I laugh at him and he brushes his mouth across mine once more before he steps away. Then he’s striding across Queen Street, pulling on his work gloves and accepting a hard hat. The guy from the greenhouse company is taking pictures like mad and I wish I could stay to watch.
I do enjoy Cameron’s look of astonishment. “Right under my nose,” she murmurs as I walk past her to get in the car and I can’t help but smile. She emits a huge sigh, but her eyes are dancing. “Why are all the good ones taken?”
I have no answer for that.
“Thank you, Cameron,” Una says. “I’ll see you later tonight.”
Cameron waves and we’re off to Havelock.
28
MIKE
The crane takes a little over an hour to deliver all the parts for the greenhouse to the roof. This company’s products are always modular, and this little structure assembles with neat precision. There are two guys from the greenhouse company to oversee the installation and I help where I can. It’s amazing how accurately each element fits and exciting to see it all come together.
I have to love standing on the roof, watching a greenhouse panel spin and glitter like an oversized suncatcher before it’s lowered toward the waiting frame. It seems like most of Empire has gathered to watch and there are people on all the roofs in view.
I’m still sizzling from Sylvia’s kiss, wishing that she and Sierra were here to watch, too.
Each panel is two metres long and four high, made of two layers of glass. The ones for the south and west side have blinds secured in the space between the glass, and they can be controlled with a lever in the frame. The roof units are longer and narrower, also with blinds inside, which results in a longslope on the roof angled to the south and a shorter rise on the north. There’s a different module in the end unit at the east side, one with a door. The space above the end walls and the roof is filled by triangular modules, both with inset fans. Even before the electricity is connected, the fans turn lazily in the breeze, circulating the air inside.
I’ve also ordered some dark bricks for the floor, which are delivered on skids. The crane operator lifts them to the roof as well, saving me a lot of stairs. There should be enough to build a short wall on the north side to act as a heatsink, too.
The crane pulls away before lunch, leaving us to tighten joints and caulk crevices. There’s a cheer from the street and the rooftops as people applaud the crane and its operator on departure. He waves like Santa Claus at the end of a Christmas parade. The greenhouse guys pronounce themselves done a little bit later, their rep takes a ton of pictures, then they head out.
Not even two. I wave and beckon to Merrie that she can return and she waves back.
Sylvia has sent me the specifics by text and I reply to her. I still have a bit of time before I have to head to Havelock and am considering the merit of stopping in the office – even though it’s Friday – after grabbing a shower.
Instead, I turn to find a teenage boy watching me solemnly. He looks to be a bit younger than Sierra, but then boys often have their growth spurt later than girls. He’s wearing a baseball cap – a Jays fan, apparently – and his freckles seem to have freckles.
“How did you get up here?”
“The greenhouse guys let me in.”
“Why are you up here?”
“I’m Noah McLaughlin and I want to interview you,” hesays. “I want the whole story behind the new greenhouseandI want an exclusive.”
I realize who he has to be. “Are you the one running The Empire Chronicle?” There’s a new website in Empire, a virtual newspaper, and I heard it was run by one of the kids in town. He wrote an article about The Carpe Diem Café that Dierdre showed me at work one day. I just skimmed it but it was well done.
“That’s me.”
Getting some exposure is a good idea and would be more payback for the greenhouse company. “Great idea. I can’t give you an exclusive, though.”
“Why not?”
I gesture to the greenhouse. “The company who manufactured this is contributing to the installation so that they can use it as an example in their marketing.”
“They want to sell more of them.”
“Exactly.”
“Okay. That’ll be mostly to their customers and to the industry trades,” he concludes, rightly enough. “I want the exclusive for the general media.”
“I can’t dictate who picks up what.”
“But you can decide who you talk to.”
