Saving Lotte Sullivan | Collingwood/Carlton

11: Bathroom Sink

'Keep 'em coming, Sullivan' Jake said, as Lotte passed another excruciatingly heavy box to him, while he walked by.

'Really feeling like I'm STILL the only one actually doing any work around here. Where's Ella?' Lotte asked, stopping to rest her sore arms and back as he shrugged.

'Probably vaping somewhere out the back' Jake replied, raising his voice the further he moved away as Lotte sighed and shook her head. She'd probably end up doing more than she'd originally bargained for, and get paid for tonight.

'Hey' Ashlyn Addison said, quietly walking through the warehouse as she looked around at all the shelves and stations she'd never seen before and only ever heard about.

'What are you doing here?' Lotte asked, confused as she glanced her best friend up and down. Not wearing workplace safe attire, of course.

'I came to kidnap you. No, seriously. The game? I thought we'd go in together' Ashlyn said, moving out of the way as a forklift drove past.

'You're gonna need a high vis jacket. How'd you even get through security?' Lotte asked.

'Whitlock told the guard to fuck himself and then he let me through, it wasn't actually that hard' Ashlyn said, giggling to herself as she thought back to the tired look on his exhausted face, the way he said 'I do not get paid enough to work here on weekends'

'Since when are you and Ella friends?' Lotte asked, feeling like she was being kept out of some great big secret. 'And where is she anyway?' She added.

'We're not friends, but we talk about you now and then. I don't know where she went' Ashlyn said, as she pulled the ticket out of her pocket again.

As if on cue, Ella suddenly walked out from the direction of the corridor, hands in her pockets.

'No, seriously Ash. I've been working on getting you two into a civil relationship for years where you're not screaming at each other, calling each other names or literally fighting over me, pulling my arms! If you're finally getting along, that's great but please let me know what the common ground was. I could use it again if anything ever happens in the future' Lotte explained, as Ella joined the duo, wiping her nose with her winter gloves. Ashlyn noticed it was bleeding a little bit.

'What's going on, people? Daicos tells me you're leaving us early, Sull' Ella said, as she stole Lotte's seat and sat down, facing the back and resting her hands on it.

'I'm not married' Ashlyn sneered, as Ella raised her eyebrows and nodded.

'Yeah, I can see why. I'd feel sorry for whatever poor sap got stuck marrying you' she said, smirking as Lotte sighed.

'Must we start a fight in the workplace?' She asked, glaring firmly at Ella.

'Nah, that's okay. She doesn't know what she's talking about. I don't see a wedding ring on her finger either, aren't you going out with the Bulldog again?' Ashlyn asked, as Ella nodded again.

'Carlton now. He traded' she said, as Lotte looked down in shock.

'Oh my god, he did? When did that happen?' She asked, as Ella put her hands up in question.

'Around the same time Nick was drafted' Ashlyn said.

'Wow, and I missed both events. I really am losing my mind' Lotte said, beginning to worry about how much else she had missed. Sometimes she just had these periods where she couldn't focus on anything and her memory lapses were bad. Her brain was always foggy, she couldn't think. She just survived on what she knew best: working herself into the grave. That's what her mother had taught her to do. Work to make board since the age of 13.