I stand over the garden with a look of disbelief, horror and joy.
Disbelief that he had the gall to do it. Horror that he picked this to get me back. And joy that this means war.
Oh boy, does it mean war.
I close my gaping mouth and look around for the culprit. Joe is long gone.
Wise.
After a long-winded, passionate (admittedly one sided) argument about the pointlessness of celery, he's just planted an entire ten rows of it in my garden. Annoying thing is that it's all seeds and I'm darn well not going to be the one to hunt out every single solitary one of them. Part of me thinks he knew this while doing it. It's been an excruciating two day wait for his payback and now I know why.
Because of the uncertainty of how long I'll be here, Joe decided to take some holiday time to get the garden done. This is regardless of the fact that I still haven't got a number out of him. I may just give him a ridiculously large cheque so he'll give me a number himself. The garden though is looking good and I have been enjoying getting into it. My last couple of nights have been spent fervently reading a very thick book on how to keep a garden. It's a good little book but Joe has threatened to bury it if I use the term "but the book says..." one more time. Now I'm just going to use it to spite him and according to Alyssa, he likes it that way.
"Dad isn't good with words." she explained to me yesterday, as I was washing dirt off my face. "If someone is having a bad day, he comforts by either just doing something for them or trying to distract the person."
"He just wiped wet dirt in my face." I told her with a frown. Alyssa just laughed at this.
"Yes but since you've started on the garden, have you been sad about Adriana?"
She had a point, He always seems to do something when I'm deep in thought worrying about things, though it doesn't take away the fact that I'm planning on getting him back.
I purposefully storm back inside in search of a piece of cardboard.
I spot the coffee machine box and pull out some scissors which I proceed to use to cut out a headstone type shape. I then viciously pull the cap off a marker and start writing.
"R.I.P
Joseph Marie McKenzie.
A much loved Father but even mucher hated gardener."
I slam the lid back on the pen, not caring that "mucher" isn't a word and walk outside with it. I then slam it right in the middle of the celery garden with a satisfied smile.
Now that's done, I can go to the inappropriately named coffee shop to have some peace as I have done the last few days.
Wednesday was a Pear, Prune and Almond cake, yesterday was a Pork, Fennel and cranberry pie.
I wonder what today has in store.
Over the last few days, my mind has continued chewing over what Miles said about everything revolving around my old job and needing to 'find me' and so forth. Therefore, I took another step in the right direction yesterday. I went and got a haircut. A new haircut. It's shorter at the back but my fringe is still relatively longish. I'm not used to having short hair. I still feel as though I'm missing a part of myself.
I haven't told Miles yet. We have talked and I told him I was considering getting it done but I'm hoping he's forgotten.
It was a rather long talk about things. I discovered he has a middle name but he refuses to give it up so I'm guessing it's something like Reginald or Millicent. Until he tells me, I'm just going to keep guessing.
Its more fun this way anyway as was discovered with Joe.
As for Taffy and the girls; they all came over last night and we raided Adriana's things. It was a lot less traumatic than I imagined it would be and I got through the whole thing relatively unscathed.
That was until they went home and I fell asleep in one of her jackets, crying and wondering if this really was what it felt like to hug her as I seem to have forgotten. I didn't fight the tears this time though. I just let them fall hoping it would mean getting this horrid feeling of guilt out of me quicker.
I woke up this morning realising it was cold, so I haven't taken the jacket off. Its thick and purple and smells like lavender though I don't know why.
The process of grieving has been much easier with the assistance of Romeo.
Romeo is my new small red DeLonghi espresso machine and he's beautiful. My Italian ancestors sure know how to make their coffee machines and in honor of the fact that my beautiful sister named everything, I also decided to name him.
***
I pull up at the café, somehow managing to find a park right out front.
That's the first thing that seems slightly off. By the café door stands a group of people chatting with frowns on their faces. This is the second thing that seems slightly off.
I get out of the car and notice with curiosity the sign turned to 'Closed'. Inside there's no sign of life. The small group of disappointed people scatter and I look at the other sign they'd been frowning over.
"Sorry but we are closed until further notice. We apologize for any inconvenience."
I decide to be nosey and look inside the shop. Empty...kind of, apart from a light on in the back office.
I lean on the door in thought wondering what makes a shop close down at such short notice.
A death? Money?
Just as I turn to go back to the car, the door opens next to me, giving me a fright.
"Sorry." I hear. I look at the culprit who upon seeing it's me, smiles. "Hello again." I screw up my nose knowing I've met this young man before but knowing I won't remember his name which is shocking considering it was only yesterday. "Geordie" the mop-topped youth says pointing to himself.
"Right." I nod. "Sorry." I point to the sign. "What's going on?"
"Oh..." he rolls his eyes and brushes his hair out of his face. "They did a bunk."
"Pardon?"
