CH 4.

"Sorry, but I really can't help you." A middle aged man said. The first door slammed in Gareth's face as soon as the man caught sight of the minivan jammed packed and the faces peering out the windows. Gone was a possible one bedroom basement apartment in a semi-detached home.

"No kids," a matronly woman in a loudly flowered housedress said firmly at the next location. Gareth was disappointed, her house had two rooms available and was within walking distance to the kids' school.

"But...." Gareth said weakly, hoping he could gain her empathy.

The woman's face turned cold. "No. Kids." And she solidly shut the door, throwing the chain on for good measure, like Gareth and the children would force their way in--break the lock and hold her hostage for her rooms.

Gareth was getting desperate.

The next option was sharing an apartment in a crumbling building not known for it's wholesome family atmosphere. Gareth left the kids in the van under strict instructions to stay put and keep the doors locked, and took a quick look back before he went in through the cloudy front doors, streaked with moisture and grime. The lobby had a pervasive odour of urine emanating from....maybe the carpeting in the hall or the suspicious puddle in the corner? Possibly both. Gareth carefully passed by the person 'napping' in the stairwell until he got to the scratched door on the third floor.

"The room's available and furnished?" Gareth asked hesitantly of the greasy-haired lanky figure at the door.

"Sure, man...I just have to get my snake out of there." 

Gareth could see a large bong on the coffee table scarred with burn marks in front of an orange and brown plaid sofa and a few posters of scantily clad women draped across various vehicles on the wall over the person's head. He appeared to be twenty-something and very definitely on something. Hopefully just pot. And then there was the smell...

Maybe not that desperate.

"Ummm, maybe I'll just get back to you," Gareth said, backing down the hall. 

"Okay, man, whatever." 

He almost ran to the front entrance, narrowly avoiding a female setting up shop for the night. At least she was employed, he supposed. The apartment available to share was super sketchy as was the whole building. But if there were no other options after a few more stops, this might have to do. He really hoped not.

"Daddy, I really need to pee," Franny said quietly. Her legs were crossed and she was bouncing a little in her seat. Gareth had five minutes, tops, to find her a bathroom before things got dire.

The kids were being troupers given the circumstances. Losing their mother and their home in one day was really terrible, especially given what Leeann had said when he was there. He was sure she'd uttered terrible things when he wasn't. And Gareth still hadn't tried to get the full story from them yet. He didn't even know how the coffee table had been broken, although he was sure the kids weren't responsible. Either way, a broken piece of furniture wasn't worth telling the children she wished they didn't exist. In any circumstance that was just plain wrong.

"Okay, honey. I need to check a few more ads, anyway." He gave her a reassuring smile. Far more reassured than he actually felt.

Gareth drove for a few minutes down the ever darkening streets, lights flickering in front of the windshield before he eased the van into a parking spot at a coffee shop with free wifi.

Giving Daisy five dollars, the kids all went in to use the bathroom and get a little treat. He checked the ads on his laptop while making calls with his phone. His jaw was aching from clenching and his cheek was sore when the phone pressed against it, but housing was by far the more pressing issue. Hopefully something would turn up before the battery on his laptop packed it in. As it was, it was down to fifteen percent, but there were a few places he still hadn't checked out yet, and a new ad was just posted, too.

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Phillip started slightly as his cell phone vibrated in his pocket. He wasn't expecting a call just yet—his ad had only been up for maybe twenty minutes.

Fumbling slightly, he pulled it out and answered the call, "Hello?"

"Uh yes, I'm calling about your ad, the rooms for rent?"

Phillip thought the voice on the other end sounded tired, but gentle. Maybe kind. "Yes?" he responded, briskly.

"I was wondering if they are both available? Like for tonight even?" Again, it was tentative and drained.

"Yes, they are, although I would have to meet you first."

"Of course. And I'd like to see them, if possible."

Of course he'd want to see the rooms, Phillip realized, feeling very dense. There was an awkward silence until the person on the other end of the line cleared his throat.

