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“I’ve got just the job for a late girl on her first day.”
Uh oh. That didn’t sound good.
*
“I can’t believe you’re just standing there while I do this!”
Chuck fought a smile with all his might. It would be mean to laugh at Millie’s plight, even if he were enjoying every second of this.
“Mill, I missed my second coffee of the day because you were late this morning. I’m in no fit state to help with mucking out the stables.”
There was an exasperated groan from Millie as she continued to sluice water onto the dirty floor of Bella’s stall.
Chuck snorted under his breath and turned up the gas on the camping stove he was using to boil his water.
“This isn’t even mucking out!” Millie yelped, in between deep pants of effort. “This is a deep clean. This is nuclear levels of cleanliness.”
“Good for you to learn proper standards,” Chuck said. He poured some light-roast Columbian beans into his hand grinder and started to twist the handle.
“This is so unfair, getting me to do this on my first day. It’s like a punishment in itself.”
“Remind me, Mill, what was rule number three?”
“Umm, I think it was: Don’t be mean to Millie…?”
“Nope. It was: There must be no argument with Chuck.”
“Fine.Sir,“ she said pointedly.
“That’s more like it. You know, I don’t remember you this argumentative,” he teased.
“I don’t remember you this mean,’ she teased back.
Chuck sighed. “That’s fair. I guess I’ve changed.”
“For the worse.”
He didn’t know if she was just testing, or if she was trying to be cruel, but either way, that kind of back-talk was totally unacceptable.
“Millie Reynolds,” Chuck said in a voice as firm as it was deep, “that kind of talk isn’t going to fly.”
There was a pause. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be cruel. I just… I never know when I’m pushing something too far. It was meant to be a joke.”
He considered this for a moment. “I understand, and I accept your apology. I know I’m pushing you hard today. And it must be strange, seeing me after all this time.”
“You bet it is! We were always so… close. And then one day you just left, without saying anything to me. I always sort of felt… abandoned.”
He could hear the pain in her voice. He desperately wanted to tell her the truth about why he’d left.
But he couldn’t. No chance.
“I’m sorry about that.” He finished brewing the coffee and walked over to the stall with it. “I know you Brits are more into tea, but I made this for you.”
“Are you kidding? I hate tea! Dirty leaf water! Yuck!”
“Well have this… hot… brown… bean… juice instead.”
For a moment, as they laughed, it almost felt as though they were back in time, at the stables in Berkshire, sharing a joke as they always had when they’d worked together. Then, she sipped the coffee, and Chuck remembered himself.
