special but he couldn’t live like a monk and needed a little light-hearted flirtation with Julie.
Chapter Seventeen
Katie’s mum stood next to her on the doorstep at her new flat on Grafton Road while she fiddled with excitement trying to get the key into the lock.
“Well, it’s a lovely street,” her mum muttered looking around her, while Katie finally managed to get the door open and they walked down the hall looking into each room.
Katie opened the door to the new kitchen-diner and her mum exclaimed with pleasure. “Oh, what a lovely light room. This’ll make a great kitchen for you to work in love,” she said grinning at her.
Katie agreed and walked straight to the French doors opening them with the smaller key attached to the key ring. “And, I have a small garden, too. Not that I know anything about gardening.”
“Well, I’ll help you with that,” she cried delightedly and wandered out tipping her head back to let the sun touch her face. “And, it’s south facing so you’ll get the sun all day and late into the evening.”
Smiling at the pleasure on her mum’s face, Katie went back to her car, unloading bags and boxes onto the pavement. Her mum was right she thought contentedly, it was a lovely street and in a well-looked after area of London. Nodding her head in satisfaction she returned with the first two boxes into the hall and her mum fished out the most important items; a kettle, mugs, coffee and milk. Drinking their coffee they made a plan together of which rooms to clean and paint first and Katie told her on which days her new bed and furniture would be arriving.
“So, if all goes according to plan I should be able to spend my first night here by Thursday at the latest. And the workmen are starting to install the new kitchen on Wednesday so I need to have the room painted and ready for them.”
Her mum nodded in agreement in the quiet room when a gentle tapping noise above them made her raise an eyebrow and look questioningly at her daughter.
“It’s the old lady upstairs I think. Apparently she’s lived there for years and is blind now. The estate agent said she has a white stick?”
“Ah, bless her. You see, love, there’s always someone worse off than yourself. Thank God, I’ve got my health,” she said. “But I hope the tapping isn’t going to irritate you?”
Katie smiled at her. “Not at all, Mum, I suppose it’ll be a noise like traffic that I’ll get so used to, I won’t notice after a while and maybe the day the tapping stops will be the day to worry. I might call up later to say hello and ask her if she needs any shopping.”
Her mum sipped her coffee then beamed at Katie dunking a chocolate biscuit into her mug.
“Did Michael say he would definitely come this afternoon?” Katie asked in between munching through the soggy biscuit. “I really need the light bulbs in and blinds hung as soon as possible and because I wobble anywhere near the top of the ladder…”
Her mum sighed. “Well, you know Michael; he’s always rushing around but I’m sure he won’t let us down.”
Katie grimaced; he won’t let you down she thought but if I’d asked him to come and help he’d be complaining and whinging from the minute he arrived. But she consoled herself with the knowledge that he would definitely come because mum had asked him and was the same as herself and Jack - none of them would ever say no to her or indeed refuse to do anything she asked of them – it was simply an unspoken law.
Katie started cleaning and sweeping the kitchen ready to paint while her mum worked hard cleaning the bedrooms, bathroom, and lounge and by the time Michael arrived and hung light shades and put blinds at the windows, the flat was beginning to look more homely.
“You know, I would much rather have these floorboards stained than laying a carpet,” she said standing in the lounge while Michael stood on the top of the ladder pushing a light bulb into the socket. “But I suppose it would be expensive?”
He climbed down and went to the switch on the wall to make sure it worked. “Well, it would be if you got a company to do it but you can hire sanding machines and buy the tins of wood stain quite cheaply.”