I ran to the store for a few minutes. I’ll be back soon. I’ve got my phone, give me a call if you need anything.
Oh, and if you think of anything you want me to pick up, call.
-Justin
As if she needed him to sign his name at the bottom. She knew that handwriting.
That morning, when she woke up, she found a note taped to the headboard. She read it just once before lifting the tape off of the headboard and tossing it into the wastepaper basket. She check the clock to see what time it was and was pleasantly surprised to find she still had a while before she had to go to work. She thought she’d hop in the shower and get dressed. While she was in the shower, she finally began to realize how much of her stuff was at his house. It wouldn’t seem strange for her things to be there if she lived there, but she didn’t live there. A lot of her clothes had found themselves a home in the closet in the guest room. She also began to realize that the shower even had her things in it. The shower was home to her shampoo, not the shampoo from her house, but shampoo that was bought for that shower, conditioner, body wash and even a razor. Blair decided to stop thinking about how her things had made their way over to his house.
She changed into a pair of black capri pants with tropical looking flowers near the bottom and a turquoise sweater set. She tried to not think about the pairs of shoes hidden in the closet as well as a hairdryer and makeup strewn about on the counter in the bathroom.
“Blair!” Justin called when he entered the house carrying grocery bags. “Are you up?”
“Yeah,” she yelled back, “I’ll be out in second.”
Justin poured a glass of orange juice for Blair for when she came out to the kitchen and continued to put groceries away. He was wondering whether or not now was a good time. While he was on his way to the store, he had begun to think about all of Blair’s belongings. He liked finding her socks in between two couch cushions. He liked seeing her flip flops on the floor by the front door. He liked seeing her car in the driveway. He liked being able to cook dinner with her some nights. He really liked it. Maybe now, since they were together more than they were apart, would be a good time to bring up living together.
“Hey,” Blair smiled from one of the barstools in the kitchen.
“Oh,” he jumped, “Whoa, hey.”
She smiled at him again and rested her chin in her hand. “Scare you?”
“Yeah, I was thinking,” he said. He gestured to the orange juice sitting next to her. “That’s for you.”
She reached for it and took a sip. “Thanks,” she said. “What were you thinking about?”
He was going to dive right in. He leaned over onto his elbows onto the countertop. “Would you move in with me?”
Blair gulped down the remaining three-quarters of the orange juice Justin had poured for her just moments before. How strange was that? She had been thinking about moving in just minutes ago and now he was asking about it? Strange.
“I mean, your stuff’s all here and this house is big enough and we spend a lot of time together anyway…” Justin said, being coming anxious. “I just thought… I thought that since the baby’s coming, we could all just live here.”
Just because she had been thinking about it didn’t mean she was actually going to do it. It seemed logical when he explained it, and when she thought about it, but wouldn’t that be weird? It would be different if they were together and they loved each other, but they weren’t there. They hadn’t reached that point! She liked still having her house to go to when he was driving her especially crazy. She liked to go there after a long day and get away from him when he said something stupid. She loved his house, yes she did, but she liked having her small home. It was something she could call her own.
“Uh huh,” Blair nodded. She felt stupid doing so, but she wasn’t really sure what else to do.
“‘Uh huh’ what?” Justin asked. “Yes you’ll move in?”
“No,” she shook her head. Justin didn’t say anything. Perhaps she needed some time to think about it. “Live here?”
Justin smiled cautiously. “Yes, that’s what I asked.”
“With you?” Blair asked, feeling very thirsty. “Hmm, I don’t- Can I have some water?”
“Sure,” he nodded, grabbing her glass and rinsing it in the sink. He filled it up with ice water from the fridge and brought it over to her. She drank about half before saying anything else.
“I don’t know,” she shook her head. “That kind of freaks me out.”
Justin really wished he would have kept his mouth shut. He would have been better off waiting for a while to drop that bomb on her. He should have known moving in together would be too forward for her. He should have known she wouldn’t like that idea.
“Don’t get me wrong,” she said, “I love this house, I just think… I can’t right now.”
“I understand,” he shook his head dismissively. “Don’t worry about it. I’m sorry if I freaked you out.”
