It wasn’t until I was mid-shower that it dawned on me. I dropped the toothbrush and clasped my soap-sudded head in dismay.
“Shit! The working bee!!”
I ran around in nothing more than a T-shirt and my undies, dragging a brush through my tangled wet hair, cursing the world and everyone who lived in it. Of all days, why hadn’t Chris woken me? Of all days, searching through my dresser to pull out my aqua Mambo mini, I stood on something pointy.
“Ah, faaaaar out.” I threw my miniskirt in a fit of rage as I sat on my bed and rubbed at the sole of my foot. It was then that I realised exactly what I had stood on.
The Rubik’s Cube.
I picked it up and held it in my palm. In the light of day and after a rather haphazard night’s sleep, all I could do was cringe at the way I had behaved last night. I was not some siren, some sexy vixen … obviously. What had I been thinking? What had possessed me to think that I could honestly pull that off?
Maybe I was still little Amy, the publican’s daughter.
I cupped my head in my hands – when had everything become so complicated?
***
After the mad rush of getting dressed, I decided to take a breath and focus on making myself look semi-decent. Blow-drying my hair, putting on natural toned make-up and some Fire and Ice perfume. I wanted to look nice at the working bee, but I sure wasn’t going to admit to myself why.
I stood back and gave myself a long, hard look in the full-length mirror. Hmm. The miniskirt was not exactly working bee attire, but I could at least make a grand entrance even if I wasn’t entirely sure what greeted me downstairs.
Swinging around the bannister and into the foyer of the restaurant, the very last thing I expected to see was Ellie and Adam standing on drop sheets. They were singing Van Halen’s ‘Why Can’t This Be Love’ into their paintbrushes as it blared from a paint-splattered old radio. They laughed at each other as they applied brush strokes of paint on the wall.
“Will you two concentrate?” Tess’s voice called out over the music.
I hadn’t even noticed her cross-legged on the floor near the skirting boards with an edging brush. She shook her head and went back to her work until her eyes landed on me.
“Amy, hey!”
Ellie and Adam spun around, no doubt spotting the look of confusion on my face as I eyed the stacked cans of paint, drop sheets, rollers on extenders, all waiting to go. Adam cringed and hid behind Ellie, grabbing her by the shoulders like a human shield.
“Get off me, you have paint all over your hands!” Ellie squirmed away.
Adam’s brown puppy dog eyes blinked at me. “Do you still love me?”
I eyed the brush in his hand. “You’re painting; I will say anything to keep that going.”
Adam smiled. “I’ll paint the whole hotel, doesn’t worry me.” He turned to attack the wall again with renewed vigour, taking it as a sign of forgiveness. I would have probably pushed the issue but I was distracted by the paint cans near the bar.
Picking one up, I tilted my head to read the permanent marker scribbled on the lid. My eyes narrowed as I looked from the lid to the wall and back again.
“Portland Stone?” I said, mainly to myself.
“It’s a great colour, don’t you think?” Tess groaned as she climbed up from the floor and admired the partially painted wall.
Huge ten-litre cans were stacked on a drop sheet. I hadn’t planned to repaint the dining room; it wasn’t something I had worked into the budget. To me it was just a crazy pipe dream and, apart from my mum, no one knew what colour I liked, bar one other person … Sean.
“Where did all this paint come from?” I asked.
It wasn’t a difficult question; well, at least I thought it wasn’t, but the looks Ellie and Adam cast each other and the way they were stammering with unease made me ask it again. “Where did the paint come from?”
Adam rubbed the back of his neck; he cleared his throat and stepped forward, as if volunteering for the firing squad or something.
“Uh … It, um, fell off the back of a truck.”
Ellie nodded quickly. Tess scrutinised her fingernails and avoided my questioning eyes.
“Off the back of a truck?”
“Yeah, the darnedest thing.” Adam shrugged.
Right, so I obviously wasn’t going to get anywhere here, but I would get to the bottom of this. I pushed my way through into the main bar where Chris was. He held up his hand to silence me as he spoke into his mobile.
“Yeah, we have some stuff in Uncle Eric’s shed, but extra wouldn’t hurt. Yeah. Just need some muscle power to tidy up that vine, it’s a bloody mess out there …”
I sighed impatiently, which only gained me a dirty look from Chris.