Chapter Twelve
“ S ienna!”
Sienna turned at the familiar voice, smiling when she saw the miniature version of Debs running up to her. She instantly crouched down low, ready to talk to Thea who was obviously eager to see her and say something, and Sienna had a pretty good idea what it was.
“Hey, Thea. How are you today?”
“We got a kitten!”
“Oh, wow! That’s so awesome!”
“I told you, Thea, Sienna came to pick Steve up with me.”
Sienna held back the laughter which threatened to burst out. “Steve?”
“Don’t.” Debs shook her head with fond exasperation. “This is what happens when I ask a ten-year-old who spends all their time playing Minecraft to name a cat.”
“Steve? Steve the Cat. I like it. Nice one, Charlie,” she said, turning to the young boy who stood by Debs’ side.
“Told you it was cool, Mum.”
“Mmhmm, sure. What do I know?” Sienna watched as Debs ruffled his hair, immediately being given a grunt as Charlie ducked out of the way of his mother’s hands. “Go on, I know you’re dying to get to the gaming room.”
“Thanks, Mum.”
“Can I go as well, Mum?”
“Sure,” Debs said, the word barely out before Thea practically skipped to the crafting activity. Sienna watched as she was greeted by the group leader, leaving her and Debs alone.
“Abandoned again. I’m starting to get a complex,” Debs said beside her.
“Ah, no. It’s perfect, actually. I need you.” Sienna realised what she had said as soon as it was out in the open, her cheeks flushing with embarrassment. “I mean…I need to speak to you. About something. The auction. I need to speak to you about the auction.”
Debs snorted a laugh, unable to keep a straight face at Sienna’s incoherent babbling, and Sienna screwed her eyes shut.
“I figured. But it was worth it to hear that.”
“Stop. Please.”
“But I haven’t seen you blush that hard in weeks. It’s adorable,” Debs teased.
“I hate you.” Sienna playfully slapped Debs’ shoulder, desperate to move on. Any normal person would have probably been able to style out the verbal misstep, but it seemed Sienna’s brain had completely left her head, leaving her floundering.
“No, you don’t. Now, why don’t we go to the office”—Sienna took a step away, grateful Debs seemed to be leaving her momentary word vomit in the past—“and you can let me know exactly how you need me.”
Sienna stumbled, ungracefully turning as she did so and glaring at Debs. “Really hate you right now.”
“If you say so. But I will stop teasing you.”
Sienna held the door open, letting Debs pass through, smiling at her as she walked by.
“Thank you. It’s much appreciated, although I’m sure there will be a fresh opportunity soon.”
“What did you want to talk to me about?”
“Your designer sent over the initial idea for the poster, and I wanted your opinion.” Sienna leaned on her desk, unlocking the laptop and opening the email. “I’m a bit worried.”
Debs bent over next to her, her hand brushing her own as she placed it on the desk. “You don’t like it? I’m sure they’ll change it if it’s not what you imagined.”
“No, it’s not that. I love it—I think it looks great.”
“Then what’s the problem?”
“I just… It’s eight weeks away. Can we really do this in eight weeks? There’s still loads to do, and it feels like every time I do one thing, there’s another ten added to the list after it. Should we push it back? Another month or two? So we’re really ready?”
Sienna could feel herself spiralling, uncertain where it was coming from. She had been fine, coping surprisingly well with the added workload and pressure of organising the auction. She put most of that down to Debs; she’d shared the burden, taking on and being far more involved than Sienna had anticipated. And yet, this morning, when she opened the email and saw the date in bold white lettering, it was like the breath had been sucked from her lungs. There was no way she could pull this all together in eight weeks. She wasn’t sure she could do it in any length of time. It would be an almighty failure, the responsibility of which would all fall at her feet, an unmitigated disaster for The Lighthouse.
Warm hands wrapped around her shoulders, pulling her upright and into a tight embrace, the sensation immediately grounding her.
“Breathe, Sienna.”
“I just…”
“I know. I know, and it’s okay. It’s scary and overwhelming, and that’s perfectly valid. But we can do this. You can do this. The first thing you need to do for me, though, is breathe and calm down.”
Sienna nodded into Debs’ shoulder, willing the tears she could feel pooling across her eyelashes to keep at bay, but the feel of Debs’ hand moving to cradle her head and hold her in place was her final undoing.
“I’m sorry, I’m just…I’m just tired and over-emotional.”
“No, don’t do that. Don’t invalidate what you’re feeling.” Debs pulled back, forcing Sienna to appear from her hiding place in the crook of her neck. “Is it me? Have I been pushing you too hard on this?”
“No, no, not at all.” Sienna shook her head furiously. “I don’t know. I was fine all morning, then this came through, and I just started to panic.”
“Okay, that’s totally understandable. What do you need?”
“What?” Sienna looked at Debs, perplexed by the question.
“What do you need from me to help you right now? Do you need to hear what we have already got sorted? Or do you need to know our next steps? Or do you need to just not talk about it for today, and we deal with it tomorrow? Because all are things which we can definitely do.”
“I…” Sienna was still struggling to comprehend what Debs was saying. The words made sense, the sentiment even made sense, but no one had truly ever asked Sienna what she needed in these moments. She had always been left to just deal with it, sort through the mess of her emotions on her own, and wade through until she came to some form of solution. To have someone here offering to aid her, to take things one step at a time in whatever order she needed to feel stable again was even more overwhelming than the feeling she had just moments ago when faced with planning the rest of the auction. “I don’t know.”
She felt feeble and weak admitting it, but Debs just gave her a soft smile, nodding in understanding.
“That’s okay as well. How about we just leave all this for today and we focus on something else. And then Monday, we can go over it all with a fresh set of eyes and a clear head and work out what we need to do next.”
Sienna nodded, conceding to Debs in the moment. It wasn’t as if she had any better ideas, and right now, she didn’t think she had enough energy to try and think anything through or retain anything Debs might tell her to reassure her that things were in order anyway.
“Good. Thea will be busy for another forty-five minutes. Why don’t I stick the kettle on and bombard you with cute pictures of Steve the Cat?”
Sienna let out a wet laugh, tear-filled and oozing with exhaustion. “I still can’t believe you’ve got a cat called Steve.”
“Neither can I. Can you imagine what an idiot I’ll look like calling him into the house for his dinner? Let’s just hope he never goes missing because I’ll look like a fucking crazy woman shouting that in the street.”