Chapter 10
Ella’s mother wasn’t convinced when she announced she was going to move in with Roly. ‘So now there’s nothing stopping you going on your trip!’
‘I don’t know…’ Her mother looked to Nora. The three of them were sitting at the kitchen table after dinner.
‘I won’t be on my own, so you don’t have to worry about me. It does mean I won’t be able to pay you back as quickly, but—’
‘Don’t worry about that. I’ve told you you don’t have to pay me back.’ She held up a hand as Ella began to protest. ‘But if you insist, at least take your time. You’ve waited long enough to get back on your feet. If you really want to move out, don’t let that stop you.’
‘Thanks, Mum.’
‘But Nora and I are perfectly happy to put off travelling a little longer.’
‘We are,’ Nora chipped in.
‘Don’t feel there’s any rush for you to move out.’
‘It’s not just about you, though – honestly. I really want to do this. It’s like you said – my life has been on hold for long enough. I want to get on with things, now that I can.’
‘Moving in with a boy, though…’
‘It is a bit drastic,’ Nora said.
‘It’s not like that. Roly’s a friend.’
‘Is he? You haven’t seen him in years, have you? Not since you got sick.’
‘No, but… he’s had problems of his own. He was in rehab for a while. But he’s okay now,’ she added quickly, seeing the flicker of concern in her mother’s face. ‘He’s totally clean and sober.’
‘Still…’
‘Don’t rush into anything on our account,’ Nora said. ‘We’ve put our trip off this long, we can wait another year.’
‘But there’s no need to. Please don’t. I don’t want to hold you back any more than you want to hold me back. I really want to move in with Roly, whether you go away or not.’
Nora chewed her lip, a little smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. ‘What do you think?’ she asked Ruth, and Ella saw the twinkle of excitement in her eyes.
Ella turned to her mother. ‘If you don’t want to go, that’s fine. But don’t use me as an excuse.’
‘I happened to be looking at the website last night,’ Nora said, ‘and there are a couple of places available on the next departure of that Southeast Asia trip we fancied.’
Ruth bit her lip, but Ella saw the dreaminess in her eyes, and could tell she was relenting.
‘There you go,’ Ella said, grinning. ‘It was meant to be!’
* * *
The following Saturday, Ella stood surrounded by packing boxes in her new bedroom at Roly’s house questioning her choices.
Until now, she’d been too preoccupied with organising the practicalities of the move to think much beyond this moment.
There’d been so much to do, and she’d spent the week packing her things, arranging transport and sorting out admin.
Then today, she’d been busy directing operations, overseeing the delivery guys when they got to Roly’s house, showing them where to put everything.
But now it was all done. The movers had just left, and she suddenly felt adrift.
She could hear Roly moving around downstairs, and it struck her anew how little time she’d spent with him over the years.
They’d been out of touch for so long, she hardly knew him any more.
Maybe her mother was right and she should have thought this through more.
She sank down on the bed, looking around at the boxes, not sure where to start.
‘Do you need a hand with unpacking or anything?’ She looked up. Roly was hovering in the doorway, hands dug into his pockets, and Ella realised he felt as awkward as she did. Strangely, that made her feel more at ease.
‘Thanks, but I need to do it myself really.’
He nodded. ‘I’ll leave you to it, then. Oh, I got you keys cut.’ He took a set of keys from his pocket and handed it to her. ‘I have to go out for a while,’ he said. ‘So I’ll leave you to get settled in. Help yourself to anything in the kitchen.’
She nodded. ‘Thanks.’
She suspected Roly was just going out to give her some space, and while she didn’t want to chase him out of his own home, she was grateful for the breathing room.
She spent the rest of the morning unpacking.
She’d had breakfast early, and by midday she started to get hungry.
But she ignored the rumbling of her stomach and pressed on until she’d finished putting all her clothes away.
Then she decided to take a break and went down to the kitchen to find something to eat.
The cupboards, however, were bare – and so was the fridge, apart from half a packet of butter and a couple of cans of some sort of luridly coloured ‘sports drink’.
Groaning with frustration, she flicked the switch on the kettle.
At least there were tea bags – and a high-end coffee machine, she noted with satisfaction.
Then she noticed a bread bin on the worktop that she’d overlooked before.
But it held more disappointment when she opened it to find nothing but a box of very dry-looking energy bars.
Was this what Roly had meant when he said she could help herself to ‘anything in the kitchen’?
Well, they’d have to do since she couldn’t be arsed going to the shops. The kettle was just coming to the boil when she heard the door opening and Roly striding down the hall.
‘I got some food,’ he said, hoisting aloft two shopping bags.
‘Oh, phew! I’d resigned myself to having one of these cardboard bars of sadness,’ she said, waving the energy bar she’d been about to open.
‘Oh yeah. I started buying healthy food, but that was as far as I got.’
‘Okay, just FYI – these things aren’t healthy.’
He frowned, dropping his bags on the counter.
‘Yeah, they are. Look, it says so right there.’ He leaned over and pointed to the word emblazoned on the wrapper.
‘Plus it’s low fat, high in fibre and has 20 per cent of your daily requirement of protein.
’ He pointed to the nutrition information. ‘Oh, and it’s gluten-free too.’
‘Are you gluten intolerant?’
‘No, but… that’s still good, right?’
‘Not really. Let’s see what else it’s got.
’ She turned it over and read ‘Fructose, glucose, corn syrup – so that’s sugar, sugar and sugar – guar gum, a bunch of E numbers.
I don’t even know what half these things are, but they sound gross.
