Chapter 1

Five missed calls.

Isla snuck a glance at her phone, eyebrow raised. What on earth did Rachel want? Her best friend knew that she was at work, and Isla was sure that she wouldn't call this many times unless it was important.

She smiled an apology to her client and answered when the phone inevitably rang again.

"Rachel? Is everything alright?"

"Isla!" Her best friend's voice sounded higher pitched than usual, breathier, like she was slipping into Littlespace.

Rachel was adorable when she was in Littlespace, if chaotic.

"Yes, Rachel?"

"I did a thing!"

"You did a thing?"

There was silence on the other end of the phone, and Isla knew—she just knew—that Rachel had forgotten that this was a phone call and that Isla couldn't see her nod.

She sent an apologetic smile to the woman in front of her, some celebrity's PA who was trying to discreetly organize for her client's stuffie to be repaired. Stuffie Hospital London was known in certain circles for being the place that Littles on the downlow could get their bears repaired, without even a whisper affecting their reputation.

It meant that as much as she wanted to talk to Rachel, because she always wanted to talk to Rachel, now probably wasn't quite the right moment.

"Rach, why don't you come over at twelve? We can have lunch and talk business at the same time."

Rachel, who was more than used to Isla's business talk, immediately cottoned on. "Oh butterscotch, you have a client with you? No worries, I'll swing by then. Love you Isla!" And the call cut off.

Isla smiled. "Thank you for your patience; clients call to check in with us all the time, and our availability is one of the things that sets us apart."

The PA nodded, looking impressed, and Isla gave an internal sigh of relief.

After her meeting ended, Isla popped her head round Susie's office door to let her know how it went. Susie might be Stuffie Hospital London's CEO, but she loathed having to do any of the celebrity cajoling.

"All good; they're going to let us know dates, and they're going to want to come and see the site first, before they're okay with their stuffie staying overnight."

Susie nodded, but Isla could tell that she wasn't entirely listening.

"Hey, you okay?"

Blinking, the redhead looked up at her. "Oh, yeah, I'm fine." She didn't sound fine. She sounded tired and sad and… was that a Little tone creeping into her voice? Isla had noticed that Susie had been getting quieter and quieter recently, as if all the stresses of the business were beginning to overwhelm her.

"Rachel's coming over for lunch. Apparently, she's done a thing… Do you want to join us?"

"No no, I've got tons to do, and I…"

Isla raised her eyebrows. "You still have to eat, Susie."

Susie sighed a little huffily. "Fine. I'll lunch."

There was a long pause in which both of them very pointedly did not look at each other. Then there was a quiet, "I'm sorry Isla, I'm a bit stressed."

"I can tell. Look, you don't have to lunch with us if you don't want to, but you're clearly really overwhelmed at the moment."

"It's okay, Brianna's taking me out for dinner tonight." At the sound of Bri's name, Susie's face lit up. "I always feel better after I've had some Bri time."

If Isla'd had any doubts about whether or not Susie's best friend Bri could mean something more to her boss, they were instantly washed away. She doubted that Susie was even aware of it herself. Lesbians. It still amused her how many times people thought that they were just best friends when in fact their relationship meant far more. "That sounds like an excellent plan. So yes to lunch?"

"Yes please," said Susie. "We going out?"

"Sushi in the garden," said Isla. "I'll go grab it now."

It was one of the nicest things about Stuffie Hospital London. Because the building was a converted old house, one of those fancy tall ones that peppered the streets in Central London, it came with a garden. A small one, to be sure, but Susie had spent a fair amount of time and money sorting out the decking and furniture, and when the British weather deigned to grant them sunshine, it was a lovely space to sit in.

Perfect for tearful clients who didn't want to be separated from their stuffie for a night.

And perfect for a summer lunchtime.

Isla made her way down the road to the independent sushi bar, and picked out a selection of some of her favorites, and then paused before picking up a large seaweed salad and some pickled veggies. Rachel never ate enough greens.

By the time she got back to the office, Rachel was in reception, bouncing up and down in excitement. "Isla! I got so much to tells you!"

"I got sushi, and Susie's going to join us, if that's okay?"

"Of course! We in the garden?"

Isla nodded, and after calling up to Susie, headed through the Restoration Hub to the back garden.

Rachel flung herself onto the rattan couch, reached out for the bag of sushi, and started chattering away to Susie as the other woman joined them.

Isla found herself smiling unwittingly, as she often did around Rachel. They'd been the best of friends since their university days, and couldn't be more different. Isla was short, Rachel was tall; Isla's hair was cropped short in a blonde pixie cut, Rachel had long, honey-colored tresses; Isla was quiet, Rachel was… not.

Sitting down, she ruffled Rachel's hair and tucked in to her sushi, listening to the conversation.

"And so I told Cat—she's the one who thought it up—that I think it's an excellent idea! All the alternative markets are aimed at Bigs, and that's fine, and there'd definitely be crossover, but there are things that Littles would want, that Littles would like, that you just wouldn't find at a standard kink market. And she asked me if I'd like to partner with her and so we're going to do it!"

Isla blinked. She'd clearly missed an important step somewhere along the way. "Sorry, do what?"

Rachel turned and beamed at her. "We're going to run our own kink market for Littles!"