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Not that Alli would be the person to do that. Bea struggled totake a breath. It had been a while since she’d had any kind of… intimate contact. Perhaps, once all this was over, she’d get back on the apps, try and find someone new. New flat, new boyfriend.

“Mind you, I wouldn’t work here at all,” Alli said now. “Far too important and well-educated for that, thank you very much.”

Which reminded Bea of just how not nice Alli really was. All images of hugging or any kind of contact left her head immediately. She straightened up. “Are you implying that I’m not well-educated?”

Alli’s green eyes widened in surprise. “Uh, no, not really. I hadn’t really thought about it.”

Bea rolled her eyes. “Well, at least I’m smart enough to get this,” she said, pulling the phone out of her pocket, still wrapped in its plastic bag.

“Mine?” Alli said suspiciously.

“Yours,” said Bea. She pushed it into Alli’s hands. “So now you can buzz off and get back to your important job and leave the rest of us alone.”

She walked off down the corridor, forcing herself to walk slowly and not to look back.

Chapter Seventeen

The way Alli saw it, she might as well try and save herself four thousand pounds. So the very first thing she did was to sneak into the now dark yoga room and call Darren.

“Al,” he said cheerfully when he picked up. “Haven’t heard from you in a couple of days, hard at work there?”

“What do you think?” she snapped.

“I think that I’m very proud of you for sticking it out,” he said with a smile in his voice. “It takes guts to do something like that, like going to rehab, you know.”

“I’m not in rehab,” she said, stung by the implication.

“That’s not what I meant, I just…” She heard the sound of a deep breath being taken and slowly exhaled.

“Alright, fine,” she said grudgingly. “You didn’t mean it. But I think you’ve had your fun now, don’t you?”

“My fun?”

“I’ve been stranded here for three days, I’ve been a good girl and gone to all my classes, I think we can say that I’ve learned my lesson and I won’t be shouting at clients anymore. So it’s time for me to get out of here.”

There was silence on the other end of the phone.

“Darren?”

Another long inhale and exhale. “You’re not a prisoner there,Alli,” he said finally. “But just to be clear, if you leave, you will not be coming back to Warren and Colman.”

“Oh, come on, you’ve made your point.”

“Have I though? Have I really? Because it very much sounds to me like you haven’t understood the point at all. Yes, partly this is to satisfy the higher-ups. But mostly, this is about you, Alli. You can’t go on living life the way you’re living it, something has to change. You need this help and if forcing you to get it is the only way you’ll get it, well, then I’m alright with that.”

“I thought you were my friend.”

“I am.”

“That’s not how things sound.” She started to pick at the wood around the window, looking out onto the cold, dark grounds of the building.

“Alli, just complete the program. Just keep your head down and do what you’re supposed to do and then we’ll talk. If you need to hate me to get things done, then fine.”

“Fine—” But he’d already hung up.

Alli rubbed her face.

Maybe he did think he was helping her. Or maybe he was just being an arsehole. Either way, being treated like a child sent off to boarding school wasn’t doing her any good at all.