Chapter 31

Several days passed and the weekend had come around again. Evie was lying naked on the reclined passenger seat, playing on her phone, whilst Drake was working on renovating the free space in the garage.

Over the week, they had ordered all sorts of equipment, furniture and decorations. Drake was looking very tired having endured the curse several times, trying to pull boxes which had been delivered to the front of the house into the car to get them back to the garage. But he was a very project driven person and wanted to get it over with and start working on the renovations.

Evie had started to walk more. Her legs aching constantly, but with the order of some crutches, did not need Drake to hold onto her whenever she felt like getting out of the car.

He opened the back passenger door and threw in a heavy black refuse bag and coughed. "We'll dump this at the side of the house."

Evie looked around. Whatever he was doing had dislodged a lot of dust. "Have a break, Drake."

He shook his head. "I can relax when this is done."

She knew better than to argue. Part of her felt a little useless to be watching him work away, whilst she sat there. However she had spent hours picking out the right floorboards and paint online, which was the hard part.

By the evening, Drake had cleaned out the rubbish and gardening equipment, swept out the dust and had installed a wooden floor, having moved the car several times to cover the whole room.

Evie had finished her own project, having finished a sharing size pizza which she managed to order when Drake left his phone unlocked next to her.

He sat on the workbench, lit a cigarette and scanned over the new flooring, checking for gaps and bubbles.

Early on Sunday morning He painted the walls with a thick coat of eggshell white straight on the bricks. The two of them took a drive around the countryside for several hours and visited a drive through for lunch, whilst it dried. When they returned He began opening the flat pack furniture.

At night, the garage was finished. The car opened directly into a small but efficient studio apartment. The workbench had been cleaned, varnished and left in the center of the room. He replaced the tools with a microwave, mini fridge, kettle and coffee machine, leaving enough space for his laptop and a bar stool and had installed kitchen cupboards to the wall.

The far end of the room by the back wall had a simple black futon, assembled from a flat pack which nearly reached the car.

The other end had been cut off with a shower curtain. He had plumbed the hosepipe into a camping sink, with a water heater. The tap could be attached to a shower, which drained out through a small hole into the back garden. He had also put down a large, solid camping toilet, which could be filled with shower water to flush.

The electrics had also been refitted. There were several plug sockets now, powering the equipment, along with an electric radiator and small wall mounted television, facing the futon. Evie had helped by setting up the radiator and lights to Alexa, which was surprisingly difficult.

Finally, He hung a mirror and a couple of generic prints to the wall.

"It's done now?" He said, starting to yawn.

She grabbed her crutches and got out of the car. She looked around, her eyes filled up with tears.

"Are you alright?"

She nodded and sniffled. "Sorry. Just feels normal for once."

He smiled. "Well, it's not much. We still have a long way to go."

"I know. Can I take a shower?"

"Yeah. The water comes from a well, so don't drink it without boiling it first. But take as long as you want."

Drake flopped on the sofa and turned on the television. He kept it on a quiz show and had a cigarette. Evie took some shampoo from the car and hobbled into the shower.

The warm water hit her. She instantly felt refreshed. She kept clean in the car, but this was the first time in months that she felt clean. Dirt and greased washed away down the drain as she shampooed her hair three times.

She spent half an hour in the shower until she worried about flooding the back garden, unsure of where it was draining to. She hobbled to the car, wrapped herself in a slightly musty towel amd sat next to Drake who had fallen asleep. She wanted to wake him to fold out the bed, but didn't have the heart, he looked exhausted.

When she dried, she took the blanket from the back of the car, lay on his lap and wrapped herself up. She opened her phone and started browsing the home delivery service from the local supermarket for the rest of the evening.

-------

Drake was awake and working early the next morning. Evie was quietly doing her stretching exercises by the sofa. She had not got dressed. With the heater on constantly and no windows looking in, she didn't feel the need, plus Drake with his tunnel vision during work hours did not seem to mind.

Once her legs began to ache too much, she flopped back down on the sofa. She needed to work too. With Adam paying a few of the bills, there was some pressure off. But the large payment towards the bills she had been ignoring and now a large delivery from the supermarket expected today, she was very low on money again.

Without being stuck to the car, she did have new career options. She looked at Drake working away on his laptop, answering calls through the headset for ten hours a day with no problems, that could easily be her working a stable job too. Managing her finance apps was good money, but stressful and unpredictable. She wanted to do her old job, but needed to do it from home.

By the afternoon, a van horn beeped towards the front of the house. Drake spun around. "More deliveries?"

Evie's phone rang. The driver was on the line. "Hello. I have your shopping."

"Thanks! Can you just leave it by the door." She paused. "I've just had to go out for a while."

"Sure." The man said and hung up.

Drake took off his headset. "Oh, it's for you."

Evie smiled and nodded. "Can we drive around and pick it up? I need help getting it into the car."

Drake sighed, typed a few things into his computer and stood up. He looked at her. "Don't you need to get dressed first?"

She shrugged. "Probably not. Come on, I can hear him leaving." She looked him up and down, unsure why he was wearing a smart shirt and designer watch, whilst nobody could see him.

He got into the driver's seat. "It's your turn to bring the bags into the car. Just be careful."

She nodded. "Okay." and climbed into the back seat and lay down.

Drake opened the garage door and drove twenty meters to the front of the house, carefully edging as close as he could to the pile of shopping bags. "There's quite a lot there."

"I haven't been shopping in months!" she protested.

"I'm not judging, just saying." He put on the handbrake reached back and wrapped one arm around Evie's waist. "Pass them to me one at a time. I'll move them to the boot. Don't fall out."

She opened the door, grabbed the bag handle from the floor and dragged it through to Drake who dropped it over the seat. She panted a little from the exertion and rubbed her arm, which had started shaking.

"Couple more, then ill edge closer." He said.

The eventually got a dozen shopping bags into the car. Evie lay on the seat, her heart racing, feeling nauseous as He drove them back into the garage.

"I'll empty the bags if you need to get back to work. Just give me ten minutes."

He nodded and returned to the laptop. "Take your time. We should think of a better way to bring in deliveries."

She burped into her cheeks, luckily not throwing up and nodded.

She sat back up half an hour later, feeling better, apart from a slight headache and brought the bags out and started emptying them around the sofa. First the important stuff, two fresh pillows, a thick duvet, bed sheets, towels, cleaning spray, washing up liquid, plates, bowls, cutlery laundry tablets and a first aid kit with paracetamol. She rolled out the futon and turned it into a comfortable bed.

Next, the food shopping. Half a dozen bags full of everything she had not been able to get for months. Bread, sugar, honey, tea, milk, cereal, ramen, coffee beans and cigarettes for Drake. She put a few microwave meals into the fridge and stacked bottles of ice tea on the workbench

Finally the good stuff. Six bottles of white wine, some rum and coke cans, Which she stacked neatly with the ice tea. She took out fresh cakes, pastries, crusty bread, salami, dips, bags of crisps, breadsticks, cheeses, olives, which she managed to pack away in the cupboards and eventually tipped out a fully packed shopping bag filled with nothing but chocolates and jelly sweets all over the bed.

Drake looked over, hearing the packets rattle out. "What's all that?"

"I need it, okay?"

He nodded and went back to work.

Evie lay on the bed next to her candy mountain, took out her phone to look for jobs and began to unwrap the snacks.