Vandals and Thieves

I woke up late the next morning when my phone was ringing loudly. 

"Hello?" I answered groggily. 

"Harper, can you be ready to go in 30 minutes, I have an emergency to attend to at the camp" Gabriel said quickly. 

"Uh huh, 30 minutes" I replied. 

"You'll be ready?" 

"Yup" I said, closing my eyes. 10 more minutes I thought to myself as I fell asleep. I was rudely awoken by a loud urgent banging at the door. 

"HARPER!" Gabriel yelled from the other side.  I frantically looked for my phone and saw that I had 8 missed calls in the last 15 minutes. Shit! Luckily all of my things were contained already, I just had to grab a pair of jeans and a shirt and stuff my book into my duffel bag. 

I washed my face and combed my fingers through my hair quickly before emerging and facing a fuming Gabriel Mason. He was not happy with me and drove down the highway at an alarming speed. I held on for dear life and avoided pissing him off further by keeping quiet. Something on his cheek caught my attention and I couldn’t stifle the laughter that bubbled from my lips. Gabriel shot me a questioning glance. I pressed my lips together and looked out the window. 

"What?" he said. 

"You were obviously quite busy before picking me up"I laughed but he simply frowned at me again. "You have lipstick all over the side of your face," I pointed out. He grunted and wiped his face but the lipstick didn’t budge.  I rummaged through my makeup bag grabbing some micellar water and poured it onto a cotton pad.  Gabriel grabbed it from me and wiped furiously at his unshaven face.

"For fuck sake" he mumbled under his breath looking at the cotton pad in his hand before he opened his window and tossed it outside. 

"Don't do that!" I scolded him too late.  Gabriel gave me a warning look which I took as a cue to look away and pray to god we get to the camp alive. 

We made it to the campsite in a record 45 minutes.  Gabriel had only just put the truck in park when he jumped out and into his cabin.  By the time I had grabbed my bag and hopped out of the truck Gabriel was jumping back in wearing his work clothes and driving off towards the work site. 

It wasn’t until much later that I discovered some of the work site equipment had been vandalised and a dump truck had been stolen.  There had only been a handful of men at the site during the weekend and it was Matteo who had called Gabriel to inform him of his discovery early in the morning. Gabriel was fuming as he returned to his cabin, wildly gesturing as he went over the details of the vandalism with Matteo.  I was worried for my friend but noticed that he was able to hold his own. Which was probably why he was Gabriel’s right hand man.

"I'm going to the river" Matteo huffed when he reached my cabin, "Do you want to join me?" My friend seemed to need to decompress from dealing with Gabriel all morning, and it was only one of the reasons I agreed to go with him. I longed for a swim. 

"Yeah, give me a second to change," I ordered.  Matteo told me all about the weekend's event, and I felt bad that he blamed himself for it, but really if someone was planning on stealing a dump truck out in the middle of the woods they had probably accounted for the fact that there would be people hanging around the site. 

"Did you get to talk to your wife this weekend" I asked "she must be excited that you are going home in a few weeks" 

"No, I didn't make it out of the woods to call her. I'm looking forward to going home though. My oldest starts school next week," he said proudly.  “Plus it’s getting kind of cold out here” he whined as I took my shirt off to go for a swim in the river. He shook his head, refusing to join me for a swim. He was happy with sitting on the bank and keeping warm while I was nearly naked in the freezing water as he called it. 

"It's been a reasonably warm summer"

"It's still been cold" he said, pulling a towel around his shoulder to emphasize his point. I walked up the river and let myself float down a few times before Matteo called me out. Gabriel had come to collect us because two police officers had arrived and wanted to question Matteo.  I reluctantly got out of the river and wrapped the towel Matteo offered me around my shoulders. 

"It's getting a little cold for you to swim in there," Gabriel observed as I shivered. 

"It was beautiful," I lied. 

"Your lips are blue," Matteo pointed out. 

"Nah!" I countered.  I was freezing but too proud to admit defeat in front of my friend. I jumped in the shower as soon as I arrived at my cabin. I let the hot water warm me up before getting back to the kitchen to prepare a small meal for all the men that had returned early.  William had arrived for his last week and I let him take the reins.  He was the most promising out of the three students I had preceptored over the summer. So when Gabriel asked me to stay an extra 12 weeks, I immediately asked if we could keep William.  Gabriel said he would think about it and get back to me by the end of the week. I was disappointed that Matteo was going to leave and in the end only half of the men were going to be staying behind.  Gabriel essentially had to deny me the extra help, which I understood but still felt sad about. 

