‘Bella Vista’ is a hive of activity as I rock up around nine thirty. I have to leave my car out on the nature strip as there are untold trucks, Utes and an excavator on the driveway. I haven’t dressed up today as I knew I would be walking onto a building site and I am feeling extremely glad of my choice of jeans and my favourite old biker boots with a hoodie and body warmer on top, it’s not particularly warm today and rain is forecast. I head into the house and try to find Gabe’s site manager Dave, who I am to liaise with, I ask the electricians as I step around them and I’m told his office is in one of the bedrooms, great, so do I decorate around him? My phone goes but the noise in the house is deafening, I can see from the screen it’s Gabe and I want to know he’s arrived safe, I know it’s only a half hour or so flight but I still worry.
“Hey baby, you’re gonna have to shout, its chaos here, just tell me you landed safe and I will call you back in a bit.”
Before he answers someone bellows, “Oi, get your hard hat on!”
I just know they’re talking to me…Shit!
A mountain of a man comes towards me, “Get a hat on or get off my site!” He shouts at me again in a strong Scottish accent and my first thought is to cry.
“Sorry mate, I’m looking for Dave, I was hoping to grab a hat from him, I’m Lauren Day, the Palmer’s interior designer.”
“I don’t give a fuck who you are, get a fucking hat on or get out, are those boots toecaps?”
“Yes actually they are,” I lie “And if you would stop being so rude and point me towards Dave’s office I will get a fucking hat.”
My phone goes off again, I had forgotten Gabe’s call, he must have hung up and called back, I swipe to answer but before I can say a word he shouts down the phone, “Put that Scottish cunt on the phone now!”
Without a word I pass the phone to the Scottish cunt. He looks confused as he takes it, then shocked, “Gabe? Well she should have come straight to the off…I’m well aware of that. Yep. Okay.”
He passes the phone back to me, “I’ll get ya hat.”
He walks away as I walk outside so as to hear what Gabe’s saying, “If that fucker so much as breathes at you the wrong way, I want you to call and tell me. I’ve just given him his first and last warning. Are you okay?”
“I’m fine, who is he, the Scottish cunt I mean?”
“Language Lauren, I know you’re on a building site but there’s no need to swear like one of the blokes. That’s Dave, the bloke I told you to ask for, his office was set up on the drive but we needed the room so he moved inside, now visitors have to go onsite to get their safety gear, which is against OH&S. I’m sorry Lauren, that was so unprofessional, what if you had been the client, the blokes a liability, good at his job but shit people skills, I’ve got to go, go get your sexy hard hat on and send me a picture of you wearing it. Have a good day baby, I love you, can’t wait till you marry me.”
He hangs up before I can reply; I turn and see Dave standing behind me with a hard hat and Hi Vis jacket in his hand. I’ve worked on properties still classed as building sites before, I know the rules, I would have worn my own kit if I had known it was going to cause so much trouble this morning.
“Sorry about all that, it’s been chaos here this morning, I should never have taken it out on you.”
He puts his hand out for me to shake and I accept. “David Mackenzie, site manager.”