“What do you think we should we do about the pantry?”
A narrow door at the end of the kitchen opened into a large walk-in cupboard with a few steps down to the floor. Empty shelving covered all three walls and a picture frame-sized window sat high up near the ceiling.
“That’s your call, Lenny. Personally, I love these period features. Notice how naturally cooler it is in there, which is why in the past that’s where they’d have stored fresh goods—meat, butter, milk. But, of course, these days we have eco-friendly fridges for that kind of thing. Come on, give me hand getting this lot into the skip.”
Once they finished clearing debris away, they worked separately in the living area. Adrian effortlessly tore up the linoleum from the floor then ripped off the plywood boards from one side of the fireplace. Leonard tried to keep up but was no match. Adrian worked quickly and efficiently, leaving Leonard huffing and puffing and swearing quietly to himself. But then, he told himself, this was what Adrian did for a living.
“Are you okay over there?” asked Adrian.
Leonard had been trying to lever the plywood away on the left side of the chimney stack, but the broad panel had been fixed in place securely, and trying to pull out the long nails with the hammer claw was proving tedious but also a challenge. Not only that, but there seemed to be something substantial behind the boarding, maybe loose bricks or debris. Concentrating carefully, he plugged away, attacking each side of the panel in turn, working from the top downwards.
When he glanced over, Adrian had not only cleared the whole floor—with a pile of old linoleum broken into smaller pieces and the rest taken out to the skip—but already had the other boarding at the side of the fireplace removed. Just as he had guessed, they had uncovered a small nook of age-yellowed wallpaper with pretty, faded red flowers, hiding a stack of old but sturdy planks of wood.
“You’re making me look like a rank amateur over here,” said Leonard. Adrian stopped what he was doing and studied the wall on Leonard’s side.
“Why is the panelling bulging and tipping out like that, Lenny? Careful, it looks as though it’s moving. There must be something—”
Barely had the words left his mouth when, with a series of cracking and popping sounds, the whole wooden panel began to come away from the wall. Leonard, taken by surprise, put his arms out and braced the front of his body against the flat panel to try to stop the wall falling. But whatever had been squashed in and hidden weighed a tonne.
For a moment, he found himself struggling, staggered back a step, and feared the whole weight might fall on top of him.
Suddenly Adrian stood right behind him, with his solid body pressed flush up against Leonard’s, his strong arms reaching out to stop the falling wall.
They remained frozen that way for a few moments, Leonard because he was unsure what to do next. Until his mind stilled and his body began to betray him. Adrian’s chest and groin pressed up hard and tight against him, his head over Leonard’s left shoulder and his heavy breath brushing Leonard’s ear. Not surprisingly, strange things started to flutter through Leonard’s stomach, and he began to feel his cock hardening.
“Is it me, or is this a tad awkward?” he said, trying to defuse the situation and tame his body’s auto-response.
Adrian’s chuckle and the rumble in his chest only made matters worse for Leonard.
“I’m not saying I’m not enjoying this, but maybe we should think of a plan of action before the walls come tumbling down, so to speak.”
Once again Adrian’s laughter came, and this time Leonard felt sure something clicked in Adrian because he tried to pull his noticeably hardened groin away from Leonard’s backside.
“Okay, listen,” said Adrian, becoming serious again. “I’ve got this. When I say so, we push together to get the panel back up. Then I’ll give you space so you can let go. While I hold everything in place, get a couple of those planks over there and hammer them across the top. That should shore this temporarily until we find a better solution.”
“Can’t we both just step away and let the whole thing fall?”
“We could. But I’m worried one of us might not get out of the way in time. Safety first, Lenny. It’s drummed into us on every building site. Let’s do the sensible thing, shall we?”
As they pushed together, Leonard felt as though he had done very little, Adrian’s strength shifting the weighty structure effortlessly. Once they had the panel pushed back in place, Adrian kept his hands braced against the wall but stepped back a little to make space for Leonard to move. Instead of getting out of the way, Leonard rotated around one-eighty degrees until he had his back up against the partition, and faced Adrian.
“Well, will you look at this? I have you in my complete control right now. I could have my evil way with you and there’s not a damn thing you could do—”
“Lenny!”
Leonard jumped into action. He ducked out, grabbed the nearest thick plank of wood and placed it within easy reach. Adrian had left the toolbox open nearby, so Leonard grabbed the hammer and some fresh nails. Once he had hammered in one side just above Adrian’s right hand, Adrian moved his hand up to hold the board and the wall. When Leonard moved behind Adrian, his eyes could not help drifting over the muscled torso from behind—the thick-set shoulders and massive back, the muscled thighs and backside, the way his friend effortlessly supported the weight. Minutes later, he had the first plank in place, and Adrian let go.
Adrian took over then, hammering more nails into the first plank before fixing the second far more securely and professionally. Eventually they both stood and surveyed their handiwork.
“That should hold for now,” said Adrian. “We’re going to have to deal with it at some point, but I suggest we get some dust sheets, maybe one of those old mattresses to cover the floor beneath, so we’re ready when we let the damn thing go. Don’t want to damage any of these fantastic floorboards.”
Before anything, they went into the hallway where they had propped both mattresses against a wall. Once they had one in place beneath the panel, Adrian began tidying up the room and vacuuming the floor.
“I wonder what the hell is behind there,” said Leonard, from across the room, hands on hips, staring suspiciously at the panel.
“Could be anything. But if the bodge job is anything to go by, it’s probably bricks or rubble or any other kind of rubbish they couldn’t be bothered to toss out.”
“Do people do that kind of thing?”
