Page 32 of Full Service

I sighed audibly and he turned back to look at me, hand on the bathroom door handle. “What?”

“If we’ve got this…peace now, would you be willing to cut your showers down by like five minutes? The water’s always freezing when I get in because you use all the hot water.”

Macsen smiled slyly. “No way. I like my showers long and hot.”

“Fine then,” I said, trying not to rock the boat so soon after it had almost tipped over completely.Bastard.

“If you want a hot shower…it might just be a bit of a tight squeeze.” Macsen jerked his head, and left the bathroom door open for me as he pulled his t-shirt up and over his head and dropped his jeans.

Fuck. I walked toward the bathroom, shedding my clothes along the way until I collided with Macsen’s naked form under the water. We kissed lazily as we stroked one another to a satisfying finish. It was freeing, knowing that this was allowed now. That I wouldn’t have the silent treatment just for acting on my cravings. And knowing that Macsen was just as willing a participant as I was.

Once we’d finished, Macsen didn’t pull away as I expected. Instead, he let me help him clean off his body under the hot spray and returned the favour. His callused knuckles drifting soap down my chest made me wish I had the stamina of a teenager again. Instead, we just enjoyed the feelings and sensations. Every now and then I would kiss Macsen, feeling the water running off his beard and onto my chest.

We stayed under the water until it ran cold.

???

I still had Macsen on my mind when I went into town later on. On impulse, I stopped in at the charity shop before I visited any of the individual business. “Hi,” I said to the lady behind the counter.Sara?my mind supplied very unhelpfully. Whoever she was, I was certain she’d been a few years younger than me in school. She smiled back at me and went back to sorting through some bags of donations.

I idled around the little shop for a minute, not really knowing what to do. London really had turned me into a snob. I hadn’t bought from a charity shop in…well, I didn’t know. It had certainly been a very long time. It couldn’t be that hard, surely.

I looked through the racks, trying to find something, anything to keep me warm. But there was very little of interest to me, let alone anything that would fit. I happened to turn and catch Sara’s eye just as she pulled out a gorgeous thick black coat from one of the donation bags.

“How much?” I blurted.

She looked at me a little quizzically. “A fiver, I guess? I hadn’t got round to pricing it yet.” She passed it over the counter for me to try on. It was perfect, lined with a satiny material. And it didn’t smell old and musty like I expected charity shop buys to. I buttoned it up at the front, and passed five pounds over to Sara.I might not have had much money, but on this cold December it felt like a need. And I hadn’t realised how much I enjoyed buying things. The power of a new purchase was enough to put a smile on my face and face the day.

Samara, who ran the florist, and Jon who ran the butchers, had both been nice enough when I explained my plans to sell on.It’s just downsizing my portfolio,I’d said to both of them, my perfectly practised patter .But I’d like to give you chance to purchase the building for a much lower price.

And I’d been more than fair. I’d taken the value of the buildings, subtracted the rent they’d each paid me over the last year and then taken another ten thousand or so off the total. They were getting a very good deal. And both had accepted this and said they’d make preparations to apply for a mortgage on each property. I left both feeling a little more buoyant with the knowledge I could call my financial advisors in the next couple of days.

My visit toThe Nerd Emporiumdid not go quite as happily.

“Hello?” I called as I walked in and there was no one in sight. The place inside was like nothing I’d ever seen in the little village of Hiraeth before. Memorabilia crowded out every wall. There was an entire wall dedicated toThrones of Blood, Hiraeth’s latest great export. There were also Pokémon figures, Star Trek and Star Wars spaceships competing for space and in one corner a full sized Dalek fromDoctor Who, a little fez perched over one light on its pepper-pot head.

“Hello?” I called again. The shop was a little bit dark and eerie in its silence, and a door behind the counter was obscured by hanging beads.

I heard a crash from behind the counter and a head poked through the beads. The owner of the head was a short, skinny man of about twenty-five, and he smiled warily at me as he emerged. He was wearing a t-shirt that saidThe Angels Havethe Phone Box, and skinny jeans that had seen better days. He was pale, with big round glasses and bright pink hair. He was handsome, but not at all my type. I seemed to prefer rough-looking mechanics these days.

“Hello,” he said nervously. “Sorry, I was packing up out back and I must not have heard you come in.”

“Packing up? Are you leaving?” I asked. I didn’t remember my financial advisors saying that we were about to lose rental income from the property.

“Oh, no, I mean…” the young man reached back into the doorway to flick a switch, which lit up the room behind him. It was floor to ceiling in merchandise. “I don’t make a lot of money from the shopfront, except for last week when we had the big convention in town. I do most of my orders online, hence…packing.”

“Ah. I’m Hywel, by the way. Your landlord.”

“Great. I’m Nathan.” The young man didn’t reach his hand out to shake mine, but instead fiddled with a couple of boxes behind the counter. His smile still hadn’t reached his eyes, and I guessed he wasn’t exactly the most natural of speakers.

“I just came to talk to you about the shop,” I started when he didn’t seem to want to say anything else. “I’m…divesting my properties in the area and wanted to give you the chance to buy it from me. Otherwise, I can talk to you about what happens when I sell up, what clauses might be best to put in place to make sure your new landlord charges a fair rent and keeps you around for a pre-set amount of time.”

“Ah.” What little smile Nathan had fell off his face at my words. “Well, I really can’t afford to buy from you, much as I’d like to.”

“OK, that’s fine. If I line up some potential buyers, I’ll make sure that the contract of sale stipulates…” I stopped mid-sentence when I realised there was a tear dripping downNathan’s cheek. He was looking down at the till, but it was unmistakable. I had made a young man cry. “You OK?” I asked.

“Yeah, yeah.” Nathan grabbed some cards that were fanned out on the desk and furiously sorted them into neater piles. I could recognise a fellow emotional cleaner when I saw one.

“What’s up? I’m happy to talk things through with you, if the transition makes you nervous.”