I said “It’s raining pretty heavy out there. Are you sure you don’t want me to get your lunch today?” Tara didn’t look very happy when I said this. She gave me an icy stare and said “Yes, quite likely she will. But the sooner she has another temper tantrum, the sooner we’ll all be rid of her!”

Jenny said “Can you blame them? You had fights with everyone that works here! You’ve made plenty of enemies, so I would suggest you put your head down and get on with your work. I’m really not interested in hearing about people ‘pushing your buttons’. You’re already on thin ice. Don’t make me regret giving you another chance.” Tara put up her hand and said “Yeah, OK... If there’s anything, I’ll let you know. Bye”, and then Tara left with her freshly cleaned suit.Brian said that he would try to talk to Helen today, and would tell her to apologise to Bernadette. Tara was about to say something, probably to insist on cleaning it up herself, but then stopped. Tara grinned and said “Yeah, OK. Thank you.”

Still, I never really knew what time Tara would arrive at work... it tended to be any time between 8:20 and 8:40. And I always got to work before 8:15. As I walked past Brian’s office, the door was shut and the blinds closed. I could hear feint muffled voices which I assumed (correctly) were Brian and Tara. So presumably Tara had decided to go ahead with lodging a complaint about Helen. Damn! Tara was very animated and happy today, after talking to Jenny, and Helen being pulled into line. I don’t think I’ve seen her so happy before. Friday was Tara’s rostered day off. She usually popped in on her day off, in the morning, to catch up on her paperwork. It had rained heavily overnight, and again there were lots of puddles in our carpark. The sun was out, and I hoped Tara would arrive before the puddles of water dried up.Tara scraped up the last bits of salad with her fork and slid them into her mouth. Then she put the straw to her lips and watched me drying her boot’s sole while she finished off her apple juice. Later, Helen was at my desk talking to me, when Tara walked in and placed her coffee mug on my desk, saying “Thanks”. So I wiped the white rubber sole of Tara’s sneaker. Tara sat watching me, but kept glancing over at the doorway to reception. It was pretty obvious Tara was hoping Helen would catch me cleaning her sneakers. Tara sat drinking her coffee, and watching me wipe the soles of her sneakers, while looking hopefully at the reception doorway. At about 10:30, Tara rang and asked me to make her a coffee. I took the coffee to Tara’s office. Tara smiled and thanked me. Then she said “I don’t suppose you’d have time to give my coat a bit of a clean today?” I didn’t sleep well that night. I was very concerned that the story about me cleaning Tara’s boots might spread. Helen might tell people. Even if she didn’t, when she was yelling her head off about it, I’m sure Andrew, Erica and Lynn must’ve heard Helen yelling about me cleaning Tara’s boots.

I said “It’s a long story. Let’s go to your office... and I’ll tell you the whole story while I’m cleaning your boots.”I said “Well you were kind of upset this morning... about your shoes.... and I just wanted to ....ah, you know... help fix the problem... that’s why I offered to take them to the repairers....and I’m quite happy to pay for the repairs.” Tara’s face relaxed a bit when I said that. Then she laughed a little before saying “Well in that case, YES!!! Please get my lunch today! Oh! I was dreading going out into that rain!” Our manager, Anne, met a guy online and moved overseas to be with him (she hasn’t quit, and is just on leave without pay). Andrew took over as acting manager, but that didn’t last long (haha... more about that later!) Brian went on to suggest various other ideas, and encouraged me to come up with something we could all do as a group. I said I’d need to think about it, but Brian kept churning out ideas, including: paintball (!?), orienteering, white water rafting, bungee jumping, skydiving, as well as a host of more pedestrian activities. He seems pretty keen on organising something, so this could be interesting (if I’m still working there, that is).