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Kristen gritted her teeth and strained against the big wooden desk. It was far heavier than it looked, and for once, she wished she still had Stephen around.
“Mummy,” came a little voice from the doorway. “What are you doing?”
She lifted the desk again and it shifted a few inches. “Moving your desk into the spare room.” She panted with the effort.
His lower lip pouted. “But that’s my desk.”
Dropping the item of furniture, she turned back to him. “I know, sweetie, but remember how we talked about having someone come and stay here for a little while, to help me out with some stuff?” Ollie nodded, and she continued. “Well, there are certain things they’ll need to have in their room, and a desk is one of them. They’ll be studying, so it’s really important they have one.”
He wasn’t convinced. “But I go to school, too. I’m learning. I need a desk.”
She crouched to bring herself down to his level and took his hand. “Hey, how about, once our new student moves in, I buy you a whole new desk?”
It pained her to say it, knowing that first week’s money could go on far more important things. Ollie was only five, after all. It wasn’t as though he really needed one. He could just as easily sit at the dining room table, or even on the floor, but the woman from the university housing was due over in less than an hour, and she needed to get this done. Not only that, she didn’t want Ollie having a meltdown while the woman was here. She needed him to be happy and enthusiastic, and not sulking or crying because he thought he was going to lose his stuff to a stranger staying in his home.
His eyes brightened at the suggestion. “A new one?”
She thought of the money she’d save if she managed to pick on up from the charity shop. “Well, new to us anyway.”
Ollie pursed his lips, his nose wrinkling as he considered her offer, and then his face relaxed in a smile. “Okay, then. I think I’d like that.”
The knot of tension inside her relaxed a fraction. “Good boy. Now go and play for a bit while Mummy finishes doing this.”
He turned and thundered back down the stairs, giving a roar at some imaginary creature he was fighting as he jumped down the bottom two.
“And don’t jump down the stairs,” she shouted after him, even though she knew he wouldn’t pay the slightest bit of attention.
Kristen turned back to the desk. It was surprisingly heavy, but she needed to get it moved, even if it meant putting her back out doing it. Time was whizzing by, and she didn’t want to be unprepared for the inspection.
Heaving, and shoving, and swearing under her breath so Ollie didn’t hear her, she gradually edged her way out of the room with the desk and dragged it across the hallway into the spare room. The room was only large enough for a single bed, but there was enough space for the desk and a small chest of drawers, and it had a built-in wardrobe for the student’s clothes. She wished they had a second bathroom in the house—it would be weird sharing a bathroom with a stranger—but they would have to make do. A private bathroom wasn’t a prerequisite of being a host family, so that was good enough for her.
She straightened and pushed her hair from her face, the light brown strands clinging to her sweaty forehead. She took one final look around the room. It wasn’t perfect, but it wasn’t bad either. In an ideal world, she’d have liked to have bought new bedding, but there was no way she could afford to do that right now. And anyway, in an ideal world, she wouldn’t be needing to bring a stranger into her home to help pay the gas bill, so there was that.
The doorbell jingled through the house.
“She’s here, Mummy!” Ollie yelled from downstairs.
By the time she joined him, he was already hopping up and down at the front door in excitement. They didn’t get many visitors.
Kristen took a breath, plastered on a smile, and opened the door.
A woman in her fifties with a brightly coloured scarf, long beads draped around her neck, and knee-high boots stood on her doorstep. Kind blue eyes were framed with a pair of turquoise glasses.
“You must be Mrs. Scott,” she said. “I’m Nancy McFadden from the University Housing.”
Kristen stepped back, pulling Ollie against the front of her legs to keep him out of the way. “Yes, hello. We’re expecting you. Please, come in.”
“Thank you.” The woman stepped into the house with them, casting her gaze around. Kristen tried not to feel as though both she and her home were being judged, even though that was the exact reason for Nancy McFadden’s visit.
Ollie stayed close, pressing himself up against his mother’s legs, even though he’d been so excited about having a visitor before she’d arrived.
Nancy smiled down at Ollie. “Are you excited about having a student come and stay?”
Ollie shrugged shyly and clung to Kristen’s leg. “I guess so.”
Nancy smiled at his response.
“Why don’t you go and play with your Lego in the other room?” Kristen encouraged him. “Let the grownups talk.”
“We’ll be talking about some really boring stuff,” Nancy said.
Ollie nodded and unravelled his arms from Kristen’s legs to vanish into the kitchen.
Nancy turned her attention to Kristen. “So, Mrs. Scott—”
“Oh, it’s Kristen, please,” she corrected her. “And I’m not married. I mean, I was, once. But not anymore.” Her face burned at her admission. Why was it every time she acknowledged her divorce it was like admitting a failure, and she was instantly expecting to be judged.
But Nancy leaned in and lowered her voice, so Ollie didn’t hear. “Oh, neither am I. Think we’re best rid of them, personally.”
She surprised a laugh out of Kristen. “I couldn’t agree more.”
“Good. So, let’s move on.” Nancy glanced down at the paperwork. “I understand you’re after a mature student rather than one of our younger ones.”
“Yes, that’s right. I think I’d feel more comfortable with an adult. I don’t have much experience of teenagers, apart from when I was one myself, and with Ollie in the house, I’m not sure I could take on that kind of responsibility.”
“Of course. I completely understand. Well, your location is great for the university. I noticed a bus stop just down the road, and the buses seem to run regularly.”
“Yes, they do,” Kristen agreed. “Oh, and I have a cat. Is that okay? I did put it down on the application form.”
“That’s fine. We’ll make sure you’re not matched with someone who has allergies or is scared of them, that’s all.”
She exhaled a sigh of relief. She already felt guilty having Lemmy. When she was struggling to put food on the table, that couple of quid a week in cat food made a difference. She didn’t have pet insurance, simply because she couldn’t afford the extra ten pounds a month, and lived in fear of something happening to him where she’d end up with a massive bill she wouldn’t be able to pay. She’d wondered if it would be better to give him over to someone else, but just the thought broke her heart, and she knew Ollie would be devastated, too. Their little family had already been torn apart, and losing Lemmy as well felt like one step too far. People said, ‘he’s only a cat’, but to her, he was another little person, just one that happened to have four paws and whiskers. She’d have no more given him up than she would Ollie, but if she hadn’t been able to become a host family because of him, it would have just been another thing to feel guilty about.
“Right, then,” Nancy said, “I’ll just take a look at the room.”
“Of course.”
Kristen led her up the stairs to the bedroom. Ollie had noticed the movement and abandoned his Lego in the other room to scamper up after them. Kristen prayed he wasn’t going to say anything about the desk. She didn’t want it to look like she was depriving her son to get the student.
Nancy stepped in and looked around. “This all looks great. Can I see the rest of the house?”
“Of course.”
Kristen showed her the bathroom, and then back downstairs to the kitchen.
Nancy looked around and then turned back to her. “I can’t see any reason we can’t accept you as a host family. We will need to run DBS checks, though I’m assuming you don’t have some secret criminal past we should be aware of?”
Kristen laughed nervously and thought back to her mother. “No, not at all.”
“Good. Well, we’ll be in touch.”
“Thanks so much.”
Kristen showed Nancy out, and then closed the door behind her and let out a shaky sigh. She thought that had gone well, but she wasn’t someone who counted her chickens.
She just hoped she’d done enough.