“Maybe one day I will forgive her. Who knows?” Lou took a deep breath. She spent a lot of time thinking about forgiveness, because she knew it was the only true path to happiness. To let all the things that weighed heavy on her soul go. But Angie’s weight on her soul was still too crushing. And she’d need a few more dates with non-workaholics to lighten it.

Chapter Twelve

“Can I ask you something?” Micky said. “Even though I might be speaking out of turn.” She had invited Mia to her home instead of Glow to have another go at the advertising for the yoga studio.

“Of course you can.” Here we go, Mia thought.

“It’s just that Amber asked me to either not ask for your help with these ads, or if I did, to not have you over at Glow. She seems to have a grudge against you all of a sudden and Amber is not the kind of person who holds grudges. And for the life of me, I can’t figure out why. I can come up with some theories, which I have done and confronted her with, but she’s so secretive about all of it. Determined as well. I just can’t wrap my head around it. And it makes for a bit of an unpleasant atmosphere.”

Mia sighed. She had expected this question to arise from someone affiliated with the Pink Bean at some point. For an unknowing bystander it must come across as strange for Lou to be giving her the cold shoulder, and especially for Amber to join in. She wondered if Amber had told her girlfriend Martha. She seemed like the overly principled kind who wouldn’t—which was good news for Mia. And she obviously hadn’t confided in Micky. But how to explain this to her without Micky going off her as well?

“It’s about Lou. We went to school together and we have a, er, rather unpleasant history.”

“I figured as much. When were you in school together?”

“Fifteen years ago.”

Micky quirked up her eyebrows. “First teenage love gone wrong?” she asked.

Mia shook her head. “If only.”

“You don’t have to give me the details, Mia,” Micky said. “At least now I know something.”

“I was horrible to Lou. Truly, truly horrible.” Mia ignored Micky’s words, because she wanted to give her more information. Saying it out loud might take away some of the power of the emotions that had been warring inside of her ever since that confrontation with Lou. The emotions that made her reconnect, on a nightly basis, with the bully she once was. It was hard to get a good night’s sleep when she could still see young Louise Hamilton’s face in front of her, contorted with tears and agony and frustration. All of which she had been the cause of.