Terms of Service by Emma Nichols

the girls.”
    “That’s right,” said Gavin.  He had very nearly forgotten she came with children as he had yet to meet them.  “So where are they now?”
    Hannah hugged her arms around her body.  “With their father,” she murmured.
    He wanted to pry.  He was under the impression the father wasn’t in the picture any longer.  If they were still on good terms, this would never work.  Yet there was something in the way she looked when she told him where the kids were he found incredibly reassuring.  She wasn’t happy.  She wasn’t comfortable.  In fact, she was in the worst mood he had yet to see her in.  Gavin tipped his head to one side as he thought.
    In silence, they walked up the stairs to the second floor.  Moving down the hall, he pointed to the first door on the right and opened it.  “The girls will have to share a room.  Will that be a problem?”
    She shook her head.  “They’ve never roomed apart,” she commented quietly as she explored the space.  It was utterly untouched.  It was as though no paint, save the basic eggshell white coat had ever been applied to the pristine walls.  There were two large windows with window seats separated by a large bookshelf.  On either side of the windows were built in cabinets.
    “There are other cabinets beneath the seats for storage,” he explained, lifting the hinged seat to reveal the empty space below.
    Hannah smiled and nodded.  This was a great room for the girls.  With very little effort, she would have their beds made up and their toys and books unloaded before she went to pick them up.  That should help them adjust.  “This is perfect,” she murmured.
    Somehow that admission, the first pleasant interaction between them since her arrival, made a smile tug at the corner of Gavin’s mouth.  It took him a moment to realize what it was.  Ever so slowly, the smile spread across his lips, only to be shattered when she calmly asked, “And where will I sleep?”
    It was an innocent question.  He knew the answer; he just could hardly bear to show her.  Trudging down the hall with her on his heels like a trained dog, he finally stopped before a set of double doors at the end.  Inhaling deeply, he gave the doors a push to reveal her room, then stepped aside and allowed her to enter.
    Hannah walked in slowly, awestruck.  When she reached the center of the room, she stopped and glanced back, expecting him to be behind her, but instead he had remained in the hall and wasn’t even looking at her.  Rather, his attention seemed to be focused on some hangnail he had just discovered and was picking at absent-mindedly.  She shrugged and explored the immense space.  Her first realization was that the apartment she had just vacated could probably fit in this room, the entire apartment, garage included.  The second realization was that it was utterly destroyed.
    It wasn’t just that the king sized bed was naked, without even a mattress pad to cover it, or the empty bookcases in the sitting area off the bedroom.  No, the room had been stripped, almost down to the studs.  There was no carpeting, no curtains, although the dangling assembly on one of the windows suggested that had not always been the case.  There were holes in the walls, which were most likely created by the sledgehammer found on the floor near the closet.
    Setting her shoulders determinedly, she walked over toward the window to inspect the view.  On the way she glanced at the Serta iComfort mattress.  She recognized it not just by the exposed tags, but from the hours she spent contemplating how many eggs she might have to donate to even afford the queen sized version of it she found in the mall.  She smiled wistfully.  She hadn’t had to give up any eggs after all.  Instead, Hannah had given herself and her children up to this man.  She shuddered a little at the thought, wondering if the donation might have been a safer way to go.
    Turning her attention to the windows,