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“Get it together,” she whispered.
The tears came anyway, hot and ugly.
Somewhere behind her, a door banged and carefree laughter spilled into the night. Lauren wiped her face with her palm.
Carly would have walked out calm, collected, maybe even smug. Lauren couldn’t even stand upright.
She fled down the path at the back of the clubhouse, fumbling for her keys with shaking hands. Inside the car, the tears dried quickly, but humiliation settled in their place.
She pulled her phone from her pocket, thumb hovering over Paige’s name.
After a few seconds, she locked the screen.
6
Carly
Leaning on one elbow, Carly drummed her fingers against the reception desk as Beth scrolled to the top of her spreadsheet. It had taken less than forty-eight hours for her to come up with a plan, only marginally longer than it had taken Samantha to follow up with a series of texts and voicemails.
“I think we can swing a modest upgrade here,” Beth said, pointing to a highlighted column. “Some of the old weights are better than what’s currently on the floor, which is impressive, given ours predate the moon landing.”
“That says a lot.”
But it was a start. In an ideal world, they’d gut the place, but spending freely wasn’t an option. Not after taking on this site and absorbing its monthly haemorrhage of cash.
Carly’s mind whirred over ways to shrink the deficit until she felt Beth’s gaze boring into the side of her head.
“What?”
“Are we not going to say anything about Saturday night?”
“What more is there to say?” They’d already hashed out Samantha’s tantrum on the car ride home. The strategy was simple: appease her enough to keep her quiet. “We’re handling it. The rest doesn’t need discussing.”
The swivel chair creaked as Beth leaned back. “Perhaps your unresolved issues around City Rovers and that silly Lauren woman?”
“Silly sums her up. She caught me off guard after a long day, that’s all.”
“But you’ve agreed to watch Jenna play. You know she’ll be there.”
“Of course I know. Which means she won’t catch me off guard this time.”
Beth shrugged. “If you say so.”
“I do say so. Now, can we get back to work?”
“You’re the boss.” Beth rolled the chair forward. “Don’t forget about your meeting, though.”
“The meeting you booked without consulting me?”
Carly checked her watch. One o’clock already. She needed to head across town to inspect the repurposed kit, not waste time on small talk.
“That’s the one,” Beth said, bright and unapologetic. “I didn’t think you’d mind, since it’s related to a valuable source of income: the rent on the back room.”
“Rent comes in whether I take a meeting or not. There’s a lease in place. Couldn’t you handle it? That’s why I employed a manager.”
“You employed me to manage the day-to-day. You were very explicit that anything strategic goes through you. Since the tenant wants to discuss collaboration, it’s a you meeting.”
Carly grumbled, hitched herself onto the edge of the desk, and picked up the sandwich she’d assembled at six that morning. She couldn’t fault Beth’s logic. If the tenant had an idea that generated cash, Carly needed it on the table. She just didn’t want it on the table today.
