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“Huh?”
“We’re here, but there’s no parking. Is there a valet?”
Belle smiled over at her and replied, “That’s cute. No, I’m one hundred percent certain there is no valet here. You can just street park.”
“I don’t street park. This is a Mercedes.”
“You really are a princess, aren’t you?”
“Not all of us wear ties with button-downs.”
“You like my tie?” Belle asked.
“Belle, where do I park?” Chandler looked a little frustrated or, possibly, overwhelmed.
“Okay. If you don’t want to street park, we can find a lot or a garage. Hold on. Let’s pull it up on GPS, okay? Your fancy car’s computer can tell us where a parking garage is, can’t it?”
“Yes, but there’s a lot up here. Think I can park there?” Chandler pointed to the right. “It doesn’t look like I have to pay. Check the signs.”
“Yes, Ma’am,” she replied and looked at the signs ahead. “I think we’re good. It just says there’s street cleaning on Fridays.”
“Okay. Well, I’ll pull in, but if this car gets towed, I’m going to be pissed.”
“We’d have to call your sister to pick us up at a gay bar.” Belle laughed. “She’d probably kill me for bringing you here, huh?”
“If she were to kill anyone, it would be me. She’d just try to fire you again.”
“Can I ask you something?”
“Sure,” Chandler said as she pulled into the lot.
“Why do you keep defending me? I mean, you probably could do better with whoever Justin is as your partner. You’d be able to be part of the pairs competition that isn’t new and scary and only has three pairs registered for it so far. You’re not worried about not being taken seriously with this thing we’re trying?”
Chandler parked, turned off the car, and sighed.
“Right now, I need you.”
Belle didn’t know what to make of that, so she didn’t say anything.
“I can’t imagine doing this with anyone else, okay? Losing Walker sucked. He’s the best. And he was my best chance of making the team. That’s obvious to everyone. And Justin or the five or six others we looked at probably could have done a decent or, even, a good job, yeah, but they’re not who I needed.”
“Why me? Is it because of what happened?”
Chandler turned her face to Belle and asked, “What do you mean?”
“I don’t want to believe your sister, so I’ll say that first, but she mentioned that it was some kind of karma thing for you. Like, you might have me here to make up for what happened. She said you picked on me, so unless she was being very general, it didn’t sound like she knew the whole story; she just knew some of it and suggested that’s what this is about for you.”
“I’ll kill her,” Chandler replied and sucked air through her teeth. “I’m going to kill her. Yeah, when we get back.” She nodded. “Will you be my alibi, please?”
Belle smiled and said, “Don’t do it on my account.”
“I’m not. But she shouldn’t have said that to you. That’s not what this is about. God, I need a drink. Like, six of them.” Chandler pushed the door open.
“Uh… Maybe we start with one. You seem like you’d be a lightweight, and you haven’t even eaten dinner yet.” Belle opened her door.
“I’ll get food with my six drinks,” Chandler told her. “And not wine.” Then, she got out of the car. “I want the strong stuff.”
“Okay. Well, what if we start with one and see how that goes?” Belle got out of the car and walked around to meet Chandler.