’ She tossed it back in the box. ‘I’d say one of those has about a thousand per cent of your daily sugar requirement. ’
‘Really? What’s the daily requirement of sugar?’
‘Zero.’
‘Oh.’
‘Just don’t believe everything you read.’
‘Right. Well, anyway, there’s stuff for lunch if you’re hungry.’ He began unpacking the bags onto the counter. ‘I mean it’s probably not the healthiest, but—’
‘At least it’s real food. And yes, please, I’m starving.’
Roly unloaded cooked chicken, coleslaw and crusty sourdough bread, and they ate together at the kitchen table.
‘Are you finding everything okay?’ Roly asked her.
‘Yes. The place looks great, by the way,’ she said, casting her eyes around the room. The house had been spruced up a lot since she’d last been here.
‘Yeah, I had a cleaner in.’
‘This bread is so good,’ Ella sighed.
‘I went to the Bretzel. You know it?’
Ella nodded.
‘It’s great being so near it. Won’t help with the weight loss, though, will it?’
She shrugged. ‘I think we should let ourselves off the hook for the weekend. Start the new leaf on Monday?’
‘Sounds good to me. God, I’m going to miss bread.’
‘Me too.’ It was going to be a special kind of torture living so near to one of the best bakeries in Dublin and trying to resist the lure of their shelves.
Ella decided now would be a good time to establish exactly what kind of arrangement this was.
When she’d accepted Roly’s offer, she’d been thinking of it like a house share, but the reality was she was Roly’s tenant.
For some reason that had only dawned on her this morning, and it just added to her discomfort.
Now they were here eating food Roly had bought, and she didn’t know if she should offer to pay half or if he’d be insulted by that.
She didn’t want every single thing to bring up this kind of anxiety.
She needed the lines to be clearly drawn so they both knew where they stood, and it would be best to sort it out on day one.
‘We should make some rules about how we’re going to do this.’
‘Do what?’
‘This co-habiting thing.’ She waved a hand between them.
‘Oh. Okay. Like… what sort of rules?’
‘You tell me.’ She shrugged. ‘I mean you’re the landlord.’
He reared back in his seat. ‘No, I’m not! That’s a horrible thing to say.’
Ella laughed, taken aback by his reaction. ‘Um… it’s just a fact. What’s horrible about it?’
‘First, we’re friends. And, second, landlords are mean, greedy bastards who destroy society. It’s an awful thing to call someone.’
‘They’re not all like that. Mean, greedy bastards don’t give mate’s rates for a start. Or buy their tenants lunch. Thanks, by the way.’ She’d decided he’d definitely take offence if she offered to pay him now.
‘There you go, calling me a landlord again.’
‘Well, I’m paying you rent to live in your house. It’s pretty much the definition.’
‘Shit!’ He hung his head. ‘So this is what I’ve come to. My mum would be so ashamed. She didn’t raise me to be a landlord.’
‘Well, you are. You’re just going to have to come to terms with it and try to be one of the good ones.’ She took a gulp of tea. ‘So – it’s your house, your rules.’
‘So… you want me to give you a curfew and stuff like that? Ban boys in your room after dark?’
‘Hey, I said you’re my landlord, not my dad.’
Roly frowned, shifting uncomfortably. ‘I know you’re paying me rent, but I’d rather treat this as friends house-sharing. If that’s okay with you? I mean, I don’t want to be… in charge.’
She smiled, relieved. ‘That’s fine with me. I just want to know where we stand.’
‘Good. The first house rule is no talking about house rules.’
‘We should still establish some basic terms.’
‘Like what?’
‘Well, groceries, for instance,’ she said, nodding at the food on the table. ‘Who buys what, that sort of thing.’
‘Let’s not do that thing where we put our names on the yoghurt and, like, have our own shelf in the fridge.’
‘Hard agree. No “hands off my cheese” signs.’ She had no wish to relive that particular aspect of student life. Been there, done that, didn’t enjoy it the first time round.
‘Or a cleaning rota. I don’t want to have a cleaning rota – at least not one that has my name on it.’
‘You have a cleaner, right?’
He nodded. ‘Anita. She’s really good. I guess I have to cut back on stuff like that now, though.’
‘I think in the interest of domestic harmony, we should keep on the cleaner and split the cost between us.’ Ella had no desire to waste her precious reserves of energy scrubbing the bathroom. ‘Anyway, I don’t want to put Anita out of a job.’
Roly smiled. ‘Good, because I’d hate to let her go. She’s really nice.’
‘We can do a budget later, and organise a kitty for household expenses,’ she said, getting up from the table.
‘Leave that,’ Roly said as she began gathering up plates and mugs. ‘I’ll clear up.’
‘I’ll just put these in the dishwasher.’
‘I said leave it,’ Roly growled in a menacing tone. ‘As your landlord, I command you.’
Ella laughed. ‘Okay. I’ll get back to my unpacking then. See you later.’
‘Oh, I was going to make spag bol for dinner. That okay with you? Unless you have plans?’
‘No plans,’ she said. ‘That’d be great. And after dinner, we could do some planning for our project.’
‘We have a project?’
‘You know, getting back to our best lives – Operation Reboot.’ She thought it would help them both relax into this new living situation if they had something to focus on. It would certainly help her.
‘Is that what we’re calling it?’
‘Have you got a better name?’
‘Nope.’
‘Okay. We can make our goals, and plan strategies for achieving them. I’ll show you how to make a kanban board.’
‘Sounds kinky.’ He grinned.
She laughed, all her lingering awkwardness dissipating. ‘Believe me, it’s not. But it’ll be fun.’
She felt more relaxed as she headed back to her room. This was going to be fine.