“Listen, let’s get you out of here,” Lorraine said. “We’ve been here for almost twenty minutes and there’s no sign of anyone coming to talk to any of the employees. Some of your colleagues have already left, and I don’t blame them.”
She gestured towards the pavement outside the furniture shop, where Courtney saw a few colleagues wandering away, looking bereft. Some remained outside the doors, their expressions furious as they exchanged angry theories with one another about what had caused the demise of the business they’d all worked for. But the whole place had a cold, ghostly feel to it. The shop remained dark behind the glass doors and there was no sign anywhere of Lee Ashford, the company director, and the only person who could tell them more.
“You’re right,” Courtney said. “We could wait around here for hours and still leave with nothing more than we’ve got already. The text message we all received says that the administrators will contact us at some point.”
“In that case, unless you really want to stay here for a while longer, I think we should make a move,” Colin said. “Being here won’t do anything other than upset you.”
“Okay.” Still stunned, Courtney nodded. “Would you mind dropping me off back at my bedsit accommodation?”
Colin gave her a grim nod and then exchanged a look with Lorraine, which Courtney couldn’t decipher.
While Lorraine remained beside her on the back seat, Colin got in behind the wheel and was soon pulling out of the small retail park and back into the busy traffic. The world beyond the car window passed in a blur as Courtney’s mind wrestled with the developments of the last twenty minutes.
She’d lost her job.Lost her job.
Her uncle might be right that she hadn’t lost the job so much as it had been taken from her, but the semantics didn’t change the reality.
She was unemployed. Pregnant, alone, grieving, homeless—and now also unemployed.
The stunning weight of it all, the endlessbattleof it all, was too much. Life kept throwing awful, painful things at her and somehow she was expected to shrug it all off and keep going?
There were limits.Shehad limits. There were only so many times she could pick herself up and keep going, only so many times she could paint on a cheerful smile and straighten her shoulders and march on into yet another battle where the odds were stacked so horrifyingly against her.
Glancing out the car window at the world speeding by as she fought against tears, Courtney felt her baby kick inside her. She moved her hands across her bump and thought of her tiny child—the tiny child she was failing before she’d even been born.
What sort of life was she about to welcome her baby into?
Another kick. The sweet prod of the little foot against her belly calmed her, centred her, just as it had so many times before.
She would figure this out. Shehadto figure this out. For the sake of her beautiful daughter, she would deal with this mess.
Somehow.
The car slowed and Courtney realised they’d finished the short journey to the bedsit accommodation where she lived. Even on a sunny morning like this one, the building still looked dank and miserable and filled with despair.
After the terrifying incident of Friday morning, she really didn’t want to go inside or return to the tiny, cramped room that smelled of damp. But with no job to go, and no other options, she didn’t have any choice.
Unclipping her seatbelt, Courtney turned to her aunt across the seat. “Thanks for the lift. And thanks for a lovely weekend. I’m so glad I got to meet you.”
“Me too,” Lorraine smiled, unclipping her own seatbelt and opening the car door even as she gave her an oddly puzzled look.
“You don’t have to get out,” Courtney said, not wanting her aunt to see any more of the awful bedsit than she already had. “I’ll be fine now that I’m back here. I’ll use the rest of the day to start looking for a new job.”
Her aunt and uncle glanced at each other and then at Courtney.
“We’re not leaving you here, Courtney,” Colin said, waving a hand towards the building where her bedsit was located. “This place is awful. While you had a job here in Southampton, I understood why you’d want to stay here while you waited for somewhere else to live. But now that your job is gone, there’s no reason for you to be here.”
“But—”
“You’re coming back to Hamblehurst with us,” Colin said, his tone firm. “We’ll clear your room here of all your belongings and then we’re leaving. You’ll either stay at Rosie’s house, where you’re already comfortable, or you’ll stay with us. But we’renotleaving you here.”
Courtney blinked in surprise. “No, I can’t let you do that. You’ve already been kind enough. I don’t want to impose and?—”
“You’re not imposing,” Lorraine interrupted. “Look, you’ve had a shock this morning, Courtney. Anyone finding out they’ve just been made redundant out of the bluewouldbe shocked. You need people around you who care for you, which means you’re coming home with us. There’s simply no way either of us can drop you off here and just drive away and leave you to worry about this all on your own. And that’s all there is to it.”
Before she could reply, Colin and Lorraine got out of the car. Colin walked around and opened Courtney’s door, then held out his hand to help her out.
“Come on,” he said with a kind smile. “Let’s get your stuff and then let’s get out of here.”
