Intricacy
Officially, this oddly precise price tag was for things that absolutely required going up to the bedroom. Less officially, that money was also just enough to buy twice the time of simply having someone to talk to and whichever meal customers were being incentivized to order that day. It wasn't in the Hunter's Lodge's style to knowingly serve people things that they didn't actually want. Stefan's current customer was definitely enjoying his meal. Stefan couldn't exactly blame him, since this was the first time he was coming to the Lodge while being old enough to ask for the service the money he had brought was meant to pay for.
Back when Leif had run away from his home after realizing that his parents saw his attraction to men only as problem to be fixed, Göte had recently accepted – or at least come as close to accepting as he was able to – the fact that his ex-wife and two children weren't coming back. He had let Leif sleep in one of his own home's unoccupied rooms and allowed him to earn his keep by doing odd jobs around the store. Leif was deemed as having a knack for the tasks and able to get even better with a little training and practice. Göte had soon managed to convince Leif's parents to leave him in his care by stopping just short of presenting hard work and attention from a benevolent employer as a guaranteed "solution to their problem". He quickly turned out to be, in reality, completely fine with the fact Leif was interested in men. While the absolute worse that one could imagine happening in such a situation hadn't, Leif had found himself, almost without warning, trapped with a chronically unsatisfied employer. Rewards for properly handling seldom-occurring situations helped maintain the illusion that it was possible to satisfy him and that any failure of Leif's part to meet his standards while doing his everyday tasks were entirely Leif's fault. While his meal was being prepared, Leif himself had admitted that the money he was currently using had been earned by giving Lalli a note telling him to never re-enter the store unless he stopped courting Stefan without anyone around them being the wiser.
Leif broke the lull that was starting to settle in:
-I just remembered something I meant to ask you while I'm here. How come you didn't tell Lalli to avoid the store before he came in?
-Lalli was warned to not try starting anything with you by the seagull man and spent an entire month living in his house without ever visiting the store by his own choice, despite regularly coming here. Telling him why he couldn't go would have meant telling him about you and I wasn't quite ready yet. I still intended to tell him soon, so I assumed he would avoid the store on his own in the meantime. This is my part in it. Göte's part is not wanting the man who's currently courting me in the store on that sole basis.
Stefan, had, in the past, seriously considered partnering with Leif as a way to get him out of his current situation. Now, Stefan's priority had shifted to finding an alternative solution that Leif would accept and providing him with as much companionship as he could without breaking his own rules in the meantime. The partnership idea hadn't worked out because Göte would only let Leif be the store's next owner if Stefan was the one to move in with them. Göte had all-to-conveniently gotten into his head that as soon as he would be too old to prevent them from doing so, Stefan's family would take control of the store and force Leif into the sort of job that would confirm his parents' beliefs about those who were interested in the same sex. As extra "proof" of Stefan's family's alleged secret plans for the store existing, Göte also claimed to anyone who would listen that Leif was only allowed to see Stefan as a paying client and that he managed to scrounge up the required money from time to time. Plenty of Stefan's out-of-town customers had heard those claims and had needed to be told Stefan's side of the story. The reality of that specific situation was that Göte usually gave Leif too much work to have a proper social life. Even the free time and "having fun" money sometimes provided as an infrequent reward was intended for specific activities; if Leif went anywhere else than where he was "advised" to go enjoy himself, it became an excuse for an interrogation once he returned to the store. Stefan also knew that in reality, all Göte wanted was people who couldn't bring themselves to say "no" to him at his disposal. One way he could get that was to seemingly rescue people from bad situations. However, as far as Stefan could tell, very few people in the area were genuinely in a bad enough situation to make Göte's help appear to be their best option, Leif having been one of them in the past. Göte's solution to this was to try convincing people who were perfectly happy with their lives that they actually weren't, and the prime targets for his efforts were the inhabitants of the town who held the most "degrading" jobs. However, the kind of jobs they had meant that they knew Göte's type all too well, and knew that if they ever quit, it would definitely not be to move into his house. Leif found his words, interrupting Stefan's thoughts:
-Telling this to Göte will only make things worse.
-And for the umpteenth time, you don't actually have to tell him this. You just need to remember it if ever tries to blame you, Lalli or me for the situation in any way. To keep from becoming like him too fast.
-Does how fast I become like him matter if my choices are that or going back to my village and family?
-The faster you become like him, the sooner the day I'll have to ask you to leave and never ask for my services again will come. I don't know if you have fully realized this yet, but you're sixteen now. Nobody is entitled to have you back if you decide to leave town anymore. Be it Göte or your parents.
There had been some sort of legal agreement that granted Göte a few guardianship rights, but it had expired when Leif had turned sixteen.
-And then what happens? I eventually need help for something, I accept that of a nice-seeming stranger and I end up tangled in a spider's web all over again? I'd rather stay around the one I've more or less figured out than need to figure out a new person like that all over again.
It was hard to contradict the reasoning according to which one always knew people they had spent a lot of time around better than those they had just met. Even when the person's behavior defied any logic other than living in an alternate reality where any situation that didn't allow them to feed their ego in some way or was completely unaffected by their actions only existed to harass them, which made it perfectly acceptable to respond to it with hostility and defiance. But that left another opening:
-The people from whom you ask for help don't need to be complete strangers.
-I thought I knew what type of person Göte was back when I asked for his help. Besides, if anyone helped me out of genuine good will, either they'd suffer Göte's bullying, or we would both promptly need to run away from town. I can't ask people to endure this or leave everything and everyone they know just for my sake. And what happens if that person has a family?
