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“Night, Al,” Charles said, more cheerful than she thought she’d heard him before.

“Night,” Izzy said. “Shall we have breakfast together tomorrow?”

Alli, who wasn’t planning on being there tomorrow, just shrugged. “Let’s see.”

Izzy seemed happy with this and it struck Alli that this would be the last time that she saw them all. Which shouldn’t be that sad and yet was just a tiny bit. She’d spent every waking hour with these people for the last few days.

“Good night then,” she said, lingering for just a second.

When she finally went upstairs, she packed her things and sat on her bed to wait. It was long after midnight, and far too late to do anything about it, by the time she realized that Daria wasn’t coming at all.

Chapter Eighteen

Bea was awoken at six twenty-three by someone banging on her door. She shook her head, trying to clear away sleep. “What?” she shouted.

“Can I open the door?” It was Josh.

She looked down and found herself fairly presentable. “Yes.”

He came in, closing the door behind him, taking a quick look around. “Daria not here?”

“You know I don’t have a class until nine, right?” Bea asked, sitting up in bed. “Also, why would Daria be here?”

“Sleepover?” he guessed. “Or maybe the two of you had a thing going on, I’m not one to judge.”

“Oh, you’re not, are you?”

He looked stung. “Do you mean you haven’t guessed I’m gay? I’m insulted. I thought it was obvious. I’m not hiding it or anything.”

“Nor are you walking around in rainbow t-shirt with a him-bo on your arm,” said Bea. “And can we get back to the matter in hand? I thought Daria had a thing with Luke.”

“She does. Did. I don’t know. He’s going spare.” Josh parked himself on the end of her bed. “And Daria’s just gone.”

“What?” Bea yawned.

“She’s gone. She was supposed to do a pre-breakfast meditation session with a couple of the programmers and she never showed up.”

Bea felt a shiver of something inside her. A disappeared woman was never a good thing. Josh saw the look on her face.

“Don’t worry, I don’t think anything terrible’s happened. I checked her room first thing and she’s cleared it out. Most likely she’s just done a runner. The question is where to. And what are we supposed to do now, I suppose.”

“Just… left?” Bea asked. Maybe it was shocking to her because she’d never considered it. Or maybe just because she needed the job so badly.

“Looks like it,” said Josh. “Keep an eye out for Luke. He’s not a happy camper right now.”

“His girlfriend’s walked out on him.”

“Yeah, fair enough. Don’t suppose you’ve got any idea where she might have gone?”

Bea shook her head. “Honestly, I’ve swapped maybe five words with her since I got here. She wasn’t exactly welcoming.”

“Hmm. Kept herself to herself, didn’t she?” Josh said. “I always reckoned it was because she was sleeping with the boss, thought she was above us and all that. But maybe she had her own thing going on.”

“Maybe indeed,” said Bea. “Listen, I’ll get up and come down for breakfast. What time’s the whole group meditation thing supposed to start?”

“Not until after lunch.”

“You need me to do it?”