Friday March 1

Bobbie was going back and forth between sleeping at her mother’s house and the motel. She worked with Lorne going through her furniture. Her brother, Jamie, bought Alex’s dad’s business years before when the old man retired and he inherited the big apartment above. Alex got all the furniture and gave some to Jamie and stored the rest.

She got up at her early time of 6:30, got a batch of muffins started and made coffee. Lorne and her Mom came down about an hour later.

Lorne said, “Bobbie, I will be at the motel later because I have the pub details to finish with Rocco.”

“Oh, that’s exciting are we going to have the glass bar and tables?”

“I want to present the whole desig,n but we’ll have two small tables and two large tables and banquet at the bar. That will be about 20 seats and leave some standing room.”

Bobbie excused herself and went to get ready for her day. She packed her toiletries and stripped her bed and took her sheets to the laundry room. She put them in the wash and thought this was probably the last time she’d do laundry here. It didn’t really feel like she was moving out. It didn’t feel like she was moving from Cit City either. She was worried she wouldn’t shake the loneliness she felt in the new apartment. She gathered all her things and Bobbie went out the door, returning to say that her sheets were in the wash and she hoped her mom wouldn’t be lonely.

“Don’t worry Bobbie, I won’t be all alone for long. Johnny is helping his aunt Linda move in on the weekend.”

On the drive to the motel, Bobbie was relieved that the two older ladies would be keeping each other company and chuckled when she thought of Lorne fitting right in.

When she got to the motel, it was just 8:00 and 2 groups of workmen were there. One company was building the new building and the other was working on the motel with her. The worker’s coffee room was upstairs in the old part of the motel, in room twelve, on the second floor. The rooms numbers were all changing with the addition of the public bathrooms for the restaurant and bar, and room 11, upstairs, would be a laundry room for the motel.

She dropped off the last of her things and went out her back door. She could see people outside the room on the balcony in front of room 11 and went in to see what was going on. Mark and Effie cleaned the beds and furniture out and had big folding tables against the wall. Mark was already there. He found a big coffee urn in one of the boxes from the insurance sale and had a sheet pan full of biscuits and another with sausage patties and cheese. A little sign said make you’re own biscuit sandwich and coffee for 2 dollars.

“Mark, what time did you even get here?”

“Only around 6, I had the biscuits all made last night. I made and cooked the sausage patties ahead of time too. The pork for the sausages is cheap at Costco and the biscuits aren’t too expensive either so the two dollars each will cover the cost of the ingredients.

“You made the sausages yourself​? Wow Mark, don’t wear yourself out! You know the only time I tried to make sausages, I misread the recipe and added a tablespoon of salt instead of a teaspoon.”

“That’s a lot of salt. I have no problem whipping up sausage patties though, I’m a cook, I love cooking! What I don’t like, there are so many guys, I don’t mind giving them coffee but the one bathroom in this room is in use non-stop. They all line up in here and the smell! And who wants to clean that mess!”

“I’ll talk to building foreman, maybe he can get a portable washroom.” She left the break room and went down the stairs around the pool and over to the new building site. She saw the guy in the white hat.

“Good morning,” she said, “I hope you got some coffee and your staff found the worker’s break room in the motel.”

He grunted.

“Anyway, the break room only has one washroom and with so many workers here it has been too busy. If you could order a couple porta-potties, I’m sure the problem would be solved.”

He looked annoyed and said, “Doesn’t a motel have a bunch of bathrooms? I don’t see the problem.”

“Well, we’re renovating the place and that includes the plumbing and we only have a couple running toilets.”

“This sounds like a you problem; maybe you should order your own shitters, I don’t have time for this,” he concluded, turned his back and walked away.

Bobbie blinked and turned around. That guy is a jerk! New building sites always have porta-potties. He could have been a little nicer. She went back to the break room and told Mark that the ass-hole foreman was not going to order porta-potties, so she was getting 2 and was closing the washroom in the room to workers. She sat down at one of the tables. It had some pussy-willows in a washed out juice bottle in the centre that made her smile. “Where did Effie find pussy willows in March anyway?” she thought as she got her computer out and found a company to deliver her ‘shitters’.

Lorne arrived around 10 and asked her and Mark and her head contractor Rocco to meet him in the “pub” or what was going to be the pub section of the restaurant.

They went through the door and what had been a large check-in desk and office had been torn out. The small bathroom in behind was also demolished. It felt very spacious.

“Wow, this is bigger than I imagined.”

Lorne had his tape measure out and agreed. “Moving the reception desk and the restroom and laundry made a big difference. I have a few extra feet more than I even thought, this is great! And we’re already plumbed for the bar.”

Rocco entered and said, “I had the engineer look at it and I can remove the wall where the new building connects to the old one and get good access for the restaurant bathrooms. We can fit three stalls for the ladies room and one stall and 3 urinals in the gents. The rest of this space is the bar.”

Mark asked if there was access to the kitchen behind the bar.

