Page 38 of Full Service

“We’ve…seen each other around, I’m fixing up his car,” I said weakly. Why now was I struggling to tell one of my best mates what was going on?

“Oh, cool. He’s spoken to you about his plans to sell up then?”

Sell up?What, here? This place? Surely he couldn’t be talking about… “No,” I said weakly. “He hasn’t mentioned it at all.”

“Oh, shit. Sorry mate. We thought he’d spoken to everyone by now. He’s divesting his buildings in the town, either selling back to the owners or investors. Be prepared for him to talk to you about it when he comes to pick up the car.”

I sat silent for a second, seething. I could feel it rising inside me, the wave of rage that had probably been locked up since Hywel and I had started to become friends and then something more. I had started to trust him. I had started towanthim in ways that I didn’t entirely understand. I wanted him in ways I didn’t want to.

And now I knew he’d been looking at selling this place from under me this whole time.

“That…twat!” I finally shouted. I sounded a bit stupid even to my own ears but I didn’t care. I put down the cup of tea so hard that it splashed all over the coffee table. For a second, I allowed myself to think of how much that would annoy Hywel. But then I remembered I didn’t fucking care.

“Woah, woah. If you can’t afford to buy it, Alaw and I have been looking at business loans so that you could…”

“I don’t care!” I spoke over Alun, lunging over to grab the file that Hywel always left so brazenly and trustingly out on the coffee table. I flipped through. Sure enough, there was my garage - listed next to other businesses in the town he had lordship over, all with shiny price tags and appraisals of future value.

“Never trusting that bastard again.”

“Again?” Alun asked. Ever so fucking perceptive. “What’s going on?”

“What’s going on is that men are bloody idiots,” I said. “And so am I. For believing a word he ever said.”

Or something like that, he’d said when I asked if he was just waiting to get his money back from his scummy boyfriend. In actuality he was waiting for offers to come rolling in on all our shops. Taking them out of the community and into the hands of landlords. Just so he could go back to scraping by and hoping to catch a break in big old London.

Alun had stood up. “I really shouldn’t have told you all that, I don’t think. There’s no harm meant. And we’re doing our best to mitigate any impact. We can help you.”

“I don’t need your help, or anyone’s,” I said spitefully. “You’ve helped me plenty over the years. And Hywel…I thought he was helping me. I thought…”

“Oh,” said Alun. “He’s been here more than just to get his car fixed, hasn’t he?”

“Yep.” No use denying it now. Not when I’d already been confirmed as such a trusting idiot.

“Do you want me to stick around? I can help you to talk…”

“No, I’m all good. I can talk to him myself,” I said quietly.

I had a lot of tools in my garage downstairs. Tools that could cause that man a world of pain.

Chapter Eleven

Hywel

“Hywel, have you got a minute?” Alaw sat down next to me in the coffee shop without waiting for an answer.

I closed my laptop, feeling slightly queasy after having quickly checked my online banking. Santander may as well have just put up an alert that saidit ain’t good, Chiefwhen I tried to log in. I’d been sat trying to sort out my business and my roiling conscience, both needs battling against one another with no sign of who would ultimately win out. Money or morals? I hadn’t realised that would ever be a choice I would make consciously.

“What’s up?” I asked.

“So, we know things aren’t fabulous for you at the moment. And Alun and I really appreciate what you’re trying to get back. I just wanted to present you with another option, if you’d be so inclined.”

She pulled an iPad out of her bag and gave it to me to hold, and she tapped the screen to start a slideshow.AA Small Business Consultantswas on display in big letters. Another tap, and the logo shifted, becameAha! Small Business Consultants.

I smiled somewhat warily at her. “What am I looking at?” I asked.

“Well, I’ve been picking up some more clients in Aberystwyth, Tresaith, all the little villages and towns within about 30 miles ofhere. Business is starting to get a bit too much for Alun and I to handle together.”

“So you changed the name of your business to make it less attractive to customers?” I liked to think of myself as a pretty intelligent man but this had me feeling completely lost.

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