Moving Forward
When John returned to the dining room, Emma was surprisingly there with him.
"Good morning, Emma. I didn't expect you to be awake yet." Claire said with widened eyes.
"Morning! I've been having trouble sleeping lately, so I'm up early." Emma responded with a small yawn. "John said you made breakfast?" Emma asked with an inquisitive expression on her face.
"Yes, and it should be light on your stomach too. It's all ready."
"I see. Thank you, I'll give it a try." Emma said while taking a seat at the table, across from Claire. John followed behind her and sat next to her at the head of the table.
Claire watched carefully as they took their first bites. She unintentionally clenched her fist in anxiety as her heart began to accelerate. John also cast nervous glances towards Emma as he raised his spoon.
The first bite that Emma took was small as oatmeal barely filled half of the spoon. She slowly placed the spoon in her mouth, taking in the light aroma before completing the bite. Emma allowed the flavor of the first bite to linger in her mouth before moving her spoon for another.
Seeing that Emma was going for a second bite, a small wave of relief washed over Claire, and she released her breath. Claire then looked towards John and saw that he was grinning while scooping large spoonfuls of oatmeal. Satisfied, Claire started eating her own meal.
Before lowering her spoon, Claire mixed the fruit and walnuts into the oatmeal. As pretty as the fruit looked arranged on top, it tasted much better mixed together.
Claire's mouth watered as she took her first bite. The sweet smell of honey blended with the warm spicy smell of cinnamon filled her nostrils. Creamy flavors filled Claire's mouth and as she chewed an occasional burst of tanginess exploded from the berries. Mildly tart strawberries and juicy sweet blueberries melded together seamlessly with the honeyed milky flavor of the oats. Nodding her head in contentment, Claire quickly finished the rest of her bowl.
Soon, all three of them were done eating. John looked back at Emma surprised.
"Wow Em, you were actually able to eat everything. You haven't eaten this much at once in days." John's eyes glowed with joy as he continued to look at Emma.
"Yes, I was scared I wouldn't make it through, but it turned out well!" Emma responded, rosiness coloring her cheeks.
"I'm so glad! That's one successful recipe down. I'll try a few others for you while I'm here so that you have options." Claire said as she smiled at both Emma and John.
"Omg, Claire, you angel. You're really a life saver." Emma looked at Claire with shining eyes and John nodded in agreement.
Claire smiled bashfully at Emma's comments. John collected their bowls and took them into the kitchen.
"So, should we check out that storage unit today?" Emma asked.
"Yes. I'd rather get that all out of the way now instead of it haunting me later." Claire responded sighing lightly. "I don't want anything else to do with Derek."
"Great then, John should be able to go with us to that storage unit. Depending on how much stuff is in the unit, we might have room in our shed. If not, we will help you find a place separate from him. Don't worry!" Emma reaffirmed. She then got up from her seat, walked over to Claire, and grabbed her by the hands. "Follow me upstairs. I'll lend you some of my clothes so that you don't have to wear one of your vacation outfits while we do manual labor." Emma said while grinning.
Claire returned Emma's smile and rose from her seat. "Em, you say I'm an angel, well you're a god send."
The two of them went upstairs to Emma's room and prepared for the day. While they were getting dressed, John got his work truck ready and cleared out space in the shed. He also packed a dolly in the back of the truck and prepared some snacks for the afternoon.
Once Claire and Emma were ready, they joined John outside in the truck.
"So which storage facility are we going to?" John asked while checking his mirrors and preparing to load the address into the GPS.
"It's at the StoragePlus near downtown. Here, this is the address." Claire passed the folder Eugene gave her up to John so that he could see the information.
"Thanks, Claire" John said as he entered the information into the GPS. "It looks like this StoragePlus is on the ritzier side of town. This will be interesting."
Emma also looked over at the GPS and said "It looks like this place is near Derek's office building. Hopefully we don't run into him today."
Claire leaned forward to also look at the map on the GPS and grimaced "Really? Of course, he would choose something convenient for him." Rolling her eyes, Claire leaned back into her seat. "I hope we don't run into him today too."
It took about 45 minutes for them to arrive at the StoragePlus downtown. As they entered the building, Claire made note of the excessive security presence stationed around each corner. 'What kind of Storage facility is this? What are they protecting so dearly?' Claire thought.
The folder Eugene provided had Claire's storage unit number as well as the key to the unit. After looking at the map, they found Claire's unit on the 5th floor. All of the elevators were extremely wide and accommodating to large items. Claire looked around in wonder as they progressed closer to her unit. The security presence of not as heavy on the 5th floor as it was near the entrance, but security guards were still visible.
Soon, they found Claire's unit after walking through several long rows of other storage units, each unit was uniform with a solid blue door. The only differentiating marks were the blocky numbers labeling each unit on the side. There was a bulky golden padlock on the door of Claire's storage unit. Taking the key Eugene provided, Claire removed the lock and tried opening the door.
The door was really heavy, so John helped her pull it open. However, as they were opening the door, uniform footsteps rang out behind them. Feeling a sense of discomfort, Claire turned away from the door and looked at the origin on the sound.
It was Eugene.