Bobbie looked at Lorne’s notes and plans. “Yes Mark, I see the door to the kitchen. There is still room for the staff washroom with a shower and employee locker room back there too. You and Rocco can work all this out and I’ll head up to my apartment and make some calls. I’ll see you there when your finished Lorne.”

Lorne arrived and found Bobbie had scooped a couple of Marks biscuit sausage sandwiches and made fresh coffee. He excitedly explained how nice Rocco was and how the restaurant bar and tables and benches were almost ready, and he and Rocco could probably install them early the next week. That’s great,” said Bobbie. “I’ll need Quinn to get working on our sign.”

Bobbie looked out the window and saw her portable washrooms being delivered. They positioned them at the edge of the parking lot. She texted Mark, asking him to make a sign to direct people to the portable washrooms.

Rocco arrived at the door and Bobbie let him in. He looked around, his eye pausing on Lorne, and then said that he needed some plumbing supplies for the sink at the bar. Bobbie gave him a company credit card and instructed him to get whatever he needed. After Rocco left, Lorne said that he worked with Rocco choosing where to put a sink and an ice maker and a glass washing station and asked when they could order it all.

Bobbie said. “I have to check on my budget before we can order things.”

“All the plumbing and electrical will be in place, ready to go.”

By this time it was around 3 o’clock and Barb texted her about meeting for dinner. Bobbie was eager to have company in her new apartment so she said they should get take out and eat here. She phoned Trixie who told her that Greg was busy that evening and she’d love to come over. Bobbie and Lorne went back to the coffee room to helped Mark clean up.

Quinn was sitting at one of the small tables and was working with a drawing tablet and a computer. She called Bobbie over, “I’ve mocked up a sign for the pub, what do you think?” Lorne and Bobbie decided a good name for the bar was SPOKES, in all caps, and Quinn had made a stylized logo that would go on the sign that was to be mounted on the outside wall beside the door. “I think it would be best in coloured neon,” said Quinn hopefully.

Bobbie said she agreed and hoped it wasn’t too pricey, she seemed to be spending a lot. Lorne assured her it was.

Bobbie said goodbye and wished everybody a good weekend and went back to her apartment to get ready for her friends. She decided they could eat in the dinning room, even if it was just take out and she set the table with with velvet edge place mats, silverware, crystal wine glasses and got serving dishes out of her pantry. She called Barb and said she’d ordered and paid for the food and asked if she could pick it up, it would be ready in half an hour. Barb said she was headed out the door. Then Bobbie called Trixie and told her the food was on it’s way and could she raid the Thurston wine cellar for something that would pair well with Thai food?

Trixie laughed, “Why of course daahling.”

About 45 minutes later, Barb and Trixie arrived with a box of white wine and a big order of Thai food.

Bobbie served it all out, put on some music and they sat down to their Friday night dinner.

“It’s very classy,” said Barb,

“Oh yes, I pulled out all the stops.”

Trixie asked her where she got the wine glasses.

“These aren’t too fancy, but they are antique crystal that I bought second hand. By the way did you see the fancy porta-potty out front? All the construction workers were a bit too much for Marks break room washroom, so I ordered one. The guy on the other crew was really rude. I think he has real problems with me as the boss lady.”

“That sucks,” said Barb.

Bobbies phone pinged and they watched a delivery truck go down the driveway.

“Ooh, you got a package,” said Barb.

“Nothing too exciting” said, Bobbie, “I need new underwear so I ordered this package of Microfiber briefs.”

“Oh,” said Trixie, “I love those, they come in such pretty colours.”

“They do,” said Bobbie, “but more importantly they feel nice and fit well. Trixie you are such a fashionista, I’d imagine you’d be more of a fancy undergarment wearer.”

“Maybe when I was younger, now I prefer the pretty colours and good fit. I do have a couple of pretty camisoles that co-ordinate,” she said with a wink.

“My Hub always wore heavy cotton briefs, they really got sweaty during the summer and weren’t so good when he was bed ridden,” added Barb.

“Right?” said Bobbie. “Good underwear is one of those rare products where it is cheaper and better for women’s wear than the men’s.”

Trixie said, “It’s probably because men like to see us in pretty underwear.”

“Ladies undies usually use less fabric so maybe that’s it.”

“Remember when all the underwear was cotton? I remember Shopping one afternoon and I had Eddy in tow and he was probably 8, so just about old enough to not want to go shopping with Mom. I picked up some underwear and he whispered, “Mom that looks like old lady underwear.” I’m not sure how he knew what old lady underwear even looked like but anyway, I thought it was cute he was teasing me but an older lady walked up behind us and said, “Ohh I was looking for that kind of underwear, where did you find it?”. “Eddie and I laughed all the way to the parking lot.”

“When you consider all the microplastics coming out of our washing machines, cotton underwear might be the better choice after all,” exclaimed Barb.

“Well I’ve got those microfiber panties now, what should I do? Throw them out and buy cotton ones instead?”

“You could return them, they are unopened,” said Trixie.

“What about the waste of the resources to ship them and send them back?”

After a few more glasses of wine it was decided that Bobbie would send her plastic underwear back and buy light cotton underwear somewhere local and she convinced them to stay the night to keep her company.