Adriana's Corner

Chapter 30

"Thank you all so much for coming and helping out. As I said, you will be getting paid for this work. I'm sure, like me, you want to see this place up and going again as soon as possible so this is what will happen. The people that will be restoring and building are still working on design so our job is to have this whole café area cleared out and ready to go before they start. The more we do, the less they have to. I know this isn't necessarily under the criteria of shop assistant so again, thanks for coming in and at such short notice. We are not allowed to do anything structurally but everything else has to go. Geordie, Taffy and Alyssa, if you want to start at that end and Kristy, Eli and myself will start at this end. Any questions?"

Geordie puts his hand up.

"No Geordie, none of the food you find will be good to eat." I say with a roll of the eyes. He puts his hand down briefly then puts it back up.

"Yes Geordie?"

"How did you know that's what I was going to ask?"

"Because..." I sigh. "the whole time I was talking, you were looking at the packets on the floor with excitement."

"Oh." he says, putting his hand back down.

"Will that be all?" I ask.

"Yep."

"Right! Let's get to work then."

People scatter and so do I, in the direction of a particularly large pile of debris.

I arrived yesterday with the well-meaning intention of cleaning everything myself but realized that even with the good few hours of work I had done the other day, there was still too much for me to take on alone. I then realized that if there were people here, it would distract me even more.

More noise, more chatter and less silence where my thoughts can consume me again. This became even more important after I re-read all of the emails Miles had sent me since I've been here. Stupid idea. A very, very stupid idea. 

Not only did I re-remember how much he's done for me and how big a part of my life he's been, I counted at least five I can't wait/look forward to seeing you's in the last month alone. That's not even mentioning the amount of times he said it over the phone. That made me remember all the conversations I've had with him which made me re-fall for him all over again.

For the first time, I fell asleep crying about a relationship...or lack there of.

Because of that, I spent yesterday working on anything and everything to try and distract myself. The insides of cupboards and drawers were cleaned, including the ones I know I'll never use, I cleaned out the fridge, the oven and the microwave, I beat out the rug. You know? The things that should be done every month but never are. I then received a call from Joe saying he was just about to pick up Alyssa and Eli from the airport and asked if he could bring them back here for dinner.

I was confused as to why until he asked me if organizing a dinner for five (Lauren came also) had distracted me at all. It had, so I owe him a great deal.

Hearing about Eli and Alyssa's many attempts at trying to break the news to the parent/step parent was very entertaining and a surge of pride swelled up inside at how well they handled it. Kath and Brian apparently acted anything like adults through the whole ordeal.

"We tried everything in the book..." Eli explained last night, "From the- 'I have something to say' to the 'can I talk to you both about something important' but every time, they'd think of a reason not to hear me out. They'd come up with an excuse to leave the room, they'd change the subject...everything. Until eventually, Friday I just went into their room, early in the morning and said: Dad, Kath, I'm moving to Tassie to work on a construction sight until I know what I want to do with my life. I don't want to work in an office, I don't want to get a degree in something I loath. I want to work...actually work. I'm sorry if this upsets you but it's the decision I've made. I would loved to have talked to you about it like adults but you made that impossible. . .' they tried to talk me out of it as I was packing but I stood my ground. Dad didn't talk to me at all after that but he'll get over it...I hope."