Chapter Twenty
CHAPTER TWENTY
Finn
“So, you remember how I said I was going to be positive about this whole thing? Well, that can get fucked. My fucking roof has leaked! So, yeah… I don’t suppose you’ve got any whiskey? Or some spare towels?”
I listened to the voice message Gem had left me, horror and anger flooding through me. Fuck, fuck, and double fuck. This wasn’t supposed to happen, but nothing like this was ever supposed to happen. I tilted myself back in my chair, staring at the roof of my sound booth with my mouth open in a silent scream.
Then I attempted to compose myself and checked when Gem had left the message—three hours ago while I’d been knee-deep in the murder mystery I’d been recording.
Hitting the Call button, I anxiously waited to see if Gem would answer, but no luck.
“Come on,” I muttered as I scrolled through my phone, hoping I had a contact number for Jay. I didn’t. For a moment, I debated calling Lewis and Eli, both of whom lived in Lincoln. But then I remembered Eli was in Manchester for a few days with his drag tour, so he was out, and while Lewis would be amazingly helpful, he’d also get overly involved. He was my last resort, the person I’d call when I needed to summon the cavalry.
I tried Gem again but got nothing. This was all just wank, and I hated the fact that I was at least thirty minutes away, probably more considering the time of day. Still, late help was hopefully better than no help, so I saved all my recordings, made a couple of quick notes for when I came back, and locked my laptop. It didn’t take me long to collect what I needed—phone, wallet, keys—and grab my coat to head out. The drive seemed to take forever with every second stretching out into a minute and every minute into an hour.
If this were a film, or even a novel, I’d have sped there not caring if I got caught. But despite the fact I knew at least one of the speed cameras enroute was out of order and that Lincolnshire didn’t have that many speeding vans, I didn’t want to chance it. That was how accidents happened, and I’d be no use to Gem if my car was on the side of the road. Besides, it wasn’t as if anyone’s life was in danger. This was a hideous inconvenience at most, and I knew that, by law, Gem’s landlord would have to fix it. He also had insurance, but claiming against it before the business had even opened was not going to look good.
Eventually, I managed to find myself at the top of Lincoln, squeezing my car into a parking space. I was going to have to see if Gem could get me a parking permit—even if Lincoln’s car parks weren’t particularly expensive compared to some—because the amount of money I’d given the council over the past month would probably pay for the upkeep of the entire county’s road network.
Perhaps that was a little overdramatic. I did tend to get irritable when stressed, and I always focused on the little things, like parking, to stop my brain from panicking over the major issue at hand. It didn’t always work.
When I reached Castle Games, with its newly painted red exterior, I saw Gem hovering in the street, phone in hand. He looked like he was in the middle of a very tense phone call.
“I understand that,” he was saying, looking about ready to tear his hair out. “But I need you to get someone out today. Tomorrow at the latest. This is my livelihood, and I can’t open a shop that has a leaking roof. I can’t even get stock in at the moment.” He caught sight of me, and I waved awkwardly. “I really don’t think you’re listening to me. Can you please just call the landlord and let him know? If not, I’m going to start calling people myself and send you the bill.”
Gem hung up, the heavy weight of the situation settling on his shoulders. “Hey,” he said. “You didn’t have to come.”
“Yes, I did.” I walked up to him and pulled him into a tight hug, not caring that we were in the middle of the street. “What happened?”
“I don’t know.” Gem sighed and stepped back, running a hand through his hair. “I haven’t been in for a couple of days because we were out for the day and then I was at work, so I thought I’d come in this morning and get a load of stuff sorted because the stock is supposed to start arriving at the end of the week, and…” He sighed again, a bone-deep, weary sound that seemed to come from the very depths of his soul.
“You said the roof had leaked?” I asked gently. Gem nodded.
“Yeah. It’s a fucking mess. Come see.” He beckoned me to follow him, and we climbed the stone steps into the shop. My nose wrinkled as the unmistakable smell of damp hit me. Gem chuckled darkly when he saw me. “Yeah, the smell was the first thing I noticed.”
“How is it so strong? It’s only been a couple of days at most.”
“I don’t know. I think there’s a problem with the roof. Or maybe the guttering? It’s hard to tell.” He waved me into the stockroom where buckets sat on the floor along the back wall, water dripping into them with audible plinks . The wall itself was stained brown, watermarks trailing down it like great tentacles of despair. There were a couple of towels piled onto the floor, already sodden from where Gem had attempted to mop up the water that had collected there. It was a good thing there hadn’t been stock here, or it would have been ruined.
“Shit,” I said.
“Yep, and it’s just as bad upstairs. It’s all come rushing down that back wall,” Gem said. He walked out into the shop, and I followed him. The main room hadn’t suffered any effects, apart from the damp smell, but as soon as I climbed the stairs, I saw what Gem meant about it being just as bad. While water hadn’t collected on the floor, it had run down the back wall behind the bookcases. Gem had managed to unscrew some of them from the wall and pull them away, but I could see the water on the paintwork, and the thin, chipboard backs of the bookcases were soaked through. They’d probably dry out in time, but they were going to warp, and it would be difficult to stop them from moulding.
