About five minutes later, with the Shipping Forecast accompanying them out through the back of the chemist, Birdie led Nina through a compact patio area, opened a gate, turned left, and walked into another small backyard area and to a door on the left leading to the back of the chocolate shop. The smell in the air alone told Nina where she was.
Just as they were stepping in, a young assistant wearing one of the chocolate shop branded aprons came out from the front of the shop and smiled. Birdie turned to Nina. 'Have you met Millie?'
'Yes, hi Millie, how are you doing?' Nina asked.
'Good, thanks. How are you? How are you getting on? You’ve bought a house over on the harbour, haven’t you?' Millie asked.
Nina nodded. 'Yes, not really a house. It’s an apartment over a retail or office area.' Nina was modest, downplaying the excitement she felt about the new place.
'Oh yes, I know the ones. It's really nice over that way. Good luck with that,' Millie replied.
'Thank you.’
Millie pointed to the storage room door. 'There you go, it’s all in there waiting for you.'
Birdie lowered her voice. 'Is Lizzie okay with everything?'
Millie raised her eyebrows. 'Yes, well, she’s not very happy about it, but we’ve got to get this problem sorted out.' Millie also lowered her voice to barely above a whisper. 'If you ask me, this is a health hazard. I’m surprised we haven’t been in trouble yet about it.'
'Exactly, which is why I wanted to get Nina involved. She’s an expert at this sort of thing.'
Millie nodded. 'Yes, I’ve heard about The Summer Hotel. You got that place spick and span.'
Nina smiled. Everybody in Lovely Bay knew everything about everyone, but it seemed as if her job at The Summer Hotel wasparticularly well known. Millie, seeing the thought go across Nina’s face, clarified, 'Oh, my mum lives down the same road, so we saw everything going on, and Ella is my cousin.'
'Ah,' Nina said. 'That makes sense. Well, if you know Ella, then you’ll know that The Summer Hotel was a lot of work, but it turned out okay.'
Birdie smiled as Millie opened the door to the storage room. She tapped Nina on the elbow. 'Look, I have to get back on the double. I need to continue sorting out that order. I’ve got half of Lovely Bay arriving in a couple of hours to come and collect their medicines.'
'Yeah, see you in a bit. Thanks, Birdie.'
Millie sighed as she opened the storeroom door fully, and Nina was surprised to see so much mess. She had totally underestimated how big the job would be. From the street frontage, the chocolate shop was immaculate, and she hadn’t realised the room in the back would be as big. She hid her surprise well and inwardly cringed at how much work there was ahead of her, so much for one morning of effort. This was more like a week, if not more.
What looked back at her were piles and piles of junk in what seemed to be an outer room, which led to an inner room. Junk looked back at her from every inch of space. A couple of modern-looking lamps with their wires trailing cables on the floor, a huge pile of blue, what looked like moving boxes, on the left-hand side. A Christmas tree wedged in the corner, a massive pile of shopping bags and baskets on top of what appeared to be garbage bins, and an empty box for the Christmas tree on the far wall. Timber Ikea racks, held piles and piles and piles of junk; stacks of cushions, what looked like a sleeping bag wrapped up in a bag, loads of bags stuffed full of newspapers, a child’s wigwam with a dreamcatcher, a whole shelf full of old Halloweendecorations, pumpkins, a skull, and more boxes of what looked like printer supplies than she’d ever seen.
Millie squeezed around two pieces of timber shelving stacked on their end, opened another door, and walked into another room where red metal storage units were also packed with junk. One shelf held various tins of paint and DIY supplies. Another looked as if it was stacked with old printer cartridges, reams of white paper, and on the left, old chocolate shop uniforms hung from the top of the red units along with loads of empty coat hangers bent out of shape.
It looked as if, at some point, somebody had tried to do something about the place because, on the far right, huge black storage tubs with yellow lids were stacked in a fairly neat pile, but that was the only part of the place that was neat. Most of it looked as if a small bomb had gone off. Three big red hard-shelled suitcases were stacked up near the roof. Huge black bin liners near the window appeared as if they were full of rubbish. Another Christmas tree in a wicker pot was wedged on a shelf, and there was another huge pile of pillows, these ones tartan, delivery boxes, and masses and masses of Christmas decorations.
Nina had thought she’d seen it all in her jobs, but this seemed to be as if people had literally opened the door, thrown stuff in, closed it again, and hoped for the best. It was a big job. Not that it scared her at all. She liked nothing better than to get stuck in, put her headphones on, listen to a podcast, and start clearing up. The problem was that she was trying to fit this favour in among her own business, organising a wedding and moving into a new house. She gulped at the sight of the work involved but didn’t have a lot of choice but to get on with the job at hand; there was no way she was going to let anybody in Lovely Bay down, particularly not Birdie.
Nina was mentally assessing like crazy as Millie chatted away about the state of the room. Millie laughed and picked up a book from a pile on her right. 'For instance, I’m really not sure why Lizzie needs a "Scotland Real Estate for Beginners" book. Do you? I don’t think she has much use for that in Lovely Bay.'
Nina chuckled. 'I’ve seen it all before, Millie. It’s probably from when she didn’t know what she was going to do with her life and thought she was going to be an estate agent.'
Millie picked up a broken trophy where a girl in a football uniform stood in gold on the top. 'And what about this trophy for a football team? Why is she keeping that?’
Nina nodded. 'Oh yes, we always find lots of trophies. You wouldn’t believe how many trophies there are tucked away in people's cupboards. A whole army of the things.'
Millie laughed. 'Right, well, I’ll let you get on, shall I?'
'Yeah, that would be good.'
'How long do you think it will take you?'
Inside, Nina was thinking it would take her a long time. She tried to play it down. 'Oh, not very long at all. I’ll just keep coming back until it’s all sorted.'
'Then I’ll leave you to it then. Fancy a coffee or anything?'
