‘Eggs? Bacon? Porridge?’
‘Porridge would be nice, thank you.’
She stops scrubbing and pours me a coffee from the filter machine. ‘Let’s see… hmm… seeds, nuts, berries, honey, banana?’
‘You spoil me, Amy. Seeds and honey sounds great, please.’
‘Right you are. Did Gregory get off okay?’
I nod through my coffee. ‘He left early, about five, I think.’
She shakes her head. ‘I don’t know where that man gets all his energy.’
‘How long have you worked for him?’
‘Gosh, maybe five years. I used to just clean but he’s hopeless. He’d work all hours, get up at the crack of sparrows to exercise with that nutty driver of his and never eat – well, never eat or eat rubbish. You know they put all kinds of fat and salt and sugar in food in those fancy restaurants.’
I giggle to myself; she sounds just like Sandy. ‘What about the women he’s lived with? Didn’t they cook for him?’
Amy throws her head back in an almighty chuckle. ‘Sweetness, that man has never been with a woman long enough to move her in. You’re special to him, I can tell.’ She raises her brows with a grin that draws my smile up to my ears.
‘You’ll get the sack for spouting rubbish like that,’ Jackson chirps before he limps into the kitchen in sports shorts and a polo. ‘And I’m not a nutter.’
Amy twists her damp tea towel and whips it across Jackson’s legs.
‘Argh!’ He bends forward gripping his injured leg and hopping.
Amy’s quickly by his side, panic-stricken.
‘Only joking!’ Jackson stands with a cheeky grin.
‘You are a nutter!’ Amy slaps his shoulder and moves back to stirring porridge. ‘I hope you don’t expect me to feed you after that performance.’
‘My man said I could have his breakfast this morning.’
Amy tuts at the ceiling. ‘Well, if the boss calls it. Eggs?’
‘Poached please, flower.’ He hops up to a stool next to me. ‘You don’t mind me being here for breakfast, Scarlett, do you?’
I laugh through my coffee. ‘You have more right to be here than I do, Jackson, and don’t pretend he hasn’t told you to babysit me whilst he’s gone.’
‘He said nothing of the sort,’ he laughs.
‘No crutches today?’
‘Nah, it’s healing up nicely already.’ He proves his point by flexing his injured leg then straightening it flat and flexing it again. ‘I’d like to be driving again next week.’
‘Isn’t that a little soon?’
He scoffs and shakes his head. ‘If I don’t get back soon, I think Kenneth might lose a limb.’
‘One porridge with seeds,’ Amy announces, placing the steaming bowl in front of me. ‘You can put your own honey on to taste.’ She pushes a very pale-looking substance towards me.
‘Manuka?’ I ask, reading the label. ‘Oh, one of those healthy things.’ I hold the pot up in front of my face.
‘It has superhuman properties, apparently. Gregory insists on it, won’t have any other kind. Crackers if you ask me. It’s ten times the price of ordinary honey.’
‘Hmm, tastes okay, I suppose.’
