“Huh?” Gavin said as he sat across from Oliver and Lindsay in a booth at a cafe. They were having donuts and herbal tea. They were only there because Gavin had called it when he said that Oliver would not like the breakfast he got at the hospital. After they picked him up, he insisted they go out for donuts. So they sat in the booth and squabbled.

“I’m sorry,” Gavin said, giving a passive-aggressive apology. “You didn’t think to ask me if it was all right for Lindsay to live in Marissa’s old apartment?”  

“I didn’t think it would be a big deal,” Oliver defended. “You said she moved out. I know it’s not big enough for more than one person. I thought Lindsay could stay there and I’d stay over at Ricky’s. What’s the big deal? It’s not like Marissa is coming back and you’re on the hook for the lease. Someone might as well use it.”

Gavin groaned and rubbed his temple. 

Lindsay did a double take. When Oliver told her of his plan to work in Cowichan Bay after the tourist season, she thought he said he would stay at Gavin’s. Plans had changed, and he hadn’t mentioned that to her or Gavin until that minute. She noted her annoyance but said nothing.

“It’s fine,” Gavin said, sounding peeved. “It’s absolutely fine. Where’s Lindsay going to get furniture and where is all that furniture going to go in two months when the lease expires?”

Oliver had been about to respond when Lindsay interrupted him. “Look, I’m a grown-up. Gavin, if I can borrow you and your truck for a few hours today, I can get the essentials. I won’t need a lot of furniture.  I’ve done this sort of thing on the fly many times and if I don’t hate the place, can you help me make arrangements to lease the apartment in my name after the two months are up? If I hate it, I can surely find somewhere else to live during those two months.”

Gavin smirked. “I guess you can borrow me. I think the lease will be renewable if you decide you want that. Oliver, do you want to come with us to buy furniture?”

Oliver groaned. “I feel terrible. My arm is broken in three places! I can’t help. I’m helpless! You two clearly don’t need me to come with you since you’re such fast friends after meeting last night. Can’t you just drop me off at Ricky’s?”

Lindsay’s eyes moved from Oliver’s cast to his face in a couple of circuits until her gaze landed on his eyes. Didn’t he want to talk to her about the fact that she’d dumped him? Normally, when she told a man she was dumping him, he was thrown into a panic and tried to salvage their relationship. Oliver just sat there, whining about his hurt arm and asking to be dropped off at his buddy’s.  

Lindsay had no idea who Ricky was.

She took a deep breath and reminded herself that she was not there because she wanted to have a romance with Oliver. Their getting together had been a kind of impromptu thing (like everything else in her class). Maybe it didn’t mean much to either of them, but she knew one thing: she had been planning to come to the island to help with the hotel before she and Oliver decided to make out in the front of his car a few nights before. She wasn’t trying to run off with him specifically. She was trying to start a new life that had nothing to do with acting.

She tucked her hair behind her ear and decided to forget that they had ever said anything about being a couple.

“That’s fine by me,” she said with a noncommittal shrug.

“I guess I can do that,” Gavin said, blowing a chuckle through his nose.  

Lindsay felt a little weird. She had never had brunch with two men before when neither one of them was interested in her. 

Oliver started closing the lid to the box containing the rest of the donuts. “I’ll just take these as a thank you for Ricky.”

Soon, they were back in the truck. Oliver rode in the front with Gavin and Lindsay sat in the back. Truly, she hadn’t appreciated how much space there was in the back of his cab when she’d ridden in it the night before. It was beyond luxury.  

As they drove, Gavin yelled little touristy bits of information for Lindsay’s benefit. In particular, he drove them past the hotel she was going to help him renovate.

The Sealion Hotel was placed on the side of a hill that looked down over the bay. It was a long thin building with many windows. Plenty of rooms to renovate. There was not a beach where the water and the land met. Instead, the hotel led down to the marina. There was a mountain on one side of the road. The other side was a strip of shops lining the bay. The marina was on the other side.

Oliver pointed to her new apartment as they made their way down the main street. Lindsay saw the shop called 999 Things to Wear and the smaller second floor on top of it. That was where her new apartment was. It had windows overlooking the bay. She couldn’t wait to see inside it.

She tried to squelch her interest. It might have a beautiful view, a stunning location, and be an absolute mess on the inside. 