Startled, Phillip quickly gave the man--Gareth, he said--the address and directions then hung up without even properly ending the call. He stood rigidly for a second, unsure of the change that might happen, the tightness in his chest evidence of his discomfort. But then he remembered he could always say no. Judging from enervated tone to Gareth's voice, no was something he'd heard before. Besides, there could always be other responses to his ad, it really had only been a short time since he'd put it online.

Taking a brief, but critical, look over the house, Phillip thought that no one in their right mind would really want to rent here. He'd never really noticed before because this was the way it always was, which was probably a problem. Most of the furniture was easily over thirty years old and very decidedly in his deceased mother's taste. The available bedrooms, although furnished, hadn't been in use since his mother's death and had a musty, closed up smell. Phillip wrenched open the old windows, hoping that a little airing out might make it seem less dire, although nothing could be done about the dusty rose paint and matching floral patterned borders around the ceilings. Each bed had a stiffly starched comforter that was the same rosy print as the curtains, and it was decidedly hideous. Very early 80's (and not the cool, retro look) and very old lady.

Certainly the areas of the bungalow that Phillip used regularly were clean and tidy, but he suddenly came to the understanding that renting out part of his house was going to be more revealing than he'd initially thought. People were going to see how he lived, and he was going to have to share. Phillip quickly ran a damp cloth over the table in the kitchen and counter in the bathroom, then checked the condition of the tub for discarded hair or discolouration. He did a quick once over of the bowl with the toilet brush and debated cleaning the mirror, but it was free of streaks or flecks. Everything looked to be in reasonable order.

Should he put out snacks? Food always made things easier, if he could keep his mouth busy than he wouldn't be expected to converse. But there wasn't really anything to eat aside from frozen meals, and certainly not finger foods, anyway. He scrubbed a little at the front of a shelf in the kitchen, even though it was clean.

Phillip firmly closed the cupboards and realized he was being silly. This was purely a business proposition, not a dinner party. He hated interactions and this was totally out of his comfort zone, even though he was supposed to talk to customers at work. Brian was right to force him out of the store, Phillip supposed, if he couldn't even handle the possibility of interaction with someone that he could easily turn away.

He swallowed uneasily, a huge lump in his throat.

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Yet another rejection had Gareth worried. He supposed the place with the bong and the snake wasn't looking too bad. Beggars couldn't be choosers and all that. He'd just have to keep them in their rooms and nowhere else in the building if that was the only place available. The kids were also beginning to lose any semblance of patience, which was fair considering they'd been in the van for over three hours aside from their short stop at the Tim Hortons. Franny and Gabe snapped at each other, and Daisy tried to shush them, making the two younger ones snap at the older ones.

"Please, you three. I'm doing the best I can. Hold on for just a bit longer, okay?" He'd drive the two hours to his parents' if he had to, but that wouldn't really be any sort of solution.

A chorus of 'sorry, daddy' rang out from his children, and he took a deep breath.

Gareth really hoped this next place could be the one. Anything aside from sleeping in the van was preferable to the available apartment, and there was no going back to Leeann. The person who placed the ad, Phillip, sounded normal on the phone at least, if not a little standoffish. But it was a house, in the kids' school district, and had two furnished rooms. It could be a godsend. As he turned onto the quiet side street, Daisy pointed out the address when she looked up from her book.

"It's that one, the one with the dug up yard," she commented, happy to help, but obviously tired. Franny and Gabe barely stirred.

"You're right, but it's not dug up, it's a garden." He noted the burlap wrapped bushes and large beds topped with patchy sprinklings of snow. Gareth eased the van into the driveway behind an older model sedan while he gave the house a once over. Judging from the outside, Phillip must be an older gentleman, maybe recently widowed. There were lace curtains in the front windows and curlicue metal railings along the front porch which had brackets for hanging baskets. It wasn't what he expected, because Phillip sounded much younger on the phone.

Checking his hair in the rearview mirror and taking a surreptitious sniff of his armpits (although there wasn't anything he could do about that now—they were thankfully mostly okay), Gareth took a deep breath and stepped out onto the crushed gravel drive, trying to be optimistic.

Before he could ring the doorbell, the front door opened. Gareth was surprised when a compact, but well built male around his own age opened the door. His clothes were neat—a tucked in polo shirt and dark pair of well fitting worn jeans—and his dark brown hair was short with a slight wave to it.

