Sat February 16 2019

“OK, let’s consider this lunch a debriefing from last night’s pizza tasting party. My news is that Johnny’s aunt Linda is selling her house, so Johnny and Mitch can have it, and Linda is moving in with Mom at the end of the month,” started Bobbie

“Ha, you’ll be like the golden girls,” joked Barb.

“I’m planning to be at the motel by then so I’m not a golden girl just yet! I can’t believe I’m moving so soon. It’s taken me this long to feel I’m not on a holiday visit to my mother’s, and won’t be going back home to Cid City.”

“Maybe we’ll move into the motel with you and really be the golden girls,” laughed Trixie. “But seriously, Greg has talked me into staying permanently at Thurston manor, in the primary suite. We’ve got it all cleaned out. Vanessa has saved some sweaters to rip apart Bobbie. We were thinking about keeping my apartment as a ‘pied-à-terre’ in Citadel city.”

“OMG Trixie, has Greg Thurston managed to clip your wings? Maybe we could use your apartment when good shows come to town. I’m fine where I am for now, but when I retire next fall, I’m not sure where I’ll want to go,” said Barb.

“Eddy and Charlie pretty much ran off George Dolan last night. We’re going out for a ‘lets cool it dinner’ soon,” said Bobby wistfully. “He sent me flowers on Valentines day and everything.”

“Aww, too bad Bobby, I remember George from Uni, he was one of the cool ‘boaty guys’, all sailing and tennis,” mused Barb.

“He could probably teach me a thing or two about being cool! I’m hoping that we can stay friends and when I’m ready, who knows? And speaking of sweaters to rip apart, I have to tell you what I found at my favourite thrift store.”

“What did you find Bobbie?”

“Three big boxes of factory seconds cream coloured 50%cashmere/50%merino sport weight wool sweaters.”

“Well, that sounds like something! What are you going to do with all the rejected sweaters?”

“There’s about 15 sweaters per box, and I can get 600g of wool from each sweater. All told, I can have 270, 100g skeins of wool.”

“What in God’s name are you going to do with that much yarn?”

“I don’t know. Mom helped me wash and air dry them so they are in sealed bags in big Tupperware tubs waiting for me to unravel them. I’m going to put them in storage until I can decide, except I’m keeping enough out to get started on. Say, does anyone want to come to my storage units and help me organize stuff?”

Trixie and Barb just groaned and Trixie waved them away and said, ”I’ll get the tab, keep in touch guys.”

On the way out Barb said, “I can’t believe you are both back in Crow Harbour, it’s great!”

Bobbie spent the afternoon cataloguing and photographing items in her storage units and picked up some Thai food on the way home to a quiet evening. Around nine o’clock her quiet evening was over.

Lorne was at the door, he was dragging two suitcases with him and when she let him in he looked at her with teary eyes. “I am so done with Citadel City! My seven year old business and personal partnership are both over, we are ‘consciously uncoupling’. I just want to curl up and die!”

Bobbie sympathized and got him inside and gave him a nice glass of wine and some left over Pad Thai while he told her the whole story. By this time Florence joined them and she insisted that he could stay with them, up in Jamie’s old room, as long as he needed to.

“Lorne, you can start your own design shop here, you could do some design work for Jamie, he wants to re-do his apartment and shop. Trixie over at Thurston Manor wants to redo the primary suite. I would have thought you’d rather stay with Trixie and Vanessa, they could probably set you up a wing of Thurston Manor,” Bobbie teased.

“Ha Ha, I was obviously distraught and not thinking clearly. But seriously Bobbie, I’ve always thought of this place as a safe haven. Remember way back, when I first came out? My Dad was savage angry with me and even blamed cousin Jamie because he was just coming out too. Uncle Walt worked it all out for me, and Aunty F (Florence) was such an ally to me and Mum. I really could have split our family apart without your parents!”

“I also have a lot of work at the motel. You’ll have lots of clients for your new design business in Crow Harbour.”

“I have to admit I could tell our relationship was crumbling a long time ago. We stayed together for the business. It was always his clients and my clients. We never worked together and we only hung out with his friends so moving back here was only sensible.”

Bobbie wasn’t too worried about Lorne, he had lots to keep him busy and was more resilient than he thought. She was delighted when she found out that he liked unpacking boxes and moving furniture. For the next two weeks they cleaned, unpacked boxes, bought new furniture and refurbished old furniture.

Lorne insisted that the free room and board he got was payment enough. “Honestly Bobbie I don’t need money when I’m here. Eventually I will do some more design work and have some billable hours and move out of your Mom’s place.”

One Sunday morning, Trixie called and invited them to Thurston Manor for ‘tea’.

As a joke Lorne and Bobbie decided to dress for tea. Lorne had a rakish suit and Bobbie wore a flowery dress from her Mom’s closet. Bobbie even found some short lace gloves. She also had a lacy cropped sweater to top it all off. Florence insisted on taking a picture saying they looked ‘darling’.

“Bobbie when was the last time my clothes fit you? You have lost so much weight. I hope Trixie feeds you over there.”

Trixie chuckled when they arrived and they moved into the drawing room and helped themselves to wine spritzers and Crudités. “Lorne, I’m so happy you are back in Crow Harbour.”

Vanessa (Greg’s sister in law) joined them and gave Lorne a big hug. “Hi Lorne you are truly a breath of fresh air around here. We’ve been so blah since Dina died.”

Bobbie didn’t realized Vanessa and Lorne were such close friends but they shared student housing when she was doing her PHD. They spent a pleasant hour reminiscing and chatting before Trixie whisked Lorne away to talk about his redesign of her and Greg’s suite.

Bobbie had a memory of being told that Vanessa dated Greg before she met and married his brother Keith, so she asked delicately. “So, what do you think of Trixie? She’s been invited into your home kind of suddenly.”

“I really like Trixie, she is fabulous and down to earth at the same time. Actually me and Dina were too hard on Greg. Almost no girl he ever dated was good enough for us, so the fact that this is so soon after her death is not surprising. Mind you, Trixie has a drive and intellect that challenges Greg which is a contrast to all the pretty air heads in his past.”

“Trixie is one of my best friends and my cousin and I have not approved of many of the pretty boys she has dated before either,” said Bobbie a little defensively, realizing that they both sounded a little judgmental and decided to steer the conversation away from Trixie and Greg.

“So Vanessa, you are in a knitting group with my little cousin Quinn! Where do you guys usually meet up?”

“We usually meet at their farm. We can go Friday if you’re available Bobbie.” Vanessa told her that Quinn and her partner Ray had a Hobby Farm just outside of town, a little further north the motel along the river road. They liked to meet there because the girls love to have visitors.