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When her sobs finally subsided, the faint purring from beside her drew her attention. Parfait sat peering at her with inquisitive eyes. A whining from the other side of the door, followed by a heavy scratching had Rebelle scooching forward and opening it to let Bryan in, and between the two of them they smothered her in love.
She sat there for hours, mulling things over, picking apart her dreams and trying to reimagine them, but it was tough. The reason she was so protective ofTake A Chancewas because after Marcus had taken so many choices and experiences away from her, maintaining control of the shelter and everything that happened here had been the only way to get her life back and start the healing journey.
The shelter was her passion, and she knew she needed to put the animals first over her feelings and her need to claw out her independence. Look what happened with Parfait yesterday, how many more times would an animal in need turn up and she was already out of space?
She needed to expand, to start adoptions, and Will’s support could kickstart all her plans for the shelter. The ones that had her standing outside each day and mapping out where everything would go. But still she rebelled against the idea of accepting help, she couldn’t shake it.
The sun set and she couldn’t believe she’d spent all day hiding away in her room. She went back to the shelter, relaxing slightly when she saw Will’s car had gone but also feeling a twinge of guilt that she’d abandoned the shelter to him all day. It was her shift that evening at The Rusty Bucket Inn so she had a shower, put on her least torn clothes and made her way over.
It was a busy evening, lots of noise and bustle and close contact with people. Ben was working with her this evening as well as Taylor and she was surprised how gentle and helpful Ben was with her. Rebelle was trying to work on the things Justine had advised would help her. She made herself have regular interactions with strangers and acquaintances to work on building relationships, but it still intimidated her to approach people.
“Well done on your Elvis performance the other week, it was great,” she said, shyly.
Ben smiled. “Why thank you, it was great to perform again. I’m so grateful to Taylor for supporting me.”
His words produced a lightbulb moment in Rebelle’s brain.Taylor, of course!When it was time to close down the bar she lingered behind.
“You can take off now, sweetheart,” Taylor said, spotting Rebelle still behind the bar. When Taylor called her sweetheart she kinda didn’t mind, she knew it was a term of affection and it made her feel warm inside to know Taylor was friendly enough with her to do that.
“I wanted to speak to you, if that’s okay?”
Taylor looked up from cashing up the register. “Oh yeah? What about?”
Rebelle played with the bottom of her shirt, tugging at a slight tear. “I was wondering how you got started at the bar?”
“Well, it’s a long story, if you’ve got time?” The redhead had a gleam in her eye. Rebelle nodded and then Taylor beamed at her, grabbed two beers from the fridge under the bar and popped the tops off, gesturing to one of the booths.
Rebelle seated herself in the booth, Taylor slid across from her and placed a beer in front of Rebelle before taking a swig from her own. Rebelle tentatively picked up the bottle and Taylor clinked the necks together before launching into herstory. She told Rebelle about looking after her sick father and needing somewhere to escape to. Stumbling across the bar and begging the owner for a job, working part time and earning her position as manager through grit and determination.
“When Bob said he wanted to sell, I thought I was shit out of luck.” Taylor shook her head. “I had plans for this place, big plans that I didn’t want to give up. Then I realized if I wanted it, I had to fight for it. I turned to Dean to borrow the deposit for the bar and took out a loan to cover the rest. It took years before I made enough to pay him back and then I had to work my ass off to make enough to buy the other half from Bob. Which I did, just a couple of months ago.” Taylor grinned.
Rebelle shook her head. “That’s amazing, congratulations.”
“Yep, I’m a ten-year overnight success. And I’m hella grateful for the help, it got me to where I needed to be. Now I own it all, all on my own.”
“So you don’t regret asking for help and sacrificing what you wanted to get it?”
Taylor focussed her stare on Rebelle, but for once, she didn’t look away but met the fierce redhead straight on.
“Never. I worked too hard for so long on my own and when I finally had help, it stopped being quite so hard. No one can get through life without help from others, it’s not physically possible. But if that’s something you struggle with then you need to pick your battles. I’m sensing you’re asking about this for a reason?”
Rebelle nodded and swallowed around the lump in her throat. “Yes. I wanted to build the shelter from the ground up but it’s taken longer than I thought. Funds are…tight. And now I’m doubting whether I can do it myself after all. There’s this, benefactor, who’s offered to help me out, but I can’t get past the thought of not doing it all on my own.”
“Does this benefactor happen to be taller than a giant with strawberry blond hair, tattooed head to toe with much more money than sense?”
Rebelle nearly laughed at Taylor’s description of Will. “Maybe.”
“Sweetheart, if he’s offering it,take it. At the end of the day, you have to compromise sometimes on your dreams in order to achieve them. I get why you want to do it yourself, trust me. But if you want it to happen at all, you need him. In ten years’ time are you going to look back and think,damn, I hate that I had help achieving all of thisor are you going to look back and thinkwow,look at everything I achieved?”
Taylor was right. Would Rebelle care in ten years’ time? Would there even be a shelter in ten years’ time at the rate she was going on her own?
“There are much worse people that could be offering to help you, Will’s one of the good ones. He’s my man’s bestie which means he’s good people. If he’s putting his hand in his very deep pockets, then let him,” Taylor added with a shrug.
Rebelle chewed on her lip, thinking over Taylor’s words and they finished their beers in silence. When Rebelle realized the time, she got up. “Thank you for the chat, I appreciate your advice.”
“I appreciate you asking me. I really enjoyed this, we should do it more often.” The redhead beamed at her.
Rebelle nodded, she had also enjoyed the chat. Getting perspective from another strong independent woman and not feeling judged had been really special.
