AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Weird,” I said staring at my plate. Something warm and comforting in a bowl, flanked by a bread roll. The bread was hot. Straight out of the oven.
“And what’s yours about?” I had to laugh as Mabel stuck her fork in the lone sausage on their plate.
“Mona always thinks I need some good dick. Tells me singlehood is underrated and I need to find me a man. It’s easier said than done when you’re like me. Nobody wants a partner who can’t even decide what gender they are in the morning.”
I smiled because I didn’t have the brain capacity for anything else.
“But if you ask me, Mona’s famous sausages are just the thing. Spicy yet subtle. Meaty but soft.”
“Mabel…”
They grinned and took a big showy bite between their perfect lips.
“Maybe Mona is right and I do need some good dick. Or maybe I need to settle for doing what I do best. I’m good on my own. But shall we get back to that bit of advice? You’re deflecting again, and I won’t have it.”
“So stubborn,” I muttered without venom.
“Yes. So, Hugo, darling, where are you staying tonight?”
“Booked a hostel. Cheap. Single room, so I can lock the door.”
“Thought so. It’s exactly what I did. I wanted to be alone so I could wallow in my goddamn misery until it swallowed me up. But we’re not going to let you do that, babe. This week will be the worst week of your life. People will stare. They’ll ask questions. You’ll be rolling in sympathetic bullshit from people who’ve never even spoken a single word to you. You’re just going to have to figure out how to deal with that, but you’re not going home in the evening and crying yourself to sleep after you’ve munched through half a pack of sleeping tablets and one of those terrible cereal bars.”
Talk about calling me out. I cringed as much as I blushed.
“I don’t really have a choice,” I argued, feeling my cheeks flame. I didn’t want to go back to being this person who pushed people away, but I didn’t know what else to do.
“Yes, you do,” they said softly and took my hand.
I sat there for a while, letting the warmth soothe my skin.
Eventually, I said, “Finn tried to get me a room in the staff accommodation block, but it’s full.”
“Yeah, and you honestly don’t want to take him up on that offer, particularly as he doesn’t want you there either. It’s not an environment that will be helpful to you. It’s damp and full of mould, and we all keep telling Mr Klutz he needs to shut it down, rip it all out and start again. It’s not like we’re not making a profit. Our staff deserve better.”
“Where do I go then?” I picked up my bread roll and pinched off a piece of the crust. Dipped it in the stew. Stuck it in my mouth. I swooned. Mona had just become my new best friend. It was flavourful. Calming. A strange sensation ran through my mouth as I quickly ripped off another piece, bigger this time, and shoved it in the stew.
Mabel nodded approvingly and swallowed the last bite of their sausage. “I would have you stay with me, but I live in a bedsit and my landlord’s a psycho. Not a suitable place to heal your mind either. But I know where your things are, and who has a very comfortable sofa waiting for you. Not only that, but Benjamin will look after you. If there’s anyone in this world that I trust to keep you safe and sane right now, it would be him.”
“No!” I said far too loudly.
“Yes,” they said, sternly, gripping my hand even harder. “Not because you need him. But because he needs you. More than you’ll ever know.”
Ben
The longer I’d been waiting the more nervous I’d become. For once, I was really grateful that I’d worked the entire weekend because now it was Sunday night and I was a wreck.
Hugo was back. And as if that hadn’t already completely tipped me off my track, he would also be staying on my sofa—a small fact nobody bothered to tell me until Finn mentioned it in passing like it was a request for a spare napkin at table five or another portion of chips.
I tried to explain this to him, but Finn and I didn’t have that kind of relationship. We talked shop. We never ever talked about anything personal, apart from when we handed over Mark like he was an infant at daycare.
Shared custody, Finn had once called it. And now I was, apparently, to have full custody of Hugo from tonight. When I suggested it would’ve been nice if one of them had asked first, Finn stuttered out something about behaving myself and being a graceful host and then left me to it.
I couldn’t even breathe, running around my messy flat with a duster I hadn’t even known I owned, but I had turned on the light the living room and seen the state of it. In shock and panic, I’d frantically searched my drawers for something to clean with and found the pack of dusters. Go figure.
The living room didn’t take long to dust, as I didn’t have much furniture, but then there was the bedroom, a proper large bedroom that I was renovating—who was I kidding? Nothing had been renovated for months; the draught as I pushed the door open filled the air with a thick cloud of building dust.
I’d always thought I’d turn the room into an office, put in some bookshelves and fill them with cookery books, perhaps even display some of my old rugby trophies that were still in a box in the hallway. I didn’t have a knack for interior design and had intended to keep my grandma’s 1960s wallpaper that had been peeling off the walls until Mum had swiftly torn it down. She’d also sold Grandma’s horrible old furniture and told me to get my act together and make a proper home for myself.
