with: @acedunsmore
where: construction site, end of day.
Ines had been spending the last couple of weeks touring the various construction sites that Mountain View was in charge of, often she’d spend an hour here and there, introducing herself to a couple of people, looking at the work being done, sitting in the on-site office to formally get to grips with the admin side of the business. So far, so good. Most people were welcoming to the new business partner, even if she wasn’t what they had been expecting (her father had certainly left her some big shoes to fill).
This evening though, she’d arrived to site late on. Wanted to walk around and see that things were going smoothly, to check things were being left to a high standard at the end of the day. The odd person still loitered, packing up, but mainly, there was an air of tranquillity.
Too quiet.
Her fingers lift the site login sheet from the desk as she’s heading out the door to begin her journey of the area, scanning over the odd name that was still ticked in, and then she felt it. The lump that lodged in her throat as her feet stopped moving, her focus threatening to burn a hole through the page.
97 days.
That was the amount of time (not that she was counting) that Ines had managed to sneak around the town without so much of a whiff of Ace, the bandaid still firmly wrapped around the wounds she tore open fifteen years prior.
A whole whirl of thoughts buzz around her mind, to just get it over with, to consider leaving before she’s spotted, but none of that matters when she finally tears her gaze from the page to see the name walking straight towards her as if she’s manifested it herself. With no time to prepare, she inhales deeply.
“Hi.”
Hi, she’s already berating herself before she’s spoken, but truly, what else do you say to make up for the biggest fuck up of your teenage years?
