The Art of Longing

[59] Our House

The following morning, I woke up relatively early. Not actually early, but earlier than I expected and before Brian. Not that it was hard to wake up before Brian, but the night before he had said that he wanted to be awake early.

While he was still sleeping soundly, I snuck out of the bedroom and put on the kettle before I went to get ready in the bathroom. With a cup of tea, I sat in the living room and looked through some more of the furniture catalogues, making more choices for furniture I might want or need.

With the contract today, we would also be getting the blueprint of the house which would enable us to do a bit more precise planning of furniture, including all measurements of the rooms. I was looking forward to it.

Just as I was about to go wake Brian up, I heard some noise coming from the hallway. "Ellie?," I heard Brian call out, before he cleared his throat.

"I'm in the living room," I told him, and placed the catalogue on the coffee table, before I got up to greet him properly. "How are you?"

He nodded slowly. "Fine, yeah.. You?" He reached for my hands before he pulled me into a hug.

"I'm fine as well. I'm looking forward to today. There's some tea in the kitchen, if you want," I said, before I kissed his cheek.

"That would be good. For how long have you been awake?," he asked and let go of me.

"Almost an hour, I think, I was just about to wake you. What would you like for breakfast?," I asked him, and followed him into the kitchen. He poured himself some tea, before he leaned against the counter.

"Probably just something simple, some cereal, I suppose. Have you had breakfast already?," he asked and got out a couple of bowls.

"No, I was waiting for you. When do we have the appointment at the house again? We still have time, right?"

Brian nodded. "Yeah, time for breakfast. Would you mind driving today?"

"Not at all," I assured him. "You not feeling well today?"

He shrugged. "Maybe I'm just not awake yet, maybe it's the weather, I don't know. I know I should be excited about finally signing the contract, but I'm just tired."

"Mhm," I mumbled. "Those days happen. You can be excited about the house another day, I'm not judging you. Will you be alright seeing your kids today?"

"Oh yeah," Brian said. "I'm actually looking forward to that. I think it's good for me to see the world through their eyes for a few hours at a time."

"That's good," I said. "Tell me what you need today and I'll do my best to help you out," I promised him.

We had breakfast together, before we got dressed, and while we prepared to leave the house I could tell that his mood was improving slightly. As I had promised him, I drove out to the house, so he didn't have to, but he was looking forward to seeing the house again.

The realtor's car was parked in front of the house already. We got out of the car and Brian held my hand tightly as we approached the house. We didn't have the keys yet, so we rang the doorbell and it only took a few minutes before the door opened.

"Mr May, Miss Bennett, it's very good to see you, how are you doing? Excited to make things official today?," our realtor greeted us - with a lot of energy.

"I am looking forward," Brian said with a smile. "It's good to be back here."

"Well, then what are we waiting for? Let's head inside, I have the contract inside. Have you already started planning the interior?," she asked us.