The Setup by Lizzy Dent

Author:Lizzy Dent [Dent, Lizzy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2022-06-07T00:00:00+00:00

15

The shopping trip with Samira has made me a little braver. I have paired my own black leggings with an oversize white shirt. It’s an attempt to wear something non-black and not feel excruciatingly visible. Unfortunately, though, the first person I see when I enter the office is incapable of passing by without commentary.

“Mara!” Lynn says, pulling her whole head back into her neck, her eyes wide in surprise. “What are you wearing?”

There is nothing positive to find in the way she’s posed this question, as she has managed to emphasize both the what and the you.

“I’m wearing a white oversize shirt,” I reply, pulling down the front hem as if I might be able to disappear inside it like it’s a gigantic recycled cotton tent.

“You need a belt,” she says, sighing. “Come with me.”

I follow her to the lost-property box, which Samira refers to as “our box of norm-core accessories.”

“Here,” she says, thrusting a plain brown leather suit belt into my hand. “Otherwise you look like a tea cozy.”

“Thanks, Lynn,” I say, threading the belt around my waist.

“There, look,” she says, pointing into the full-length mirror behind the swimming trophy chest. I maneuver myself so I can see better, and I have to admit the look is mildly better.

“You’re looking very lovely these days, Mara,” says Lynn. “Everyone has noticed.”

“Thanks, Lynn,” I say, feeling my heart swell at the compliment.

“I mean it. Even Gerry commented on your looks one afternoon, and you know how picky he is.”

The compliment swiftly plummets in value.

“So, Campaign Manager, where are you at with the nominations, then?”

I nod. “We’re all done. Ten signatures, and the paperwork is filled. I’ll get it down to the office later today, and then you’re officially in the running. Is it time to tell Gerry?”

“No,” Lynn says, darting her eyes up from the paperwork and then swiftly back down again. “Ooh, Carole Langley. About bloody time she did something useful. There’s Sanka from the video store. Joan is in there too, and Graham Piper. Quite an endorsement from him, Mara; he’s Billie Piper’s second cousin.”

“You know we have to tell Gerry at some point? Once we submit, there’s no turning back. Ryan’s father has donated the billboard space outside his landscape gardening business. Your face is going to be right there for the whole town to see, with all the election information.”

“I know, Mara. I sort of did tell him,” she says, now looking up at me, perching her butt on the edge of my desk.

“Go on,” I say.

“Well, I asked him, hypothetically, what would happen if a staff member ran for elected office, and he said that was a conflict of interest—”

“I’m not sure that’s right, actually—”

Lynn holds up a hand. “Well, maybe not, but in any case, the general response I got was not an encouraging one. It’s clear to me what I’ve been ignoring for too long. Gerry has not been trying to help this lido; he’s been running it into the ground.”

“Well, yes,” I say,

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