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Sid eyed her. “Burger?”

“Done,” she said with a smile. “Back to it then.” Sid went off quite happily and Bea squeezed Alli’s hand again. “Sorted.”

The grip around Alli’s stomach loosened a little. “Thank you.” Then she remembered Benny. “But what about the car? What about the canapés that you need to pick up? What about—”

“I’ll deal with it,” Bea said. She raised Alli’s hand to her face and kissed the back of it, her lips soft and warm. “I’m going to deal with it right now. You put away these towels and I’ll be back in an hour. No stress.”

Alli looked into her eyes. “No stress,” she agreed. And amazingly, she felt no stress. She felt calm and in control. Bea always had this effect on her. It was part of the reason she was so happy that they were going to be working together.

Six months ago, Bea had moved into Alli’s flat when her lease was up. Having Bea around every evening, every night, was better than Alli could have imagined. But when they’d started talking seriously about the retreat, Bea had worried that spending too much time together would be bad for them.

Alli couldn’t have disagreed more. Being with Bea made her feel like a better person. Spending all day with Bea was going to make her into the best person she could be.

She pulled Bea closer to her now, pressed her body against hers. “Just don’t be long,” she purred.

Bea’s eyes sparkled. “Think we might have a little spare time before the party?” she whispered.

“No, no, and no,” Josh said, coming around the desk. “You two need to be business focused. Not like two teenagers sloping off tothe bike sheds for a quickie when the rest of us are working our fingers to the bone.”

Bea laughed. “Fair enough, I’m out of here.” She blew a kiss at Alli. “Don’t forget Sid’s burger.”

“Ooo, burgers,” Josh said.

And Alli watched Bea disappear back outside, confident that she’d take care of things.

???

“I need a car,” Bea said.

She was fully out of her element in a dirty garage full of loud equipment. The mechanic was wiping his hands on an oily cloth and she could see Benny parked in a corner of the car park, abandoned and alone.

“Didn’t I just tell you back at the tow site that I can’t do anything about that?” he said.

Bea took a deep breath. “Okay, I need you to take a quick look, see if it’s something that’s easily fixable. If it is… maybe we can come to some arrangement.”

He glared at her, then sighed, and waddled over to where Benny was parked. A second later, he had the bonnet open and his head was inside Benny’s engine.

Bea crossed her fingers and hoped. She’d been terrified walking in here, so scared that she didn’t know what she was doing, what she was talking about. Then she thought about Alli’s face, the way her nose screwed up when she was fighting to control her temper, the way she worked so hard to change herself. And she’d known that she had to do this, had to fight a little bit every day to be the kind of person that Alli deserved.

The kind of confident and independent person that Alli deserved.

“Nah, it’s no good,” said the mechanic, standing up again. “You’re going to need a good overhaul here. It’s a two, three day job, even if I start now.”

Bea wavered a little. “Right,” she said. “Um, can I get a second opinion?” Her insides felt watery, he was going to lose it with her any second, she was pushing her luck, he’d think she was stupid or weak or demanding or something and then—

The mechanic started to laugh.

“What?” Bea asked, surprised.

He shook his head. “You really need some help, don’t you?”

“Well, yes, that’s why I’m here.”

He recovered himself. “Alright, well, you can get a second opinion if you want one, there’s nothing wrong with that. But you’ll need to get the car towed somewhere else and it won’t get done any faster than it’ll get done here, you’ve got my word on that.”

Bea groaned.

“But let’s see what we can do,” he said. He beckoned her with his head. “Come over to the office.”