Feb 13 2019

Wednesday morning Bobbie answered a call from her cousin and favourite designer Lorne. He was clearly worked up. He greeted her rather stridently and then said, “OMG Bobbie drop everything! I have a windfall of design elements for your motel, you have to meet me this afternoon!”

“Where are you Lorne? I can leave here by 10 and meet you for lunch if you’re in Citadel City.”

“Meet me in the business park at 165 Baker street instead; we can eat later. I’ll see you at 11:30. Bring your notes and credit card.”

Bobbie sat back a second and marvelled at the cryptic call. “Hmm,” she said and sent a text to Barb. “Are you at work yet? Can you take a vacation day? How about a dirty weekend with me and Lorne in Citadel City?”

Barb texted back “Sounds great! I don’t have classes or any meetings today and I can take a few vacation days.”

“I’ll pick you up in an hour. Bring something pretty. Wink, wink.”

Barb texted back a shy emoji and said, “See you soon.”

Bobbie rushed around throwing a few things in her bag. She stowed her laptop in her big purse and zipped up her drawings of the motel into their portfolio. She left her mom a note and headed over to Barb’s.

Barb was ready and came out with a couple of bags and a thermos of coffee. Bobbie got out of the car and put her bags in the back. She kept one bag and the thermos and sat in the front seat. “ I brought my thermos of coffee. I always make one for work and I have a couple of mini muffin egg bites as a morning snack.”

“Thanks Barb, I forgot all about breakfast. You seem to be coping OK with returning to work. How does it feel being without Jeremy?”

“It’s almost no different. I think I feel too fine. I’d feel guilty about that but my therapist says this is just my brain protecting itself. I should keep moving forward and soon the loss will have the right perspective.”

“So ‘ fake it ’till you make it.’ That’s what Mom and I say; welcome to the club.”

“I’d like to be in your club. You are actually losing weight and I ate too much all through Jeremy’s illness. I’m still gaining and trying to control my diet a bit more now.”

“Your school office is not far from the motel. Why don’t we try to meet for lunches at that little park on the water. We could get an afternoon walk and we can help each other eat properly and have short visits too.”

“I would like that Bobbie.”

They arrived at the warehouse in Cid City at 11:20 and Lorne met them at the car.

“Oh good!” he said. “You’re early and you’ve brought Barb along; she can pick you up when you faint.”

Bobbie’s interest was definitely piqued. They followed him into the warehouse. 

Lorne began, “It’s an insurance sale. A big resort conversion filed for bankruptcy and to the victors go the spoils. First, here are over 30 pallets of Carrera marble floor tile. Each box has 140 sq foot of tiles like this and he held up a sheet of medium sized hexagonal marble tiles.”

“Those are beautiful!” exclaimed Barb.

Bobbie asked, “Where would we put them?”

“These are floor tiles and they will go in every bathroom in that motel. We have over 5000 Sq feet of the stuff and we can buy it for 4000 dollars. You can probably re-sell what you don’t need and cover the cost.”

Bobbi answered, “But I didn’t want marble in the bathrooms, it stains easily and has to be treated.”

“Oh no Bobbie,” Lorne interrupted, “you can’t ‘poo poo’ marble floor tiles, the Romans and Turks used marble in their ancient baths and they have lasted for thousands of years. These tiles have no grout lines to get dirty and will be sealed when they are installed and then maybe every six months and will never stain because your motel will be cleaned regularly.”

“Bobbie,” said Barb, “they are classic and contemporary at the same time, I think they are perfect and a great price.”

Bobbie was quiet for a moment. It occurred to her that Alex would have loved the tiles. Maybe she should just get over herself. She smiled and touched Lorne’s arm. “Thank you so much Lorne this is an amazing find, I think they will be perfect!”

Lorne nodded and moved behind the pallets. “Here are some glass tabletops.” There were about a dozen large circles of almost 2 in thick Tempered glass leaning in three piles against the pallets. And a dozen more smaller ones to the side. “These ones, he said, pointing to the larger ones are six feet in diameter and I want them to be on the bar at the restaurant.  You will have a normal 4 foot deep, 12 foot long bar and the top of the bar will have 2 carved out semi circles 2 inches deep. These glass tables will be installed into those recesses and extend over the bar in gorgeous, glass semi circles.”

Bobbie nodded, trying to visualize.

“And these smaller ones will be tables on the floor of the main dining room,” he said, pointing to the 3 Ft diameter tables. “And the rest of those big ones will be in elegant semi-circle booths all along the wall. Bobbie, the price is 100 dollars each so 2400 for all of them and they will throw in these.” He pointed to a large stack of wine stem shaped table bases. “The table bases are scratched up but we can get them powder coated any colour we want.”

They continued walking thought the big Warehouse and Bobbie put her tag on many other lots before they all decided to take a break and have a late lunch.

Later, Bobbie and Barb met up with some old co-workers of Bobbie’s at the pub where they used to meet after work.

Andrew Wang was there. Andrew was doing her old job. They worked pretty closely getting him up to speed and Bobbie remembered he and his wife were in the middle of a divorce. She hoped he was OK. “Hey Andrew, how are you doing? Still holding down the fort since I left?”

“Hey Bobbie, it’s so nice to see you. We all really miss you and I can’t believe you’ve been gone almost 4 months. I’m coping but do you think you’ll ever come back on contract?”

“Oh, I don’t think so Andrew, I’m pretty busy in Crow Harbour working on opening a small motel and restaurant. I’ll give good rates for government conferences if you decide to come to the fine Water Wheel Motel.”

Around 6 o’clock, Bobbie and Barb said goodbye. Barb linked her arm, “This is nice, I needed to get away but I’m not the party-er I used to be and I’m a little drunk and a little tired.”

Bobbie agreed, thinking she had a lot less in common with the people she used to work with. She really considered them friends now but wondered how to maintain the relationships. They walked over to their hotel that thankfully, was close by. They had a big double room and they laid down to relax and both fell asleep. Bobbie woke around 7:30, hungry and with a headache.

Barb groaned form the other bed ,“I think I need water.”

Bobbie went over, got a couple glasses and a bottle of Tylenol. She sat down on the edge of Barb’s bed and said, “It’s either Tylenol or a shot of what’s in the mini bar; it’s your choice.” Barb reached for the Tylenol.

Bobbie moved to a chair. “It was weird seeing all those guys. They were telling me work stories and I wasn’t that interested.”

“They all seemed excited about your motel, Bobbie. Maybe some will visit this summer. I’m not teaching anymore but I have regular contact with all my old teacher friends when I’m planning their training”

Bobbie was putting on her coat, “ You are right Barb, it will be fun if they visit. Are you hungry? I saw an artisan pizza place next door that I’d like to try.” 

Barb nodded. “More research?”

They ate fancy pizza and watched a bad movie and fell asleep before 11.