Nothing of great note occurred over the next few weeks. It rained and it rained and it rained, and that fucked up some well laid plans, but Cameron took it all in his stride. He'd known the weather was coming and he'd prepared the farm as much as it could be. Then the rain went, and the hard work began, taking out what had been destroyed and salvaging what was economically viable to salvage.
Several roads between his place and Andy's had been flooded, temporarily separating pair. They called each other once or twice, and texted regularly, but Andy found herself missing him far more than she'd expected and when the roads cleared, she arranged to see him.
She worried about him, and the impact the heavy rains had had on the farm, and even though he reassured her, she still worried. Family farms were starting to disappear at a faster and faster pace, as corporate entities bought up as families moved out. It was happening in all commodities, from the hugely profitable to the niche. Corporate farms didn't need to make money every season, or even in consecutive seasons, to stay afloat. They were fat with investor money, and ever increasing land values made company balance sheets look good.
It was nearly three weeks since the dinner when she arrived at Cameron's place, sometime after seven at night. She was on a trip North and was breaking the journey with a night at the farm. She had her period and was cranky as hell that she wouldn't be getting laid, and waited to see if he'd be cranky, too, when he found out.
'I'm so sorry,' she apologised. 'I know I'm late.'
Cam grabbed her and kissed her. 'I missed you.'
It was a huge admission from him. He normally held his cards much closer to his chest.
'I missed you too,' she admitted, wrapping her arms around his waist. She decided not to tell him about her period just yet. She'd give him a blow job later, and let him figure it out on his own.
It was a cool night, but he had the fireplace going and it was good to be in his arms. Without him, she missed not only the sex but the affection, and the casual intimacy.
'Something smells good,' she said.
Cameron disentangled himself. 'Fuck. That would be dinner. It's probably burning. You'll have to excuse me, I can't cook for shit.'
She followed him into the kitchen. 'I would have been happy to cook, or pick something up on my way through.'
'Nah, I'm working on self improvement.' He opened the oven and pulled out a tray of pasta bake, which was only slightly overcooked, and garlic bread, which was all but cremated. 'Fuuuuck.'
He plonked the pasta bake on the stove top, and disposed of the charred bread in the bin. There was more garlic bread the fridge and he laid it out on the baking tray, shoved it in the oven, and turned up the heat to the maximum setting.
Andy averted disaster by lowering the thermostat to a temperature less likely to cremate a second batch. 'What do you do when your son comes over?'
She's met his son a couple of times. The custody agreement was completely informal and haphazard, and Andy had arrived one afternoon to find a kid in Cameron's house. After the initial surprise wore off, the two of them had a quick chat then went to find his father. Cam had been embarrassed; he'd lost track of days and time. Andy didn't mind. His son was a sweet kid, much nicer to be around then her son had been at that age.
'Have dinner with Mum and Dad,' Cameron admitted. He opened the fridge and pulled out two cans of pre-mix, Canadian Club for her, Bundy for him. 'Want a drink?'
She nodded, and he opened the can for her and slid it over. She preferred wine, but she doubted he knew how to pick a decent bottle of red let alone that he owned wine glasses.
'So why the focus on learning to cook now?' she asked.
He shrugged. 'I've dated three women in this town, one of whom I was married to for nine years, and all three agree I'm a misogynistic slob who leaves all the housework to women.'
'Is that true?'
'It has been, in the past.' He leant over the counter, stretching his back out. His back always fucking hurt.
'Is that why your marriage ended?'
'Pretty much. I left everything to Lila, she got sick of it, she yelled at me to change, I didn't.' He raised the can to his lips and drank the remainder in one long, steady, stream. 'One night she went to Brisbane for a friend's bachelorette party. I didn't think anything of it. I was too busy to care. Lila and I didn't live here, we lived in town, but I was working on the farm and Xavier's always loved my parents, Mum especially, so I worked the whole weekend. Xav and I got home about six o'clock Sunday night. Lila was pretty quiet. I thought she was hungover, but after Xav went to bed, she told me she'd cheated on me with a bloke she met in a club, and she wanted a divorce.'
'Was it an ongoing affair or had she met someone at the bachelorette party?'
'The second option. She didn't even know his last name. She didn't want a relationship with him, but the night made her realise she couldn't stand the thought of coming back to me.'
'Ouch. What did you do?'
Cameron got another drink out of the fridge. 'I'll tell you that if you tell me why you got married and divorced twice.'
It wasn't a pretty story. Andy's mother had died when Andy was just twelve, her brother ten. Their father did a good job of raising them, but Andy grew wild. At nineteen she had a boyfriend twice her age. Her father tried to talk sense into Andy, but she cut him off and married her older lover. Seven years and two kids later, she escaped domestic violence with two small children and no work history.
Her father engaged a lawyer and Andy obtained a divorce, majority custody and enough to put a very healthy deposit down on a house. During the relationship, Andy had somehow managed to complete a degree through correspondence, and she managed to get a commission-based sales job - the only job she could find - in a field related to her degree. She was good at sales, as it turned out, and jumped ship twice to better companies with base salaries and company vehicles.
The second husband arrived two years after she had arrived on her father's doorstep. He was the opposite of her first husband; young, broke and useless. Her father suggested she wait for someone with a bit more ambition and sense of responsibility but Andy was keen to try again. Besides, her paramour had knocked her up.
The second marriage lasted just over a decade. It was a frustrating time, filled with her spouse's long bouts of unemployment. He was forever getting fired. Andy didn't entirely blame his employers; her husband's inability to follow through on his assigned tasks was terrible. He wasn't a bad person, and there was no abuse, but he let her down countless times, forgetting to pick her up from the airport, or pay important bills -- or any bills for that matter -- or show up to their daughter's Christmas concert.
The final straw came when he asked her older daughter, from her first marriage, to take his car down to the shops to pick up some cigarettes for him.
It was raining hard, and her daughter, inexperienced behind the wheel, side swiped a top of the range, brand new Tesla X. Both Andy and her daughter had been under the impression that the car was appropriately insured but her husband had forgotten to renew the policy. Her husband's reaction was to suggest that Andy's daughter take out a loan to pay for the six figure car she had accidentally written off.
'She side swiped a car and it was written off?' Cam asked.
'It would appear Tesla's are very fragile,' Andy replied drily. 'I left him. I should have left years ago. But I made sure that we paid out the damage out of the profit of the house sale. I was left with pretty much fuck all. I had terrible credit. I'd co-signed for loans he hadn't paid on time. I had three kids and two dogs, and no rental history. I had a job that involved travel, and no one to help me look after my kids while I was away. The older ones would have been okay, but not my youngest. Dad bailed me out again. He let us live with him. After six months of being cramped into a house that was too small for all of us, he sold his house and I got a mortgage and we bought a bigger place together.'
Andy felt a lot of guilt over her past. There had been stupid mistake after stupid mistake. The worst part as that she'd always known her father would come to her rescue. No matter what she did to him, he always left the door open to her. That was the part she couldn't forgive herself for.
