Callie swallowed, trying to find something useful to do with her hands. But they just hung on the ends of her limp arms like a couple of chumps.
She didn’t remember stepping forward, but suddenly she was close enough to smell Mae’s perfume. Or maybe it was the smell of baked goods that she worked with. Or maybe it was just her natural smell. Callie had never been sure about that. All she knew was that Mae had always smelled very good. And she still did.
‘You didn’t need to do that,’ Callie said quietly.
Mae’s brows lifted. ‘Put out a fire?’
‘There’s a guy for that on the production,’ she explained. ‘He’d have sorted it.’
Mae gave a small, incredulous laugh. ‘Well, next time I’ll let the place burn and hope yourguyremembers what to do.’
Callie found herself grinning. ‘Funny.’
Mae’s mouth went up fractionally at one corner. ‘That’s me. Funniest girl in the bakery.’
God, were theyconversing? This was wild.
‘Hi, Mae! Can I have a biscuit!?’ Hannah said, jumping into the middle of the moment. ‘I haven’t been allowed to eat one yet because of, er,continuityor something?’
‘Oh, umm, well, everything here’s a write-off, but there’ll be something in the back if you give me a minute.’ And Mae walked away, that tight little bum moving at speed.
Callie turned away before she got caught staring. Reality rushed back in. Her mother was watching her with a smirk. Callie really didn’t need that.
Neil was pacing with a phone in hand, barking at someone about insurance. The crew were tidying the smashed light and cleaning the scorch it had left.
Callie felt frozen, like she’d been caught in Mae’s headlights. Only Mae wasn’t even in the room anymore. Yet every muscle in Callie’s body still felt wired wrong.
It shouldn’t be this way. Twelve years had gone by. It shouldn’t be this way. But one look and it was as if the years had just been a pause, a long inhale before the inevitable exhale.
She caught herself staring at the door Mae had walked through, expecting it to open again. It didn’t.
Hannah came over eventually. ‘Is she ever coming back with that biscuit?’
Callie forced a shrug. ‘Not my department.’
Callie gripped the edge of a table. She was fine. Shewas.
Back Then
The heat on the bus was stifling. Callie and Mae practically ran off it at the Staffington stop.
‘Jesus. I need hydration!’ Callie complained.
‘Me too. What the hell is with that bus? Why doesn’t it have any air? Where did it go?’
‘I think they remove it on purpose, to discourage escape,’ Callie said. ‘But it didn’t work, did it? We survived. We’re out.’
‘We’re only one village over,’ Mae pointed out.
‘For now,’ Callie said. She said it like a joke, but it wasn’t. She was going to get out. If her mum didn’t somehow trick her into staying. If she didn’t look into her brother’s eyes and feel too much guilt to ever leave.
‘I need the biggest coldest drink I can find so I don’t die,’ Callie declared.
‘There’s a café down there,’ Mae said. ‘Does a mean ice coffee. Pastries are shite though.’
‘Have a day off, would you?’ Callie said.
Mae rolled her eyes. ‘Maybe we should have brought your brother with us.’
