Adriana's Corner

Chapter 23

"I don't know. Did you know she was going to do that?"

He shakes his head.

"Nope, makes sense though, don't you think?"

"Yeah...Suppose. It's quite daunting having a building all to myself. I mean...I know nothing about the area or food or managing a building team or anything. I've hardly been anywhere except the café and here so...I don't know. Am I just getting in over my head?"

Joe shakes his head and sips his coffee just looking over the garden.

"I don't know. You should talk to Teresa." he tells me. This earns him a strange look. He answers it, "She manages the shop she's in and gets paid a pittance for it. She also did a lot of management stuff when she was with her ex. I think he was a plumber or something." he shrugs, looking at me, "I'm not saying she'd buy in, but if you need a decent manager to bounce idea's off of."

"How did you find out all that with the whole two and a half words you've spoken to her?"

"Lauren." he says. I just nod and look out over the garden myself. It's not actually a bad idea. Teresa and I have similar taste and a similar sense of humor so I'm guessing we'd work well together. She's also got experience and there's no denying that I'd prefer to work with someone with a few years experience behind them rather than someone whose as new to this as I am.

"What are you doing Saturday?" Joe asks after a while.

"Uhh, dunno. Why?"

Joe shrugs.

"Can you be ready by seven in the morning?"

I look at him strangely and he keeps his eyes straight ahead.

"Ready for what?" I ask slowly. He looks at me giving me the impression I'm not going to be told. I keep eye contact with him. "You know, my last few experiences with surprises here haven't been that great."

"You'll like this one." Is all he says before standing up.

"In my experience Joe, nothing that involves getting up before seven is likeable." I only hear him laugh as he heads off into the garden, leaving me to guess. All I know is that if it's fishing, I'll be hitting him with anything I catch.

***

"To Nina,

Counting down to coming over: Is it wrong that I'm looking forward to seeing what you've been up to in Tasmania more than going to my sisters wedding? I think it has more to do with seeing the evil stepmother.

It was my last day of work today so just going to get things prepared for my travels which is partly why I'm emailing.

I have two things that always go with me when I move from place to place. One is my Guitar and the other is my bentwood chair. It's an original and is worth a mint. Because I know I can trust you and because I don't want to put it in storage, I was wondering if I could ship it to you? I don't think I'll be coming back to England any time soon but I can't exactly take it on the plane with me wherever I go. Would you be willing to look after it for me? It's at your place now as the temptation of easy cash would be too much for my flat mates.

You also haven't told me how the chat with the lawyer went the other day. I feel like it's been an age since we've talked.

I knew getting Romeo would be the end of me.

From the cold Londoner in a comfy chair.

Miles."

***

"To Miles Kowalski Hamilton,

I'm sorry I've been such a snob the last couple of days. Will call you tomorrow to have a proper chat and promise to ignore any guests that threaten to interrupt.