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That was the crux of it. Carly was a reminder of all the parts of Lauren she didn’t like, and the parts other people still expected to find if they scratched the surface: reckless, selfish, led by whatever she wanted in the moment.
Paige’s face pinched, then softened.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I don’t think that’s all you’re capable of. I know it isn’t.”
Lauren swallowed. “Do you?”
“Yes. One hundred percent. You’ve worked hard to make a life you should be proud of. Different work from Carly, maybe, but still work.” Paige put a hand on her shoulder. “You remember the other day, when I said I had a lot to lose?”
Lauren nodded. She could see where this was going, and for once she got there first.
“I’ve got so much riding on what Carly thinks of me,” she said, “I’ve forgotten I get a say in any of it.”
Paige opened her mouth, then shut it again. “Well. I was going to say that, but with more flourish.”
Lauren kept her eyes on the road. She could apologise. She could show Carly who she was now. She could behave like someone worth trusting. But she couldn’t climb inside Carly’s head and rearrange what she found there. At some point, she’d have to let that be Carly’s.
She’d apologised, sort of. She still needed to do it properly, without excuses and without making Carly responsible for absolving her.
She would do the work. She would not beg to be believed.
What the work actually looked like, she had no idea. But right now, that was tomorrow’s problem.
14
Carly
Standing with her hands on her hips, Carly surveyed the newly refurbished weights room. Or at least, the weights room refurbished with old weights, some brand-new mats, and a replacement pane of glass for the end mirror.
It wasn’t perfect, but it would have to do for now. She hoped she’d be able to say the same about the videos when Paige dropped by to reveal the final footage from Friday night’s stand-off with fitness tips. Carly already knew none of their takes were usable.
“Good news and bad news,” Beth said, leaning around the doorframe. “The landlord has contracted someone to fix the roof.”
Carly turned. “What’s the bad news?”
“It’s going to take a week to complete, and we need to close. In a fortnight.”
A few days would have been manageable. A week meant lost revenue, irritated members, refund requests and the kind of online reviews that stuck around forever.
“We need to get ahead of this.”
“I’ve checked the contract terms. We’re borderline for needing to offer compensation, but I think we can get away without it.”
Beth had missed the point.
Carly rubbed her temples. “We need to do something, or we’ve got a PR disaster.”
“More of a PR disaster than the roof collapsing?”
“I want the roof repaired. That’s not in question. But I thought the contractor I showed around said three days.”
Beth shrugged. “The landlord decided that if he was going to bother getting it done, he’d do it properly. He’s applying a waterproof coating as well as doing the repairs.”
She stared up at the ceiling and let out a wistful sigh.
“Sometimes, unfortunately, you get what you asked for in life.” Beth straightened. “And on that note, you have a visitor.”
Carly expected Paige and her laptop. Instead, her polite smile turned genuine when she saw who was waiting at reception.