Stefan had heard that argument from Leif a few times before, but only now did a solution to that cross his mind. Someone getting into trouble with Göte only because they had helped him bothered him, but what of those who were leaving town anyway… or wouldn't be leaving much behind if they did? Leif's mind turned out to have already gone elsewhere:
-That situation aside, how's the prospect of a partnership with Lalli looking like? Provided he still wants to spend time with you after next time you talk to him, of course.
Stefan sighed internally at that second sentence. Göte was definitely rubbing off on him.
-He doesn't mind me continuing my work here, may be spending a lot of time away from town for his own job, seems to be compatible my actual personality so far and is the type who would rather hang out at home doing nothing once the workday is over. As close to my dream scenario as I'm going to get with someone who isn't "too good to be true".
"Too good to be true" was Stefan's nickname for the trap in which both Leif and Lalli had fallen. For people who had no regard for the feelings of others, those like Göte and that Roni man were surprisingly good at figuring out what was missing from people's lives, and seeming able to provide the missing element on a surface level. The fact that it didn't go beyond surface level was easy to see in hindsight, but not nearly as visible when one was in the middle of responding to seemingly finding the perfect friend or romantic partner. For that reason, any utterance of that phrase tended to start the part of the conversation where Leif spoke of the things he needed to get off his chest, and had accumulated since last time they had spoken to each other. Stefan mentally prepared for the part of his job he could do because of how easy it was for him to separate his feelings from that of others, even in the most intimate conditions.
xxxx
-… So this is how things are. I'll understand if you want to stop the courtship because of one of the things you just found out about.
Lalli saw no reason to quit. On the contrary, it confirmed that a partnership Stefan was a good idea, as far as he was concerned. He wasn't mad for the lack of warning about the store, as he had been avoiding it by his own volition until recently and spent enough time around Tuuri to know that suddenly really wanting to do something as soon as it was explicitly forbidden by an authority figure was an impulse that existed. In addition, after first hearing about Leif, part of him had found itself wishing he could do something for him, while another didn't want to deal with someone so similar to Roni so soon. Leif may not even be the only person whose only source of happy moments would go away if Stefan stopped working, which another partner may ask him to do. Most people apparently didn't like it when their partner or spouse was also "seeing" someone else.
-I'm okay continuing.
-In that case, do you mind putting me in the loop concerning your household's plans to deal with the note?
-Väinö decided he needed to watch Göte more closely for a few days.
The old man could decide to watch someone more closely if he determined that they were about to commit some sort of misdeed or be the victim of one from a perpetrator of uncertain identity. However, the method used for the surveillance meant that it was more of an inconvenience than anything else for someone who didn't need it. The two reasons for which it could be needed made someone who refused it look stupid at best, suspicious at worst. Considering the dislike of squirrels Roni had developed after Cecilia had caught him in a lie a couple times thanks to their eyes, Göte probably hated the one to three seagulls that were now keeping a constant eye on him. Lalli remembered something else he needed to share with Stefan:
-Mikkel said that if we wanted to do something ourselves, we could walk by the store together holding hands and smiling.
Stefan was apparently on board for at least the "smiling" part of the plan:
-I'm up of for it if you are.
xxxx
Emil really wanted to burn that letter from Göte, but like all those from the investor's association, it was being stored away so he could leave it in the care of Stefan's cousin next chance he got. Mikkel had once explained to him that people with Göte's personality were prone to extreme cases of self-serving memory and that just about any record of their past behavior was good to keep. Emil had no idea when and how the man had figured out that he wouldn't exactly mind Stefan and Lalli breaking up, but whatever his plan was, he was taking no part in it. Actually, the nerve the man showed in starting to plot against Lalli again, the day after he had undone his ban from the general store so the seagull man would leave him alone, almost put Emil in the mood for being an active obstacle to his plans instead of staying out of them as much as he could manage. He also remembered briefly working in the store back when there had been hope of paying back the family's debt with hard work alone; it had been the only job that he had quit before being fired because of his own attitude. The faint sound of the last bell chime of the day interrupted his thoughts and reminded him it was his turn to pick up Helena.
-Sorry everyone, no last-minute customers tonight.
The disappointed sounds uttered by the women were more playful that anything else, as it tended to be a running joke between them and whoever came to pick up Helena, as both money and time were usually in short supply even when the person who showed up was interested in women. Too many people both didn't understand that they weren't supposed to solicit the brothel employees if they ran into them outside of the building and that Helena was only a healer. For this reason, Helena's parents refused to have her walk home alone and gave a bonus to whoever volunteered to walk her back a given evening. Helena had an older brother who would be the main inheritor if anything happened to their parents and enough people viewed her job as something akin to charity work that she stopped short of the "good match with too many drawbacks" category. Since none of the drinks offered by the establishment mixed well with playing bodyguard after dark, his tip from her workplace's owner was a snack that could be eaten on the way back or complement his breakfast the next morning. Helena was ready fairly quickly that evening, so no casual chat with one of the establishment's other workers happened this time.
At this hour, just about anyone besides himself and Helena on the road that separated the town proper from the larger estates was suspicious. When they felt, more than they heard or saw, someone else approaching, they searched for the closest backdoor light. With the houses of those who could afford large plots of land so far away from each other, night guards knew to let people inside first and figure out if they were friend or foe second. All houses had rooms in which such overnight guests could be kept, if locked up to be on the safe side.
-Hey, wait a minute you two. It's just me.
Helena and Emil both stopped and turned around:
-Sigrun? I didn't expect you to be back so soon.
-Turns out your crush's family had started to head here, and found a job on the way. I was able to find them faster than expected and it made the trip back shorter, as well. Now, I'd rather not wake up more people than I already did, so how about we catch up at the Lodge whenever you can make it?