“But what?” I did my best not to sound offended. I may not have had the qualifications, but everyone knew that I was a dab hand with a skimmer.
“But…oh, it sounds stupid now. We didn’t want to take advantage of you.”
“Take advantage of me?” I wanted to laugh, but my mood still wouldn’t allow that. “How could you possibly do that?”
“You always quote very low. I haggle with my suppliers to no end but if I haggled you any lower you’d be paying me.”
“So if I charged ahigherrate, you would have hired me?”
“Well…yes. Come and take a look at what they left us with. We haven’t had anyone round to the flat in months…”
Geraint led me through the back room and up the set of stairs I knew led to their flat from the couple of times I had been there before. “This is what they’ve left us with,” he said as he gestured around their living room.
The walls were uneven and I could see stress cracks forming already. The ceiling was even worse, and I could see in the corners where the plaster had chipped or fallen away. “We refused to pay them the final amount of course, but they had already taken half as a deposit up front.”
He gestured toward the other open doors off the hallway. The bedroom was exactly the same and the tiling in what looked to bea newly tiled bathroom was uneven without the grouting having been finished.
“Take a look in here,” he said and opened the last door. Where the kitchen had been was a total mess. The units had been ripped from the walls and the walls hadn’t yet been plastered. In one corner I could see what looked to be the new units all covered in tarpaulin, some put together and still in their cardboard boxes and flat packed.
“When we told them we weren’t satisfied with the work so far and wouldn’t pay them the other half ‘til it was fixed, they just up and left. We’ve been surviving on takeaway meals, microwave dinners and cold sandwiches for ages!”
“Bloody hell, Geraint.” I surveyed the mess. I had put bigger kitchens together in my time. And my plastering skills were a damn sight better than whatever mess had been left in the rooms of the house. And Alaw and James’ words echoed in my head. And even if I was hurting that James had decided not to see me for whatever reason, I was going to do my best to make myself worthy of him, or any man who might come my way.
I cleared my throat. “Looks like about 2 days’ work per room with the plastering, and a few days extra in the kitchen to plaster and then put it all together. I can do it all for a hundred a day.”
“A…yes, that works for us I think. Let me talk to Gwyn. When can you start?”
“Tomorrow, if you like. I’ll get your plastering downstairs done today and I’ve got some stuff to do up at the school but I should be able to work on yours pretty consistently after that.”
“Bloody hell, thank you Llywelyn. I should have asked sooner.”
“Well ask me first next time.” I felt pretty proud of myself for the rest of the morning as I worked at the wall at the back of the shop and when I’d finished and Geraint pressed a fifty pound note into my hand for one morning’s work I managed to nod andsmile rather than insist on twenty. It was only when I exited the shop into a crisp, sunny and cold early afternoon that my mood soured again.
“Llywelyn!” called a voice from across the street, and my mood lowered even further. Glynis looked both ways before shuffling as fast as she could over the road.
“I’m a bit busy at the moment, Glynis.” I hauled the bag of dry plaster into the back of the van and tried not to look her in the eye.
“Well someone needs to give you a bloody talking to.” To my surprise, she sounded furious and when I looked down at her she looked like she was ready to clobber me. “Kidnapping my grandson like you did.”
“Kidnapping? What do you-” she swatted at my arm and I shut up quickly.
“He was meant to come back last night to pick up his things and never did, so I can only presume he went straight to yours tocanoodle.” She had said the last word like it was a swearword.
“I hadn’t seen him! I thought he had stayed at yours and forgotten about me!” My mind was racing, and I had no idea what was going on. Where was James, if not with Glynis?
“Oh,cariad. He could never forget about you.” Glynis gave a small smile and reached out a hand to brush against my sleeve. “But that leaves the question. Where is James?”
“Well where was he when you last saw him?”
“Right here, on this street. As far as I knew he would be coming back to pick up his things and then going to you. Can’t you call him?”
“I don’t-I don’t have his number,” I admitted.
“Don’t have his bloody number? I thought all you young people did was text and bookface?”
“Facebook—anyway, that’s not the point. We were inseparable for 3 days, I honestly didn’t think to. Don’t you have your grandson’s number?”
“Yes, his old one. The stolen phone.” Glynis shook her head. “I hope he didn’t take a walk along the cliffs…”
