‘Are you telling me that this is the only income you had for the whole year?’

The girl was clearly in a mess, and her declared income for the year was less than half of what Agla paid herself monthly. Judging by Elísa’s online bank account, there were a few debts to payday lenders already in arrears and in recovery, so the earnings from the Boss could hardly have been large.

‘If you like I can transfer a small amount to you so you can pay off all these debts and start afresh,’ Agla said. It irritated her to see these recovery notices over amounts that were hardly more than pocket money.

‘Are you so rich you don’t know what to do with your money?’ Elísa asked.

‘These aren’t big amounts,’ Agla replied.

Elísa seemed to realise that she wasn’t joking.

‘No,’ she said, smiling awkwardly and dropping her eyes. ‘Don’t do it. I’d only go wild when I get out of here and blow it all on dope. But thanks, all the same.’

‘These small loans are all in recovery now, so they’re only going to get legal costs and interest piled up on top of them. You know that?’ Agla said, and made a mental note to herself to dispose of her shares in a payday lender. That particular investment, while low-risk and profitable, had suddenly given her a sour taste in her mouth.

‘I try not to think about it,’ Elísa said and shrugged.

Agla looked at her carefully and tried to work out what she might be thinking, but didn’t get the impression that she was thinking about anything at all. In any case, she seemed to see no urgency to resolve her financial woes. A lock of tousled hair fell over Elísa’s forehead. Agla was filled with a sudden desire to reach out and tuck it behind her ear. There was something about that wild hair that made her long to tame it, comb it, make it follow some rules. Instead, she copied the numbers of the financial demands, opened her own online account and paid them all off in one fell swoop.

‘What are you doing?’ Elísa asked, peering at the screen with a blank look on her face. This girl had a personality all of her own, but was far from the sharpest intellect Agla had encountered.

‘I paid off your debts,’ Agla said. ‘I can afford it and you can’t go on racking up interest while you’re in here and can’t pay anything off.’

‘Oh.’

A single tear straggled down Elísa’s cheek, and that, combined with the untamed lock of hair, put Agla suddenly at a loss. It wasn’t the kind of amount worth shedding tears over; but then she had never been able to grasp why women were so sensitive about money. It had been the same with Sonja: she’d never let Agla pay for a single thing. And when Agla had bought the house – that was when she had freaked out and left her.