‘Why don’t you empty the bins?’ Amy suggested as she folded the corner of the toilet roll into a triangle and popped it on to the holder. ‘That would be a great help.’
‘Good idea,’ Cal said brightly, searching through the trolley for two pairs of latex gloves. ‘Put these on,’ he instructed me.
‘What do you mean “empty the bins”? Where?’ I asked, taking the gloves and inspecting them.
Cal snorted. ‘You’ve never emptied the bins? Doesn’t your mum ever ask you?’
‘No.’ I shrugged. ‘I don’t even know ifshedoes them. They just get emptied.’
‘You are unbelievable,’ he said, lifting the bag out of the bin under the dressing table and tying the ends, before holding it out at me.
I stared at it in horror.
‘Come on, put the gloves on,’ he encouraged. ‘If you’re going to be in charge one day, you have to know this place, inside out.’
I reluctantly pulled on the gloves and took the bin bag, holding my nose. ‘Ew.’
‘It is NOT that bad,’ he said, leading the way out of the room.
He picked up a few more bin bags put out by another member of staff, who was cleaning the rooms further down the corridor. He yelled thanks to Cal as he passed them to me and we got in the lift.
‘How come you know everyone?’ I asked, holding the bin bags at arm’s length away from me.
‘Because I bother to talk to them,’ he said pointedly.
We went out the exit next to the laundry room and Cal gestured to the big industrial bins. I put the bags down on the floor and, one by one, threw them into the bigger bin.
‘Eugh,’ I yelped, as I missed and hit the edge of the bin, causing the bag I was holding to explode. I looked at the mess scattered around our feet. ‘Who do we get to clean this up?’
He raised his eyebrows. ‘Guess.’
‘Nooooo!’ I cried.
‘You’re wearing gloves,’ he said, pinging the bottom of his for effect. ‘Come on, I’ll help you.’
He bent down and began to gather up the rubbish, every now and then straightening up to throw it in the bin. He watched me in bemusement as I gracefully bent my knees to join him, whimpering the whole way down.
‘We’ll be done in no time,’ he said. ‘Just be careful of the mice. Look, there’s one by your shoe.’
‘WHAT?’
I screamed and leaped to my feet, running away from the bin and slamming myself against the wall, looking around the concrete madly. ‘WHERE HAS IT GONE? WHERE IS IT?’
‘I’m joking! I’m joking!’ He laughed, standing up. ‘I swear, it was just a joke. There’s no mouse!’
‘That was NOT funny!’ I yelled. ‘You gave me a heart attack!’
‘I’m sorry.’ He chuckled. ‘You should have seen your face!’
I came back over and couldn’t help but smile in relief. I guess that may have been a slight overreaction. I giggled as I bent down to pick up the last bits of rubbish.
‘Whoa,’ Cal said, his eyes twinkling. ‘Did you justlaugh?’
‘So?’
‘I don’t think I’ve seen you laugh in years.’
‘Well, maybe that’s because you’re not very funny.’
