AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Leo ended the call. Being a landlord was stressful. Being a landlord with interfering fucking parents was even more stressful. He was definitely going to remember this moment when he turned up to Mum and Dad’s bullshit political thing at the yacht club on Saturday. Because if he even had a moment where he second-guessed himself about whether or not he was doing the right thing, he needed to remember this.
He took a deep breath and opened his contacts.
Then chickened out and sent a text message to his parents instead.
Mum and Dad. I am not selling the house. If you try to send anyone over there again, I will call the police on them.
This time next week, he’d have put a bomb under his relationship with his parents and he had no idea what the fallout was going to look like, but he found that he didn’t care.
It was an oddly comforting mental space to find himself in.
Tristan was a surprisingly efficient packer. Leo wasn’t sure why, but he’d kind of expected Tris to shove everything into Coles bags and dump the contents in the middle of the living room. Instead, he pulled out an ugly set of matching luggage, folded and stacked everything with military precision, and was ready to go inside an hour.
“What?” he said. “You don’t think I’ve ever packed for overseas holidays before?” He looked around the room with a satisfied nod. “The rest of the stuff can stay here till the Davos are done.”
“I’m starting to think you really are a spy,” Leo said, from where he was leaning in the doorway.
“What? Why?”
“Just…if you had this whole hidden life, it wouldn’t surprise me, I guess. You have a matching luggage set. You.” He snorted. “Even if it is ugly plaid.”
“Honey,” Tris said, raising a brow, “it’s Burberry.”
“Wait? What? Seriously? Like Burberry, or ‘I got it from a guy in the pub who said it fell off the back of a truck’ Burberry?” He did the air quotes.
“It all looks the same,” Tris drawled with a grin. He straightened up and stretched, pressing his palms on the backs of his hips and arching his spine in a way that made Leo want to throw him onto the bed and ravish him… or be ravished. “Anyway, how about you see if Jack and Harry are ready to go, while I raid the kitchen and make sure we’re not leaving the Tim Tams behind?”
So no ravishing, then.
Leo sighed and went to check on Harry and Jack. Harry looked a bit like a forlorn orphan standing there next to his belongings, most of which were stuffed into Coles bags. Jack had several duffels and some cardboard boxes, and it looked like they were ready to go.
They loaded up the ute while Tristan ordered an Uber for him and Leo, and Jack followed them to the flat. Harry stood on the footpath looking up at the sign in the window that proclaimed Pleasure Party in foot-high hot pink letters, his cheeks almost as pink as the sign.
Leo felt a flash of recognition at his unease—hadn’t he been exactly the same the first time he’d visited? He stepped forward and patted Harry on the shoulder. “It’s not as scary as it looks, I promise. Come on.” He led the way inside.
“It’s not scary at all,” Tristan insisted. “Everything here is fun stuff!” He grabbed a bottle of flavoured lube and chucked it at Harry. “Here, housewarming present.”
Harry caught the tube instinctively and jammed it into the pocket of his jeans, his face flaming. “Can we just go upstairs?”
“Don’t you want to look around?” Tristan asked. Leo knew that given half a chance, he’d be fitting Harry for a chest harness and discussing the best brand of anal plugs. Poor Harry might actually die of embarrassment right in front of the dildo display case.
Leo hastily pulled the keys out. “It’s through here.” He unlocked the door to the stairwell.
“Oi!”
They all turned as Wei glared at them from behind the counter. She stood there, chin tilted up, a geometric chunk of her hair dyed violently orange.
“I saw you steal that lube and give it to your friend, Tristan!” She pointed at Harry. “You, put that back.”
Harry meeped. Leo was sure he was having visions of police, arrest and the end of his teaching career.
“It’s fine!” Leo said. “I can pay!” He blinked. “Wait. I’m the owner. I don’t actually need to pay.”
Tristan gasped. “Oh! You don’t! You can take anything in the shop! There’s this vibrator I really want to try and?—”
“I don’t want the lube!” Harry exclaimed. He held it out with trembling fingers, and Leo took it. “I don’t need a housewarming present. Thank you, Tris. And Leo.” He pushed his glasses up his nose and squinted at the tube. “What does ‘warming and tingling’ mean?”
“Wei, this is Harry and Jack,” Leo said, handing the lube back to Tristan to reshelve. “They’re going to be living in the flat for a while. Harry and Jack, this is Wei. She’s the manager.”
