Page 127 of Begin Again Again

She snuggled back into him; her insides as warm as her surroundings were cold. “You can, you know. I won’t stop you.”

And so they stayed together, watching the waves and the fireworks, entwined under a tiny crescent moon.

Chapter 20

Summer 2021 was determined to give Melbourne short shrift. The days were grey and middling, rain speckled washing lines and ruined café brunches. But nothing about the weather could bring Beth down. She felt like the sun was emanating directly from her chest.

Every afternoon Byron came over and every night he held her so tightly that the bedroom air-conditioner was mandatory. They cooked dinner together, they watched Sex and the City and The Expanse together. They walked hand in hand along St Kilda Boulevard together. For most of Beth’s adult life, Sunday mornings had been for taking the maximum number of painkillers and moaning into her pillow. Now she discovered Sunday mornings were actually for obnoxious people who’d found someone. A lover to buy coffee and cinnamon scrolls for. To kiss through their mask at the Sunday market. For jogging, then doing a yoga YouTube video together because Byron was surprisingly well versed at downward facing dog.

“Yoga’s good for recovery,” he said mid-pigeon pose. “I used to have a mat with my name on it.”

“Oh my god, where is it?”

“I think I left it at the clubrooms.”

He barely flinched at the mention of his old life and that combined with his hip flexibility made Beth pounce on him, kissing him until they did unspeakable things right in front of Adriene from Yoga with Adriene.

Later that night Beth showed him her favourite YouTube video— a fifteen-second clip of a duck playing the drums with its feet. Byron watched, his expression completely neutral.

“What do you think?” she asked when it was over.

“Mmm.”

“Don’t you think the duck’s cute?”

Byron seemed to choose his next words very carefully. “Baby, that duck is a stupidhead.”

It was the first time he called her baby. And the first time she attempted to put him in a headlock. Every day with Byron was wonderful, but even new love couldn’t stop the crawl of reality. Beth still couldn’t get Lara to talk to her, and when she asked Dolly if she’d be into resuming the podcast, she’d responded with a link to an unrelated Twilight TikTok.

“I don’t get it,” she said to Byron over homemade burgers. “Just tell me if you think it’s a good idea or not, Dolly! Why wait?”

“Some people need time to figure things out. You know, podcasts… what they want to study after school…”

“Whether or not to be with girls they like or to hold onto their imaginary boundaries…?”

“Exactly.”

But more pressing than the podcast issue was the fact that Beth’s receptionist contract was almost up. Looking for a new nine to five needed to be her top priority and it just… wasn’t. It didn’t help that Glenda was on the warpath, insisting everyone get back in the office, coronavirus be damned, and henpecking Beth worse than ever.

“It’s so pointless,” Beth snarled to Byron over steak and triple cooked potatoes. “My job is busywork. Filler. You could replace me with one of those plastic pecking birds and nothing would change. Morale would probably goupbecause Glenda could bitch at the bird all she wanted, and it’d never take out a personal grievance against her.”

Byron grinned. He’d never worked in an office and found the whole concept mildly amusing, but Beth was dreading going back to her brick-and-mortar office job. Almost as terrified as she was of having no job at all. She began applying for dozens of roles, almost all of them rejecting her outright. The post-COVID economy was not friendly to white collar workers. Beth upped her applications and started losing sleep. One bland Wednesday afternoon, Caroline, her direct supervisor, called via Microsoft Teams.

“Hi!” Beth said, with the same vague alarm she felt whenever anyone from work called.

“Hey, Beth! Sorry to bother you, but I noticed your contract was almost up.”

“Yeah, not long now.”

Caroline smiled. “Would you be interested in a departmental role at all? Vanessa is finishing in a fortnight and we’re looking to replace her ASAP.”

Beth felt like she’d been hit in the head by a flying bucket. “I… I’m not sure. Is it another year long contract?”

“Sure is. Think about it, will you? It’s the same office, ten grand more a year. And you won’t have to answer the phones anymore!”

Beth forced herself to laugh, her mind was spinning.

“I’ll email you a link to the application and I’ll put in a good word for you,” Caroline said. “Talk soon.”

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