Page 34 of The Reboot
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 anymore. 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 that was another 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 twenty 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?’