"Up and left."
"What? When? What do you mean?"
He scoffs putting his hands up as a way of surrendering.
"I haven't got a business head on my shoulders sorry. All I know is, I may not have a job."
"What about the café?" I ask, for some reason panicking. He shrugs.
"Dunno. Tara's freaking out..." he says shaking his head.
"Who's Tara?" I ask, confused. He gives me a strange look. "Oh Taffy. You mean Taffy. Why is she freaking out?"
"She's one of the owners and they left it to her."
"So, why is she freaking out?" I ask again wondering why this is a bad thing.
"Money...something. I blanked out after I heard the others had taken off. It sucks man. That place is paying for my courses and I'm not qualified to do much else."
"Can I go in?"
"Uhhhh..."
"Thanks." I walk past him and into the empty café, heading to the back office. I don't know why but the idea of a pack of under twenty-five year olds being left to run a shop doesn't seem right, no matter how qualified they are.
I knock on the open door and see someone I haven't met yet leaning on the wall looking lost and Alyssa knelt down by Taffy who is bent over the table in tears. Alyssa looks up and sighs upon seeing me.
"Thank goodness. You won't believe what's just happened."
"Yeah uhhh what's-his-face told me...you know? Mop head surfer guy."
"Geordie" the unnamed brunette asks. I click my finger.
"That's the one. So..." I pull a chair and sit next to Taffy, throwing my bag back into the corner. "They up and left it to you?" Taffy pulls her flushed red face out of her hands, wipes her eyes and nods solemnly.
"They were in so much debt themselves that they took all the money out of the business' accounts, paid the debt and left. There's not even any money in the till."
I cringe.
"Right. . .and nobody knew they had money troubles?"
Taffy shrugs starting to cry again. The unnamed brunette steps forward.
"They weren't a happy couple. We gathered it was money troubles or something...didn't think it would be this bad though. The café rakes in quite a bit of dough."
"Why did they take off then? If all their personal debts were paid?"
"Because they have no money left to get the café restarted and pay the wages."
"So, no money in any of the accounts?"
"No." Taffy sniffs, "There's no money to pay suppliers, no money to pay the workers. All we have is what you see in the shop."
"Right." I lean back in my chair, deflating a bit myself. It's been a while since I've solved work related problems so I just sit there letting the cob-web ridden cogs in my head start up again.
"I don't have the money to get this place started again and even if I did, she was the brains behind things and he was the reason the food was so good. I'd still be stuck even if I did have the money."
"Not necessarily. There a plenty of good cooks out there who'd love to get involved in a place like this and if you pool everyone's idea's and strengths, you should be fine."
"See," Alyssa says softly, rubbing Taffy's back, "things will be okay." I lean back and run my fingers through my hair in thought.
"Have they actually signed everything over to you?"
"Yes. They told me that they'd just paid off all their debts and they were going on holiday to celebrate and that they had no reason to stay here. I thought it was suspicious that they wanted no money for this half of the business. They just signed it over to me straight off. I bought into it about a year ago. My savings all went in...everything."
"You didn't ask about any debt?"
"I do the accounts so I knew there was no debt. I didn't think about their personal debt and I didn't think they'd just take all the money and leave. I don't even know where they've gone." she then starts crying again. "And now I owe everyone their wages and I don't know how I'd do that without maxing a credit card."
"It will be okay." Alyssa says gently. "I don't think people are going to find you responsible for this."
"I still don't have the money!" she cries, throwing her hands up. My eyes stay on Taffy for a while, my arms and legs crossed in thought.
"I do."
There's a silence and all eyes shift to me.
"What?" Taffy sniffs, looking at me confused. I take a deep breath, looking down briefly.
"I have the money." I say again, ignoring the part of me that's asking what the hell I'm doing.
"Didn't you just lose your job?" Alyssa asks.
"I quit. Big difference and I worked there for fifteen years without spending hardly any of the money. On top of that, I have money my grandparents left me and the money my parents left me."
"Right." Alyssa says, waiting for an explanation.
"My parents owned orchards and properties which I sold."
"Ohh."
"And you worked?" The brunette asks. I look at her and sigh.
"I needed something to do and I didn't know what to do with the money. They didn't give any of it to Adriana for reasons yet to be discovered but she loved this place. It's the least I can do for her. I'll buy in. I don't know food but I know people and I know businesses."
Taffy keeps looking at me. I don't know if she's thinking it's a joke or what. She sniffs again.
"Are you serious?"
I nod, heart thumping at the decision.
"I'll pay what needs to be paid, we look for a new cook and everything...with one condition." Her confused look all of a sudden changes to a skeptical one. "We change the name."
"We can do that?" she asks. I shrug.
"Its your shop."
"Oh, what would you call it?" she asks, teary eyed. I smile.
This needs no thought.
"Adriana's Corner?"