AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“There’s a guy here who says he’s listing the house for sale,” Harry repeated.
Leo felt a lead ball forming in the pit of his stomach. “Is his name Gary?”
“I don’t know. I shut the door in his face and told him he’s breaching tenants’ rights,” Harry said. “He keeps knocking, though.”
“Don’t let him in. And I’m definitely not selling.”
Harry’s sigh of relief was audible. “I mean, you said you weren’t but then he turned up, and I didn’t know?—”
“Are any of the Davos there?” Leo interrupted and wondered when he’d picked up Tristan’s habit of referring to his tradies as ‘the Davos’.
“Um, yeah. Geoff the floor guy’s here.” Leo nodded to himself. Geoff the floor guy was built like a prop forward for the Sydney Roosters but was also a nice guy. He was perfect.
“Okay, good. Get him to act as your bouncer and tell Gary to fuck off.”
“I…I can’t just say that!”
You can take the boy out of preschool, but apparently you can’t take the preschool teacher out of the boy, Leo thought.
“Put Geoff on the phone, yeah?”
A few muffled sounds later, and Geoff said, “Leo?”
“Hey, yeah. Harry says there’s a guy there? And he won’t leave? He doesn’t have my permission to be there. I can call the police but?—”
“Nah, I got it,” Geoff said. Muffled sounds again, and Leo heard a distant bellow of, “Fuck right off or I’m coming down there!”
A moment later, Harry was back on the phone. “I think he’s gone. Geoff is really, um, scary, actually. He was waving a piece of wood out the window and everything.”
Leo made a mental note to pick up a slab of VB for Geoff. “I still don’t have an official start date for the work, but do you and Jack want to move into the flat today? I don’t want you guys getting hassled.”
Harry was silent for a moment. “And you’re not just saying that to get us out, right?”
“Not to sell the place, no!” Leo rubbed his forehead. “I’m not selling, I swear. Like, I can sign a Stat Dec or something if you want me to.”
“Would that count?”
“I honestly have no idea. Would it make you feel better?”
“I don’t know.”
“I’m not trying to screw you over, but the only way I can prove it is, well, by not screwing you over. But if I was trying to get rid of you, would I be moving you into another one of my properties?”
“That makes sense, I guess,” Harry said slowly. “But where did the real estate guy come from, then?”
Leo sighed. “My parents. They think if they keep pushing me to sell, I’ll cave.”
“But you won’t, right?”
Leo couldn’t even be mad at Harry for asking, not when he’d only just discovered he had a backbone himself. He knew what it was like to be in a constant losing battle with his insecurities and anxieties. And Harry had every reason to be nervous. If there was even a chance that Leo was intending on going back on his word, he—and Jack and Tris—would be screwed. “I won’t cave. I’ve decided that I’m keeping the house and I’m keeping the shop, and my parents can go fuck themselves.”
It felt surprisingly good to say it out loud.
“So, um, are you sure we can move into the flat today? Because I have a day off today, so I can pack, and if I call Jack he can probably scrounge a half-day, but you’re still stuck at work and we don’t have keys to the new place.”
Leo pressed his fingertips to his temples. “I’ll chuck a sickie and be there in an hour, okay? You’ll call Jack and tell him what’s happening?”
“Yeah.” Harry still sounded worried—but then, Harry always sounded vaguely worried. “Thanks, Leo.”