Ricky’s house was up the road. The road wound through trees past houses Lindsay didn’t know were there until she saw a touch of siding between the tree trunks.

They pulled up a winding driveway and stopped. The yard was messy and the house was in disrepair. Oliver leaped from the truck saying a hasty goodbye to Gavin and Lindsay before whipping his bag out of the back with his good hand and heading for the front door. Once there, he rang the bell, seemed to realize he was an idiot for leaving without saying goodbye, and blew a kiss to Lindsay.

Lindsay didn’t know what to do with a farewell like that. She had never been left that way by a man who was pursuing her. When she was seeing someone, he didn’t pay attention to anyone besides her. She had never had a man she was dating blow her a kiss instead of just kissing her. Maybe he had paid far more attention to her dumping him the night before than she thought. He just wasn’t that upset about it.

“Want to come up front?” Gavin asked. “It’s less bumpy up here.”

As she was feeling a bit carsick with all the twists and turns in the road, she did as he suggested. When she got to the front seat, the door to Ricky’s house opened and Oliver ducked inside.

“Do they smoke weed or something?” she asked, looking after Oliver with a bent eyebrow. “Who’s that excited to see his buddy?”

Gavin didn’t comment and put the truck in reverse, getting them back out onto the road. 

“Oliver skipped telling me the backstory. Care to fill me in?” Lindsay asked, hoping for an information dump.

“They’ve been friends since they were in grade school. Basically inseparable, but I don’t know much more than that. Oliver hasn’t visited lately. Maybe he’s in a hurry to catch up,” Gavin drawled lazily as his wheels took the curves in the road like the truck had driven the road so many times it knew the turns without being steered.

“Hmm… He’s never mentioned Ricky to me before,” Lindsay said as she gazed out the window.

“Would you be uncomfortable staying with me again tonight?” Gavin asked slowly.

Lindsay felt the heat forming in her cheeks. “You tricked me,” she said. “I thought I was staying in your guest room. I was sleeping in your bed. I would not have agreed to that if I had known.”

“I know,” he said, without embarrassment or reservation. “That was why I brought you in the back door. Want to do it again tonight?”

She feigned a laugh but didn’t answer. The plan was for them to buy the furniture she needed.  

“I’m only saying this in case we can’t find you a proper bed today,” he said smoothly. “I want you to know that I’m fine with putting you up for another night.”

Lindsay was always suspicious whenever a man behaved chivalrously if it meant that she was somehow placed in a vulnerable position because of it. She glanced over at him. He wasn’t interested in her. His hands were on the wheel and his eyes were on the road. Unlike another man, he wasn’t getting anything out of it.  

“Thanks, but we’ll find a bed. My standards for such things are surprisingly low. We’re not going to buy a bed. We’re going to buy a mattress. I’ve been researching how to outfit a small apartment for weeks. I have a plan. I really wouldn’t like to waste more of your time than I have to. As it is, I’m really thankful for your help today.”

He smacked his lips. “I’ll be thankful if you’re helpful with the hotel tomorrow. Oliver has started out by being useless. He won’t be doing any heavy lifting with a broken arm.”

Lindsay tightened her fists a few times to ease her frustration. “Will that be a big pain? Not having him help?”

“I didn’t expect him to help much in the first place. Please don’t quit, Lindsay,” he said. “I didn’t have a plan for Marissa’s apartment and I’m the one paying for it, so I’m happy to let you stay there for two months rent-free.”

“Really?” she gasped, in awe of his generosity.

He groaned. “I am paying for it anyway. Doing renovations at the hotel may not be your bag, but please don’t quit. If you don’t like the work, we can talk about it and get you doing something more up your alley. There are lots of jobs in hotels.”

“What’s your job?”

“I do whatever,” he said gruffly. “Right now, it’s renovating season. The rain is going to come down and the tourists are going to stay home. Look,” he said pointing to a spot in the sky. “There’s a bit of rain coming now.”

He wasn’t kidding. The rain came down suddenly and dotted the windshield in water droplets.

He stopped the truck in front of 999 Things to Wear and he and Lindsay ran to get a look at the apartment before they went shopping.

The staircase that led to the apartment was on the side of the white-flanked storefront. They stood under the eaves as the rain came down and Gavin struggled to open the lock. Inside, the stairs went straight up with no breaks.  

