When the silence between them grew too heavy to ignore, Abby finally took a deep breath and forced herself to speak. Her voice was quiet at first, hesitant, but every word carried the weight of weeks of stress and sleepless nights. She confessed to Mali that, during his absence, she had made the painful decision to let Theo go. It wasn’t because she doubted his loyalty or his passion for the shop—quite the opposite. She explained how Theo had turned down an offer to return to the garage, how he had chosen to stay on out of a sense of duty, and how guilty she had felt watching him put his own future on hold for a business that was sinking. Releasing him, she insisted, had been an act of mercy, a way of giving him the chance to move forward rather than chaining him to a fight that might already be lost.

Her words tumbled out in a rush, her eyes fixed on the table as though afraid of the look she might find on Mali’s face. She braced herself for anger, for disappointment, for that inevitable moment when the reality of the shop’s decline would strike him like a thunderbolt. But Mali, ever steady, reached across and covered her trembling hands with his own.

“Alright,” he said gently. “If that’s what you thought was best, then we’ll deal with it.”

Abby blinked in surprise. She had expected resistance, maybe even outrage. Instead, Mali’s calm presence steadied her. Still, she knew this was only the beginning. She pressed on, stressing that the decision to let Theo go had left them with even less margin for error. Surfing lessons had been their most dependable source of income, and without them, the numbers were bound to look grim. “We need to dive into the books,” she urged, her tone firmer now, almost pleading. “We need to see exactly where we stand before we make another move.”

Mali listened carefully, nodding at her words. Yet even as she laid out the severity of the situation, he remained confident. Perhaps it was his natural optimism, perhaps denial, or perhaps simply the relief of being home again—but to him, the challenges still seemed like hurdles rather than final roadblocks. “We can work this out,” he insisted with a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. “It’s just a matter of putting our heads together and coming up with a plan. Businesses go through rough patches all the time.”

Abby studied him, torn between admiration for his unwavering faith and frustration that he didn’t yet grasp the full picture. She wanted to believe him, wanted to share in that hope, but the reality she had been living these past weeks was darker than he could imagine. The mountain of debts, the angry customers demanding refunds, the dwindling foot traffic—none of it had touched him yet. He still saw the shop as salvageable, still believed in its heartbeat, while Abby had already heard the ominous ticking of the clock counting down.

She didn’t have the heart to crush his optimism in that moment. Instead, she nodded, allowing his confidence to fill the room, even as the unease lingered in the back of her mind. The numbers in the ledger would speak louder than any reassurance, and soon enough, Mali would have to see the truth for himself.