Sloan looked up, startled.
Matty rolled to a stop in front of her, blocking her path.
“You…” Matty said, her voice shaking but firm. “You just cost me my job.”
Sloan stopped in her tracks, then registered the skates.
Her eyes dropped slowly, taking Matty in with a more scrutinous look: The dungarees with one side undone and hanging, the big, smiling sunflower peeking out beneath them, and the skates on her feet.
“I said that you just cost me my job.”
“I heard you. I’m not hard of hearing,” Sloan snapped back. She stopped dabbing and dropped her hands to her sides. “This is my favourite jumper.”
“Oh, well, I am sorry. If only I’d known and could have avoided you altogether,” Matty said.
Sloan bristled. She really did not have the bandwidth for this. “I need to go. Can you move?”
“I can move, yes,” Matty said, skating backwards in a loose weave. “I still don’t have a job, though.”
“And that’s my fault how?” Sloan said. “You’ve got agency, haven’t you...Matty?”
Matty came to a halt, and Sloan almost bumped into her. “You really don’t care?”
Sloan slumped. “I don’t have time to care. I’m sorry, I just—” She looked away, swallowing hard as the old panic ebbed.Get a grip. Be Sloan. “I’m having a bad day, okay? The shittiest day. All I wanted was ten minutes to sit down and drink a coffee, and now it’s all gone to shit, and there’s nobody...no one will take her on, and I don’t know how I’m going to...” She stopped herself, suddenly aware she was rambling at a stranger. “I need to go.”
For a moment, Matty watched her walk away.What the hell was that?
“Sloan, wait,” she called, skating after her and catching up in seconds. “Come with me.” When Sloan didn’t move, Matty took her arm and steered her across the street.
She led her to the corner of the street, towards a different café.
“I need to get home,” Sloan insisted.
“You need to chill the fuck out before you implode,” Matty said, smiling at her. “I mean, the whole image you’ve got going on at work is hot and everything, but this...” She circled a finger in Sloan’s direction. “This is someone who desperately needs that coffee.”
Sloan glanced down at herself and then looked around. There were tables outside with empty seats.
“Sit,” Matty said, then laughed when Sloan did as ordered. “I bet that doesn’t happen often, does it?”
“No, not at all,” Sloan said, eyes narrowing at the bohemian on wheels.
“Flat white, right?”
“Yes.”
“Okay, take a breath. I’ll be back.”
***
Sloan glanced at her phone—nearly half ten. Gloria would be enraged if she was left for much longer. She huffed. This mess was Gloria’s fault; of course it was.
She looked down at her jumper, stained and ruined. She pulled it off and sighed when she saw the smaller mark on the silk shirt.
“Terrific,” she muttered. “Pull yourself together, for goodness’ sake.”
At least she’d got the milk and the other bits they needed.
It wasn’t long before Matty reappeared, two takeaway cups in her hands. “Here you go,” she said, sitting down and pushing one cup towards Sloan. “I’m sorry about your jumper.” She glanced quickly at Sloan, now without the cashmere. “And your blouse.”