To say the time dragged on during those extra 12 weeks would be an understatement. I spent most of the days alone making food and only saw people during meals. I had no one to help me out  as the men were all working at capacity.  I made it a point to go to town during the weekends. Janice had offered me to stay at her house until it sold and in return I made sure the place was ready to be shown.  I vacuumed, dusted and changed her scentsy melts before leaving on Sunday evening.  Gabriel had some of his men pick me up from Janice’s on Sundays and returned on Friday afternoon. I saw very little of him,  as he was working on some other project elsewhere while he assigned someone as the project manager for our camp. During the last two weeks I was getting depressed but looking forward to being done. I had always enjoyed solitude but this was getting to be too heavy. As I made my way to my cabin one night I heard someone call out my name. 

"Harper?" I turned to see Gabriel standing at his cabin with a concerned look on his face. "How are you doing?" 

"I'm okay" I lied. His eyes looked me up and down and a frown crossed his face.  

"Come in," he said, holding the door open. He walked in behind me and closed the door, pushing some laundry off a chair for me to sit. 

"What’s up?" I asked as I sat down.

"You look awful," he said, shocked.  

"Gee, thanks boss" I said, raising an eyebrow. 

"Sorry, you look like you’ve lost weight and you have dark circles under your eyes" 

"Again… thanks boss" I replied bitterly.  

"Are you doing ok?" 

"I'm fine, I'm just tired. Anyways I need to head to bed, I have to get up early tomorrow" 

"I was hoping to talk to you though" 

"About what?" 

"About your performance here this season" he started, a stern look on his face. "You really surpassed my expectation and I would like you to consider coming back next season" 

"You sure you can afford that" I teased. He cracked a smile. 

"I'll fire some of the other men so we can afford you here" he said. "I know these last three months have been tough on you, and I should have hired someone to help out. I can’t imagine how lonely you’ve been these last few weeks.  I will make sure you have the best staff next year. No students, just competent staff, please consider it."

"I don't think so Gabriel," I said with a heavy heart. I was so tired.

"Think about it," he said, getting up and opening the door for me as I stood up.  I was emotionally drained and looking forward to going home for a while. "Only three more days" I told myself as I tried to fall asleep. 

When I got to the kitchen the next morning Gabriel was standing in the kitchen looking lost. 

"Can I help you with something?" I asked.

"What can I do to help you?" He said enthusiastically. I scoffed.

"Start the coffee!" I ordered. The eggs I was going to need for breakfast were already cracked and scrambled in the fridge, the cereal boxes were scattered along the table, all that was left was cooking the eggs and bacon.  Gabriel had walked over to the coffee maker but I didn’t hear any noise coming from the machine after he had been there for several minutes.  "Just press the on button" I called out.  The pot whirred to life and soon the delicious aroma of coffee reached me in the kitchen.  He walked back sheepishly. 

"I'll do the dishes after breakfast then" he said, and walked out. I laughed at this for a good 10 minutes.  My mood seriously improved for the time being. As promised, Gabriel showed up after breakfast to help with the dishes. 

"You do this every day?" he whined after half an hour of dish washing

"I do this 4 times a day, every day" I replied. 

"I'm really sorry, I should have hired someone to help you" he sighed and looked out the window while scrubbing the egg pan. 

"It's okay, I kept busy.  The hardest part was being alone most of the day" he looked at me with a shocked expression.

"You're not going to come back are you?" he asked, crinkling up his nose. 

"If you help me with dishes at least once a month I probably will" I teased. 

"When do you leave town?" he asked.

"Monday" 

"Where are you staying in the meantime?" he asked.

"Probably at the motel, Janice sold her house last week" 

"Stay at my place, I'll bring you to the airport on Monday" he offered. 

"If it's no trouble, sure," I said brightly, looking forward to some company. 

Gabriel helped me with the dishes for the remaining days at the camp.  I packed my few belongings in the cabin before he came around to collect my bags and we drove into the city.