In the long run, it wouldn’t be the leaking roof that was the problem, it would be everything else.
“Bugger.”
“That was my thought,” Gem said. “I rang the letting agency, and apparently, my landlord is currently unavailable, but because this is an external building issue, it’s something he’s responsible for. I double-checked the lease just in case. I think they’ll probably let me get someone out to look at it, but they have to get his permission. If he’s like any of the flat landlords I’ve had in the past, he’ll probably just send his mate to look at it sometime next week and then say there’s nothing he can do or that he’ll be back to fix it sometime in the next six months.”
I frowned. “But you’re supposed to open next week.”
“And that’s the problem, isn’t it?” Gem put his hand on the back of one of the nearby bookcases, and his face wrinkled. “I can push it back, but in my enthusiasm, I’d already started planning an opening and advertising it. I guess I’ll just have to count that in the money-down-the-drain column.”
“It won’t be that bad,” I said desperately trying to stay positive, even though that ship was sinking fast. I knew Gem’s landlord would have to do the repairs in a reasonable time frame, but I was also pretty sure there was no legally defined period for reasonable. I saw the hope draining from Gem with every passing second, and a feeling of helplessness threatened to overwhelm me. There was nothing I could do to help beyond tidying, drying, and repainting. I couldn’t magically fix this with a few muttered words and the wave of a wand.
The temptation to call Lewis was strong, mostly because his organisational skills were second to none, and he could be utterly terrifying when annoyed. I’d had a front row seat when Lewis had bought his house while Jason was filming in Canada, and the way he’d dealt with his solicitor’s incompetence and the estate agent’s general, blasé attitude would have had most people running for the hills.
I didn’t know any lawyers per se, but Eli did have a law degree and seemed fairly well versed in property law, although that had been more out of necessity than desire given his letting agency’s approach to maintenance. Still, he might know something that could help, or he could possibly direct me to someone who could. Maybe Tristan knew someone given that he was a mortgage and financial adviser for very upmarket estate agents.
“I’m sure we can find a solution,” I continued. “Or I’ll know someone who can. My family may be loud and interfering, but they’re good in a crisis.”
“It’s fine,” Gem said. “Don’t worry about it.”
“It’s too late for that.” I chuckled softly. “Worry is my middle name.”
“I thought it was Alexander?”
“Well, that too.” I smiled, hoping Gem would do the same. He did, but it was stilted. It was clear he was just trying to put on a brave face for me if not for himself. “It’s going to be okay. I promise.”
“Yeah. Maybe.” Gem didn’t look convinced, but before I could say anything else his phone started to ring. The sound made me jump. Gem pulled his phone out of the pocket of his jeans, walking across the room as he answered it.
“Hello? Speaking… Oh, hey. Thanks for calling me back,” he said, a pensive expression on his face as he peered out the window and into the street below. There was tightness across his shoulders, and he absentmindedly flexed his fingers as he spoke, the stress bleeding out of him. I couldn’t help with the shop beyond offering manual labour when needed—although, perhaps I could bring baked goods since those always made things better—but maybe there was another way I could help Gem relieve stress. I just wondered whether he’d accept it.
Gem finished his call and turned back to me, and I realised with a start that I’d zoned out, too busy focusing on potential evening plans.
“Well? What did they say?” I asked. “I assume that was the letting agents?”
“Yeah,” Gem said. “They managed to get hold of the landlord. He’s in Florida for the month.” Gem rolled his eyes. “But he’s happy for me to get quotes from a couple of builders for the repairs, and he’ll pay, but he wants full details of what the problem is and what’s needed. I think he wants someone from the agent’s to come and look at it or something. I don’t know. I wasn’t really listening at that point because I was thinking about finding someone who can get out here and get me a quote.” He glanced at his phone and swore. “Guess my job for tonight will be making a list for tomorrow.”
I looked at my watch and realised it was nearly five. “Why don’t you come back to mine? We can have dinner, research some options, and I’ll help you de-stress.”
Gem grinned at me, and it was the first genuine smile I’d seen from him since I’d arrived. The fact that it was paired with a raised eyebrow and a side of cheek made desire flare in my chest. “De-stress? And just how were you planning on doing that?”
“First,” I said, stepping towards him and prising his phone from his fingers. “You’re going to put that down. You can’t do anything more tonight. Second, I’m going to get you a glass of wine while I make food, then I might run you a bath while I pick my siblings’ brains for builders—they can make themselves useful for once—and then…” I leant in closer and lowered my voice, letting my breath ghost over Gem’s ear. “I’m going to fuck you until you can’t even remember your own name.”