Not For Sale

Fresh from the shower and with a towel casually draped around his hips Hando stood at the foot of Ursula’s bed. "What’s this?" he asked indicating the clothes laid out for him.

"I bought you a few things," she said from the chaise lounge.

"Don’t do this, I don’t like this," he flashed a look.

"Why I wanted to give you something and it seems you could use some clothes."

"I buy my own stuff I don’t want you buying things for me. I’m not a gigolo. I’m here because I want to be."

"I didn’t mean to offend you," she watched him dress in his white pants. "I’d like to show you something." She rose from the chaise and tightened the robe around her waist, "follow me we’re going down to the cellar."

Hando pulled up his braces and followed barefoot behind her. It was a large house and the cellar ran the length of it, clean and filled with the usual cast offs but a room at the end was locked and she picked up the keys from a metal box and opened the door flicking on the light.

"You might be interested in this," she said moving away into the room as he followed.

"What the hell?"

"It belonged to my husband, he collected…not a particularly popular thing to collect."

Hando was amazed at the collection of WWII German memorabilia, guns, posters, clothes, knives and propaganda. "Where did he get all this stuff?" he asked in wonderment.

"His parents were German and his father, well he remained unrepentant shall we say. Some of it he inherited and some he just collected over the years. It’s yours Hando."

"What? Mine, you’d give all this stuff to me?"

"Yes, well I don’t want it and his will had no provision for it, I think he probably didn’t want anyone to know he had it, some of it is illegal you know."

Hando fingered a flag, "I used to have a collection but I lost it in Melbourne, gooks burned it down." His eyes were alight for a moment and then he frowned, "I don’t have a place to put it."

"I thought you had a house near the beach?"

"It’s not mine, I’ve just been staying there I couldn’t bring this in," Tilly would be horrified he knew.

"I think it’s time you got your own place, I could help you with that you know," Ursula came up behind him slipping her arms around his bare middle.

"No, I’ll have to do that on my own. Can I leave all this here for now?"

"Of course it’s safe in its little locked room. I want to help you Hando, I have the money lots of it. Would you take a loan?"

"I wouldn’t be able to pay you back." He said turning and placing his arms around her.

"But you do you’re way ahead on payments right now."

Hando dropped his arms from around her and walked out of the room.

Ursula sighed and turned out the lights locking the room behind her and tossing the keys back in the metal box. She found him a little later lacing up his boots.

"Hando, I seem to be apologizing a lot today."

"You might be used to paying for sex Ursula but I’m not for sale not at any price. It could be good between us you know if you’d get that out of your head. I do things because I want to not because somebody’s paying me or enticing me with Nazi flags."

"It’s that why you don’t work because you don’t want to? You have to have money Hando I can help you, I want to, you don’t have to do a thing if you don’t want to."

"Yeah?" He looked up sliding his eyes over her body outlined in the thin silk robe, "you couldn’t stand that could you, no that wouldn’t work at all." He stood up and tipped her head up with his index finger, "I’ll see ya around," he kissed her causing her to stagger a little and he smiled leaving her clutching the bedpost as he bounded down the stairs and out in to the fresh air.