All You Took from Me by Lisa Kenway

Author:Lisa Kenway
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Transit Lounge
Published: 2024-06-14T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eighteen

Flick leans forward in her chair and peers at me. ‘Is everything alright?’

I shift my weight to take pressure off the bruised hip. ‘Sure. Fine. Great. Why do you ask?’

‘You seem jumpy.’

‘I’m fine, really.’ I tuck my hands between my knees to bring them under control. Of course I’m jumpy. After spending all night ruminating and all morning in a phone shop, it’s a wonder I made it here at all.

‘I’ve been meaning to ask – what happened to your hair?’ Flick says. ‘I liked the pink.’

I lean sideways to check out my reflection in the framed picture. What was once a sharp pixie cut is now a shaggy mop, and the hot pink has faded to an insipid salmon. Regular hairdressing appointments aren’t exactly a priority, not that they ever were; it hardly matters when I always wear a hat at work and have no social life to speak of.

‘I’ve been busy. I’m back to four ten-hour days most weeks.’

She scrawls a note in my file. ‘Maybe too busy.’

‘What are you writing?’ I ask, alarmed. ‘Don’t ask them to cut my hours.’

‘I’m just making notes for myself. How is work, anyway?’

‘Work’s great, but it’s tough without a car.’

She bites her lip. ‘I’ll see what I can do about your licence – remind me to sort it out before you leave. Are you still getting enough exercise? It’s good for stress relief, you know.’

‘I’ve been doing a bit of strength training.’ Insomnia has done wonders for my workout routine: most mornings I manage to pump out an hour and a half of weights before leaving for work. When Brent returns, I’ll be as ready as I can be.

‘Getting outdoors can help,’ she says. ‘Maybe join a group …?’

‘Bootcamp?’ I’ve never been good at taking direction. ‘I can’t imagine anything worse.’ She is right about exercising outside, though. I miss the rush I used to get from running, but my ankle still gives me trouble if I push it. And ever since that threatening phone call, the thought of running alone through the quiet streets fills me with dread. Even walking to the shops or the train station is a challenge. The crunch of tyres on asphalt has me ducking for cover, and the slightest intrusion – the brush of an overgrown shrub against my leg, or the growl of a neighbour’s dog as I pass by – has me sprinting for home.

‘What about something more mindful?’ Flick says. ‘Pilates or yoga …?’

‘Yeah, right. The one time I did a yoga class, the instructor told us to lean forward and rest our frontal lobes on a foam block. It took all my strength not to tell her to shove those sun salutations up her skinny pseudoscientific arse.’

Flick snorts with laughter. ‘And how are you sleeping?’

I shrug. The bags under my eyes are probably a dead giveaway.

‘Let me guess. “Fine.” “Great.”’

I smile, begrudgingly impressed. She does see through me. ‘It’s been shit, actually. But you already knew that.’

‘Some things in life we must accept.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.