I leaned on the counter on the busy Saturday afternoon. The rock climbing company that my family owned and run was always busy on the weekends. There was always one person who would come in everyday and it was great to see that he wasn't put off by the weekend people trying it out, which was usually groups of people who had never thought about rock climbing before in their lives. Still, the cats hated the fact that there were a lot of people here on the weekends because he couldn't actually climb the walls himself.
Liam, my favourite regular, wasn't here yet, but he was due to turn up at any moment. While I waited, I reached over and scratched the top of Ginger's head which poked out from the bed that was on the check-in counter. Oreo, our other rescue cat, was nowhere to be found on the weekends. Sometimes, I thought that the only reason that Ginger stayed in the warehouse was because of the head scratches that he got off us and the customers. He was a very friendly cat, though, which was always a good thing for a rescue.
I looked up as the door opened, letting in a little breeze, and couldn't help but smile as I saw Liam walk in. The smiled dipped a little as I saw that he was followed by a group of teenagers from my year in school. I was a little bummed since I didn't really get along with them at all. It was why I preferred to work at the warehouse at the weekends. Still, Liam headed straight to the counter and brightened up my day again. "Hi, Liam. It's good to see you. Are you after the usual?"
"You know me so well, Meg." He replied, leaning on the counter and stretching over to scratch Ginger on the head as I typed in the request on the computer behind the counter. He held out his membership card and I scanned it, handing it back to him once it was registered in the computer. "All done?"
"Yep. You're all set. Have fun out there and try not to break a bone." I laughed, making him laugh too. He headed over to the harnessing up area and I had to turn my attention to the group of teenagers. "Hi, and welcome to the Rock Centre. Do any of you have the memberships or are you all buying one time tickets?"
"One time for everyone, please." The girl at the front spoke, not pleasantly. Still, I had to keep the fake smile on my face.
"Great." I responded, quickly doing the headcount of the six of them. "Are you all paying individually or all together?"
"Let's do it individually, just to make it easier on us." She answered. That meant that it would be a bit more difficult and time consuming for me. Oh well, it needed to be done.
"All right. It'll be fifteen pound each. Who's paying cash?" I wondered. Three of them were, which made things easier. I started with theirs, making sure that I gave the right people the correct change, putting each of the purchases through the computer as I did so. It didn't take me long, thank goodness for speedy technology. Then, I got ready for the first card payment and put the card machine on the counter. "First card payment, please."
The girl who had talked first reached forward and shoved her card into the machine, then entered her PIN, and waited for the approval to remove the card. I waited for a second for the message to pop up on the screen and then put through the second card payment. The last girl looked at the screen of the card reader and didn't need me to prompt her to put the card into the reader. Once she was done, the message popped up on the monitor. I handed the five receipts to the girls, the fake smile still on my face as I pointed in the direction of the harnesses, and my mum sorting them out. "Just head over there and my mum will sort you out with the harnesses and get you started. Enjoy your visit."
The five of them headed over to my mother and I turned my attention away from the group as my mother handed out the harnesses. It was time to go back to scratching Ginger's head while I waited for the next customer to walk in. It had just turned afternoon so I had roughly an hour until there was likely to be some more customers. I looked around the warehouse and found my dad helping a guy attach the cable to the harness. He saw me and I waved for him to head over once he had finished.
"Time for lunch is it, kiddo?" My dad wondered as he leaned on the counter. I stopped scratching Ginger's hair to turn to him. I nodded. "Do you want me to go and make some food for the three of us?"
"It's alright. I'll go and make some sandwiches and then bring some back for you and mum. You'd be more useful here anyway. I'll also bring some food for Ginger because it looks like he's going to hideout here all day." I told him, fussing Ginger as I spoke. "I was just wondering if it was alright for me to leave the front desk to go and get the food."
"It should be fine." My dad replied, reaching over to fuss Ginger. I grabbed my backpack from under the desk and slinging it on my shoulder. "See you in a bit, pumpkin."
I headed from the warehouse and into my house next door. Oreo cried and jumped from the back of the settee in the living room as soon as I walked through the door. Somebody was happy to see me, or he might have been hungry. It was most likely that he was hungry. I reached down to pick him up and carried him to the kitchen, fussing and baby talking him as I went. I put him on the cat tree in the kitchen and started bustling around to make food. I liked how the house was empty while I was there.
I couldn't help but hope that Liam was still in the warehouse when I got back. I always liked how nice he was to me when he was there, and the fact that he made sure to come in every day just because he liked to go rock climbing. Last time I had checked, though, he had never actually gone rock climbing for real. Then again, he was only twenty so he had plenty of time to go.
