Seven

Zara drove to the repair shop a bit faster than she should have. But you couldn’t outrun embarrassment. So Zara’s mortification was sitting in the car with them like a sulphuric fart.

In retrospect, she probably shouldn’t have implied Tess was a secret porn star. She hadn’t quite meant to say that. She just meant that if there was something dicey on the laptop, it wasn’t the end of the world. Why else would a perfectly capable person ‘forget’ to take the laptop with all their crucial information and paperwork to a repair shop? Zara had simply wanted to reassure Tess that if the laptop contained anything embarrassing, she didn’t need to worry about it. She’d thought she was being subtly reassuring.

Apparently not. Tess was still laughing.

Zara was wrestling with whether to let it go or attack it head-on. The trouble was, in her years on the job, she was fairly certain she’d never had a business owner like Tess before. She was truly unpredictable and a little scary with it. It never went this way. Owners were often intimidated by Zara until she put them at ease. But Tess resisted ease at every turn. It was confusing to Zara. She couldn’t seem to get a read on her. What exactly was her problem?

Zara stepped into the repair shop, the smell of burnt metal hitting her as she scanned the cluttered interior. Tools and parts lined the walls, and a man in a Rick and Morty t-shirt looked up from his workbench.

‘How can I help you?’ he asked.

Before Tess could respond, Zara stepped forward. ‘We have an urgent situation. A laptop with important business info has been damaged by water. We need to see if it can be repaired.’

The man nodded, motioning for them to hand it over. He unscrewed the back of the sodden device.

‘How’s it look—’ Zara began.

Then Tess shot her a look that Zara understood to mean, ‘Please shut up. I’ve got it from here.’

Zara nodded and duly shut it.

‘What's the prognosis?’ Tess asked the man.

The repairman examined the equipment, frowning. ‘It'll take some work, but I think I can salvage your data.’

Tess let out a sigh of relief, but Zara wasn't satisfied. She unshut her mouth. ‘How long will it take? We don't have much time.’

‘I could have it done end of next week?’ he posited.

Zara smiled. ‘How about the end of today?’

He did a sharp intake of breath that Zara knew would precede a gouging. ‘Well, let’s see… Rush job? That’s gonna…’

‘…Cost extra,’ Zara said in sync with him.

The guy smiled. ‘That’s how it goes. You wanna get to the front of the cue, I need a reason.’

Tess huffed. ‘Fine. What’s the total?’ she asked.

‘Two-fifty.’

Tess was winded by the price, and Zara didn’t blame her. It was exorbitant. But they couldn’t afford to wait. Work couldn’t begin until Zara had all the facts. Even one extra day of the place being closed would cost a lot more than two hundred and fifty pounds.

‘Pay it,’ she said to Tess. ‘We’ll work the cost into the loan if needed.’

‘Wonderful,’ Tess said sourly. She turned to the IT guy. ‘What does it matter if you bury me an inch deeper in debt, eh?’

The guy smiled. ‘I’ll call you.’

As they left the shop, Zara noticed the tension in Tess's shoulders hadn't eased.

They got back in the car and Zara turned to Tess. ‘While that’s being sorted, I’ve been thinking. I have a way you can be making money from the business while the building isn’t operational.’

‘What?’ Tess asked, eyes popping. ‘How?’

‘You’re across the road from a beach…’ Zara began.

‘Oh,’ Tess said, rubbing the back of her neck anxiously. ‘I know what you’re gonna say. Fi had the same idea. She wanted to do an outdoor cinema night once a month. She ran right into a brick wall with the permit.’

‘They wouldn’t grant it?’ Zara frowned.

‘I don’t know, to be honest. Fi applied. We never heard back. That was… Jesus, about two years ago now.’

‘Fi didn’t chase it?’ Zara asked, mildly shocked. She’d have hounded them about it.

‘I don’t know. But what would be the point anyway? They say yes or no, and they say when they feel like it.’

A smile slid onto Zara’s lips as she realised she knew a workaround. She’d always liked that feeling. It was her drug of choice, and she was going to get a big fix if she could do something right in Tess’s eyes.

Tess examined Zara with suspicion. ‘You’re smiling, and I just gave you bad news. That’s weird.’

‘You think you gave me bad news,’ she said proudly. Tess was gonna see, in real-time, just what she could do when she put her shoulder to the wheel. No one would be laughing then.