"Hi, I'm Gareth. Are you Phillip?" He offered his hand, and they did a perfunctory shake, Gareth's slender fingers wrapping around Phillip's calloused solid ones.

It was the first physical human contact Phillip had in weeks, and it wasn't entirely unwelcome, which surprised him. "Yes."

Phillip caught the tired eyes of the man in front of him. Gareth did look kind and gentle, and worn out, very worn out. He had a considerate sort of face with shaggy light brown hair that flopped down across his forehead and eyes that were such a light shade of brown they bordered on green. There was a trace of stubble along the man's jawline, emphasizing the curve of his chin. Tall and slender, his clothes hung off his frame, but not in an unappealing way. In fact, Phillip found Gareth to be quite the opposite, kind of a geeky sort of hot, and his face flushed a little. It also looked like a bruise might be forming below Gareth's left eye, but Phillip decided that wasn't his business.

"Are the rooms still available?"

"Yes."

"Uh, could I see them?" Gareth prompted, tilting his head, the corners of his mouth moving upward slightly.

"Oh, of course." Phillip gave his head a slight shake and felt like a fool. Stepping aside, he allowed Gareth entry to the house. The inside was just as dated looking as the outside, but still, there was no bong or snake, no disapproving old ladies, and it was clean. Very clean.

Phillip led the way to the rooms. One was the master, which was surprising to Gareth, and the other was obviously previously employed as a guest room. Both had queen sized beds and large dressers and looked as though they suited a seventy year old woman. Floral wall paper trim and bedspreads featured heavily throughout the pink rooms.

It was awkward. Incredibly awkward. Phillip was too flustered to even try to converse, and Gareth was too tired to put forth much effort; still, he endeavoured to be polite.

"So, is it just you here?" Gareth queried.

"Yes." Phillip wasn't giving him anything to work with.

"I'm sorry that I don't have references or anything, but I promise I'm a good person. I teach seventh grade and have to pass a police check every year. No axe murderer here or anything." Gareth's joke fell flat, so he swallowed his chuckle covering it with a cough, "Uh, how about you then?"

"I'm a horticulturist. Currently looking for another job, sort of."

Rather than ask about the 'sort of,' Gareth chose the easier remark, "That explains the garden."

"Yes, it's on the tour." Phillip announced, Gareth noting his pride. A gardener can't be that bad, can he? Probably not an excessive partier, at least. Well, depending on what he was growing, although Phillip certainly didn't look the type.

Gareth and Phillip returned to the front hall, both shifting uneasily. "Look, I'd love to take the rooms, if you're willing to have us," Gareth stated. This was way better than anything else available, that much was sure.

"Us?" Phillip's eyes widened. He was certain he'd specified no pets in the ad.

"Yes, well, I thought you saw. In the van? The children..." Gareth halted his speech because Phillip looked positively stricken.

"Children? More than one?" Phillip asked in disbelief as he tried to think of a way to back away. He hadn't even considered someone with a child, let alone children, would be renting.

"Ah, yes," Gareth released a heavy sigh, laced with exhaustion. "Three actually. Leeann, their mother, kicked us out today. It appears her new boyfriend doesn't want kids, so neither does she."

Phillip couldn't think of what to say in response. "Hmm." His brows furrowed in confusion. Was there really an appropriate response to that kind of information?

"Look, before you say no outright, please come and meet them. They're really well behaved, I promise."

"Uh..." Phillip was still completely flummoxed. He had absolutely no experience with children other than the little beasts that ran free in the Bentman's greenhouses, knocking over plants, plucking flowers, and generally causing mayhem. He had no experience with children even when he was a child.

Gareth could sense Phillip's hesitation, but couldn't imagine driving around to look at more places. Not when this house seemed to be just what he was looking for, besides, it was getting late and he was completely done in. "Even if we can just stay the week until I can find something else. Please." Gareth could hear the squeak in his voice, but at this point he wasn't too proud to beg. 

A/N: Now we're getting somewhere! Aren't we all thrilled that they're away from Leann? Next update on Saturday. :) 

<3 JJ