Lingerie Wars (Invertary 1)

“You’re not answering that, are you?” he said. “We’re in the middle of something here.”

They were in the middle of something, all right. Kirsty just wasn’t sure what that something was.

“I have to,” she said with genuine regret. “It might be important.”

He leaned against the counter and gave her a look she couldn’t quite decipher. Kirsty picked up the phone, told him she would be one minute and headed for the bedroom.

“What?” she snapped into the phone.

“We talked about your tone, Kirsty,” said her mum.

Kirsty sighed loudly. She pulled back the bedroom curtain to see her mother standing in the middle of the road again, looking up at her.

“What’s going on?” Kirsty said. “I don’t have much time to talk.”

“You think we want to be dilly-dallying? Jean is here with her grandson and he says that it will take too long to get into Lake’s laptop. He also said there are other computer things and the list of competition entries might be on them instead. So, what do we do?”

Kirsty chewed her bottom lip. This had been so simple in her head. They broke in without causing a mess, or a scene, and sabotaged one teeny-tiny email list. No problems. She should have known it would never go that smoothly.

“Okay, you’ll have to take it with you and work on it at home,” she said at last.

“Take what?” her mother said.

Kirsty bit her tongue to stop from saying what was in her head.

“All of the computer stuff.”

“That’s stealing, Kirsty Campbell!”

“Mum, do you really think we should worry about that? We’re already breaking in to his shop. Plus it’s not really stealing. We’ll return it all tomorrow once Jean’s grandson hacks the list.”

She could see her mum thinking. Kirsty waited while tapping her toe on the carpet. She needed to get back to Lake. She had no idea where he was or what he was getting up to, and she didn’t like it one bit. Something caught her eye in Lake’s shop window.

“What’s Heather doing with the life-size picture of Lake?”

Her mum turned around and shouted at Heather. Kirsty hit her head gently on the window. They were shouting in the street now. Her mum came back on the phone.

“She’s taking it home,” she said.

“She can’t! That’s not what we planned.”

“So stealing all that expensive computer stuff is okay, but taking one wee picture isn’t?”

“It isn’t a wee picture, it’s the same size as Lake. Don’t you think people will notice it in Heather’s house? Someone will tell Lake. Tell Heather to put it back.”

“I’ll try, but I can’t promise anything.”

Kirsty made a strangled noise.

“Fine. I need to go. Just get the computer equipment and make sure you lock up after you leave. We don’t want any real thieves getting into the place.”

“I take offence at that,” her mum said with a frown. “We might not be real thieves but we’re getting the job done.”

Kirsty didn’t have time for her mother’s logic.

“I need to get back to Lake,” she said.

She waved goodbye, snapped the phone shut and took a deep breath. As she walked past the small mirror above her dressing table she was disgusted at what she saw. She looked like a woman who was losing her mind. With resignation she went back to the kitchen to deal with Lake and whatever fun idea he was planning now. When he wasn’t there she was almost relieved, thinking he’d given up and gone home.