Less than half an hour later, I headed back into the warehouse with three sandwiches and a dish of cat food. I was surprised to see Liam standing by the counter, fussing Ginger, when I saw him. He turned and smiled at me when he saw the door open. "Oh, good, you're back. I just took a break from the wall and realised that I didn't tell you that I wasn't going to be here next weekend."
I felt myself become a little sad at the fact that I wasn't going to see him next weekend, but he must have had a good reason. I headed around the counter and put the sandwiches next to the keyboard, placing the dish of food near Ginger's head. Liam was still fussing Ginger, and the cat was purring like mad, so, he didn't even think of moving from the bed to eat. "Oh, how come you're not going to be here next weekend?"
"My brother has organised for us to go on a rock climbing experience." Liam explained, extremely happy that he was finally able to go rock climbing. He'd been wanting to do it for years. "It's going to be a full weekend of rock climbing and abseiling. He also threw in a bit of canoeing because that's what he loves, but I can't complain."
"That's great." I told him. "You've been wanting to do that for years. It's fantastic that he's booked you guys the weekend away. Is it for anything special?"
"My twenty first birthday is Friday." He explained. That was extremely strange since my sixteenth birthday was Saturday. I was going to miss the fact that I wasn't going to see him on my birthday, but he would be doing something that he loved, and that was good. He drank some of his water from the bottle that he brought with him all the time. "You know, it's actually going to be strange not seeing you every day."
"I know, but you're going to love the outdoors and rock climbing." I pointed out.
"Well, I'm going to get back to rock climbing. I'll speak to you in a bit, Megs." Liam smiled. I smiled back as he started heading back to the more difficult sections of the rock. It's where he usually went to train.
During the next week, I spent a lot of time in the warehouse, and was lucky to see Liam there quite a bit, which was strange since he usually left a little while after I got there since he usually showed up about an hour before. Now, he was getting extra practice in ready for the weekend trip that he had planned.
It hurt a little when Liam was leaving on Thursday and he called out 'see you next week' instead of his usual 'see you tomorrow'. Still, I had my birthday to look forward to. I didn't know that I was still looking forward to Monday when I would see Liam again.
Saturday came, and I was surprised by waking up with a string. I checked the time and knew that I had plenty of time before I was meeting Hayley to go to the cinema tonight to celebrate my birthday with my most anticipated movie of the year. In that time, I could easily follow my string. I got out of bed and decided to follow my string today.
I dressing in comfy walking clothes, not sure how long I would be out looking for my string, and I made sure I had my phone and purse in my bag, thinking that I might need to get a bus or train back depending on how far I went.
I headed down to the kitchen, fussing Ginger and Oreo as soon as I could, and packing a few snacks and drinks in my backpack. My parents wished me a happy birthday and gave me a beautiful bracelet with a couple of cat charms, and plenty of room for more. I made sure to put the bracelet on tightly and explained the plan for the day.
It got to four o'clock, three hours before I was meant to meet Hayley, and I knew that I didn't have any more time to search. I hadn't seemed to get any closer to the end of my string. Instead, I doubled back on myself and caught the first bus that I could. It gave me time to shower, change, and head to the cinema to meet Hayley, who seemed really annoyed that I couldn't find the person at the end of my string. Oh well, they had to follow it to me someday.
Sunday, I didn't bother to follow my string at all. I had done a day of walking. It was their turn. Instead, I stayed in the house with the cats and watched rubbish movies all day. I didn't even know why I was in the mood for the ridiculous romantic comedies with the unheard of actors. Still, it passed the time enough that the day passed quickly, without so much as a knock on the door.
On the inset day on Monday, I helped out at the warehouse. Oreo could sense that it was a busy day since he didn't come in at all, deciding that having the house to himself was the better option. I didn't blame him. Ginger, on the other hand, kept me company at the check-in desk. It was going to be a busy-ish morning since a lot of people had the time off work and a ton of kids weren't in school, so, it was quite like a Saturday.
I was surprised when Liam came into the warehouse at roughly eleven in the morning since he was meant to come in the afternoon. Still, a huge smiled plastered on my face since I was able to see him. It took me a minute to realise that he didn't have his usual kit with him. "Hi, Liam, how come you're here so early?"
"I followed this." He explained, holding his left hand up. I shouldn't have been able to see his string, but there it was. Tied around his finger with a little bow. I glanced down at my left hand and then I held it up for him to see. "I should have known."