“This looks fun,” Lindsay said as Gavin shut the door behind them.

“By fun, I assume you mean unbearably gloomy.”

“Nah, it’s not so bad,” Lindsay countered. “There’s a window at the top of the stairs letting all that light in. At least, there isn’t a single yellow light bulb swinging from a wire. We’re doing good so far.”

“You’re already acting nicer than Marissa did,” he commented.

“How so?”

Gavin marched up the stairs ahead of her and started working on the lock. “She didn’t like this place at all. I renovated it a few years ago for the owner, so I thought it was fine, but she didn’t like it.”

“I bet nothing at all would have made her happy if what she wanted was to live with you.”

“Maybe,” he said as he cracked the door open.

When Lindsay saw inside, she was pleasantly surprised. The ceiling was higher than it should have been to account for the towerish look the outside had, though there wasn’t much floor space. There was a little U-shaped kitchen. One side of it had a little counter space and then the stove. Then there was a little more counter space and then the sink. The other side of the U was a length of counter that had the majority of the cabinets under it. There were only shelves over the counters.  

There was a breakfast nook that was an old booth from a restaurant that had been repurposed. It was nailed down beside a window that had a view of the bay and marina. Lindsay looked out and saw the colorful houseboats docked in the water.

“Wait a few weeks and the sea lions will get here,” Gavin said, coming up behind her. “They like to sun themselves over there in the fall. They wail all night. I hope they don’t bother you with their bellowing.”

Lindsay laughed. Like a miracle of nature such as sea lions were going to bother her. She was going to be happy with the chance to see them up close.

He snorted because he didn’t believe her. “There isn’t much else to the apartment. There’s a bedroom up those stairs, a linen closet, and a bathroom.

Lindsay looked around. The kitchen and the dining room were best friends with each other and there wasn’t much space to spare. “No living room?” she asked.

“No. Before the renovations, the space where this booth is now was the living room, with a couch and a coffee table, there was only room for two people to sit comfortably. With the booth, you can seat three, which was a pretty big improvement at the time. Plus, with the old design, there was no room for this sweet little entryway.”

Lindsay hadn’t seen it before because Gavin had been in the way, but there was indeed a line of hooks to hang coats and a bit of the wall had been cut away for a person to store at least three pairs of shoes.

“Oh! That’s good.”

“You’ll just have to entertain your guests at the booth,” he said dryly.

“Yes, because I’m going to have so many people up here,” she droned sarcastically. “This is already leaps and bounds better than a hotel room. I have a stove! I’ve never had a stove before. I’m gonna make cookies.”

“Wonderful,” he said drolly. “As your landlord, I tax cookies. One in every six. Got it?”

Lindsay giggled.

He pointed through a doorway. “Wanna check out the bathroom?”

Lindsay followed him into the bathroom, which was nicer than she expected. Naturally, there was no bathtub, but the shower stall was less oppressive than others she’d seen in small apartments.

They moved to the bedroom, which was the largest room in the apartment, though still not large. There was enough room for a double bed if she wanted one and a dresser. Immediately, she knew she’d get a single mattress and use all that spare room for a bookshelf and the wall space for a TV… eventually. She would have to save up some money. How many things could she buy with the money she had?

She started making a list. She needed a mattress, a bed, a dresser, a mirror, bedding… etc.

“Will it do?” Gavin asked from his position at the door.

“Yeah,” she said with a smile. “It will be great. I love it. Let’s go shopping. I’m so glad you’re willing to take me and that you have a truck. I bet we’ll be able to get everything today. It’s so handy that the dining room has that booth. Now I don’t have to worry about getting furniture for that space. No living room makes it easier too. I’m so thankful for all this, Gavin. You gave me a job and you’re letting me stay here.” She was getting teary, thinking of how she’d given up trying to be an actress and how many people had told her no… Having someone tell her yes was undoing her at the seams.  

She’d always dreamed of a place of her own, hoping one day her acting gigs would pay enough to get her just this much, but it never worked out. But now, looking down on the bay, she could not have asked for more.

Gavin smiled and looked like he would have hugged her, but instead, he shoved his hands in his pockets. “Yeah. Let’s go get you a bed.”