Page 36 of The Reboot
‘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.
11
‘Mmm, smells great.’Ella sniffed the garlic-scented air as she went into the kitchen that evening.
Roly turned from the hob. ‘Perfect timing. It’s just ready.’
‘You don’t drain the pasta,’ she noted approvingly, looking over his shoulder as he dragged pasta from the pot straight into the Bolognese sauce.
‘Hey, I’m not a savage. My mum taught me to treat pasta with respect. Pasta, women and my elders. But mostly pasta.’
‘You’re a credit to her. Anything I can do?’
‘You could just grab the garlic bread from the oven.’
‘There’s garlic bread too?’ Ella beamed.
‘Yeah, I thought we should go all out for our final binge.’
‘I like your thinking.’
