Six

A few hours after Tess’s attack on Zara’s office, she was back in the cinema, standing in the foyer, staring at the water-stained ceiling. She was wondering if she’d made a deal with the devil. But even though Tess hated everything Zara represented, she didn’t seem like a liar. There again, Tess had been fooled before.

Her phone buzzed, interrupting her thoughts. It was Fi.

‘Hey,’ Tess answered, trying to sound upbeat.

‘How did the doctor's appointment go?’ Fi jumped in, her voice filled with concern.

‘Heart like a horse,’ Tess said instantly. It was good to be able to say something positive for a change.

‘That’s good. That… You’re OK,’ Fi said. She cleared her throat. ‘Any news from the insurance company?’ Fi asked.

Tess sighed. It was time to tell the truth. At least she had some kind of plan now. ‘Yeah, they’re only covering a fraction of the repairs.’

The panic set in quickly. ‘Oh, but… I mean, what’s…’

‘It’s cool, Fi,’ Tess interrupted calmly. ‘I’m getting a loan.’

There was a pause. ‘A loan? Can we cover the repayments? I mean, if we were up and running.’

‘They’ve sent me someone who can make sure we can do that,’ Tess told her. She’d never explained the extent of the issues to her in the past. She was pretty sure Fi didn’t want to know the truth. That was always Tess’s burden.

‘Who?’ Fi asked.

‘A business advisor. Zara something.’

‘Is she going to change things?’ Fi asked anxiously.

‘I’ll let her change a few small things if it keeps her happy. But The Eclipse will be The Eclipse, don’t worry,’ Tess said, trying to sound confident. But she didn’t feel it.

There was something about Zara that was a bit too Can-Do. She wouldn’t care about the feel of the place, its history, no matter what dreamy stories she told of childhood magic. She wasn’t a kid now. She was a numbers person. She would only care about black instead of red. Profit and loss were her language. Tess wouldn’t forget that. And she would never let her change this place. Not in any way that mattered.

‘Alright then,’ Fi said, sounding relieved. ‘Can I help with anything?’

‘There is one thing. Can you call Jerry and Dylan and tell them we’re going to keep paying them? I’m not letting them go, I mean.’

‘Oh, OK,’ Fi said, excited. ‘They’ll be pleased to hear that.’

‘Yeah, I’m sure they will,’ Tess said. She couldn’t afford to give them paid leave, but what was a bit more debt at this point?

As she walked towards the office, Zara’s voice echoed in her mind. ‘Strategic guidance,’ she had said. The words struck terror into her heart.

There was no time for panic, though. Tess had been given a task before their meeting later on. Tess had to regather the records. She really didn’t want to do that. She had tried something earlier to avoid it, but now it was time to see if it had worked.

She went into the office and pulled out a large plastic storage box from under her desk. It was filled with three kilograms of rice, as well as the laptop. As plans went, it was a bit lame—Tess knew that. But everyone said this was the way to sort out a soggy phone, so she’d figured it had shot.

She dug out the laptop and pressed the on button. Nothing happened. Fuck.

***

‘Look, these are the rough numbers,’ Tess told Zara in the lobby that afternoon, handing over a scrap of torn notebook paper. ‘From memory, which you can trust. I will get the stuff we need, but this is the reality. The rest was on the laptop.’

They were having a second go at the appointment. Tess was trying to be on her best behaviour this time. Though Tess’s best could be pretty scattershot.

Zara nodded, looking at the piece of paper. It was just two numbers. One marked ‘IN’ and the other marked ‘OUT’.

‘This is monthly?’ Zara asked.

‘That’s right,’ Tess said.

‘OK, well, it’s good to have an idea. But how quickly can you get me the breakdown? I’ll need about five years’ worth.’

Tess blinked. ‘You see that the “IN”

number is smaller than the “OUT”

number, right?’

Zara nodded. ‘I did spot that, yes. So, the records?’

‘I guess I can go to my building society today.’

‘The laptop repair company concluded it was a right-off?’ Zara asked.

Tess blinked.

‘You did take it to a shop?’ Zara checked.

‘Umm… I didn’t realise there was anything they could do,’ Tess said feebly.

Zara did the most infinitesimal sigh. ‘OK. Go grab the laptop.’

Tess felt so stupid she could have cried. Of course she should have checked. The trouble was that Tess always had this idea that if something needed to be done at The Eclipse outside of obviously skilled shit like busted pipes, she should be able to do it. On this occasion, her wilfulness had blinded her to an obvious solution. The wet laptop was a job for someone who knew something about computers.

She wondered if she should try to explain that to Zara. But she decided that would only make the situation more embarrassing.

She retrieved the old Lenovo and took it back out to Zara, feeling like a dog fetching a bone.

Zara looked up from her phone. ‘There’s a place up the road that does drop-ins. We can go now.’

‘You don’t need to come,’ Tess said. ‘Just give me the address.’

‘You drive?’

‘No,’ Tess admitted.

‘I do. Let’s go,’ Zara said.

Tess once again considered arguing that she could take it from here. But she was still burning from her last dumbass error. ‘If you insist.’

She followed Zara out, head down. That dog feeling was not going away anytime soon.

They went down the street, and Zara led her to a Lexus. It looked very new and very clean. Tess got in the passenger side and belted up. Zara climbed in the other side and did the same, but she didn’t turn the engine on. She turned to Tess, an odd, pensive look on her face.

‘You know, it’s not… They’ll just give you the backup, the repairs person,’ Zara said.

Tess narrowed her eyes, baffled. ‘Right…’

‘They won’t comment on it,’ Zara said.

Tess kept looking at her, the penny still not dropping. ‘OK.’

Zara swallowed. ‘If you use it for anything… personal.’

Tess suddenly knew what the hell she was hinting around. ‘Wait. You think I didn’t take it for repairs because there’s porn on there?!’

‘I mean…’ Zara said nervously. ‘It seemed like a possibility. I’ve seen it once before. Similar situation. A couple who ran a hardware shop had been doing some after-hours stuff in the stockroom to make a bit of extra…’

Tess began to grin despite herself. ‘So you thought that it wasn’t just porn, but my porn?’ she checked, wide-eyed. She started laughing. ‘Don’t get me wrong. I’d have started an OnlyFans long ago if I thought there was an audience clambering for forty-year-old cinema owners.’ She couldn’t stop guffawing. It felt like the first time she’d laughed in weeks. ‘But as far as I know, it’s not a big fetish.’

‘I… I…’ Zara stuttered.

‘Jesus, just drive, would you?’ Tess said her, still chuckling.