careful, Al. Call me if you need me.”

“I’ll be back before you know it,” she said, shaking his hand off. “I’ll deal with this and I’ll be back.”

SHE COULD FEEL the anger bubbling away in her stomach and swore that she wasn’t going to go back to the coffee shop. The stupid barista had used regular milk, she could tell. It was making her feel acidic and sick.

She kept to the speed limit as she drove.

At first she’d wanted to call the center. But after a second of thought, she’d decided to actually drive back to St. Hilda’s. Doing this face to face was the best way to get this sorted out. And… and if she needed to make her voice heard, she could do that better in person.

When she pulled her car up into a parking space, she forced herself to take ten big, deep breaths before she got out, keeping her control. She controlled the anger, not the other way around. She had this. She could do this. Everyone made mistakes.

The front door was unlocked and she showed herself inside, walked calmly to Luke’s office, and found him feeding papers into a shredder. He looked up as soon as she came in.

“Ah,” was all he said.

“Ah?”

“I had a feeling you’d be back.” He straightened up.

And it was in that second that she realized that this hadn’t been a mistake at all. That this was all true. A black wave of fear overcame her and she had to hold on to Luke’s desk until it had washed over her.

“What happened?” she said through clenched teeth.

“You didn’t play by the rules,” said Luke with a sniff. “And, let’s face it, I’m hardly likely to make concessions for a trouble-maker, am I?”

“So, this is personal?”

“Not personal,” said Luke. “All above board. I might want it to be personal. But in this particular case, I didn’t have to twist anything, didn’t have to fudge the details. It’s all there in black and white.”

“What do you mean?”

“You didn’t pass the course.”

Alli gritted her teeth. “I was here for the full two weeks. What are you talking about?”

“You were here,” Luke said evenly. “But every course leader writes a report. Simply showing up isn’t enough, you have to participate.”

“I did!”

Luke smiled as he shook his head. “Oh, no you didn’t.”

“But I was here,” Alli said desperately.

“You were here,” agreed Luke again. “But unfortunately, you didn’t participate in more than half your yoga classes. I have the report from Bea around here somewhere if you’d like to see it?”

Alli was shaking so badly that she’d never be able to read a report. She stared hard at Luke and with the very last shred of her control, she turned around and walked out. This wasn’t his fault.

It was Bea’s.

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