Behind Closed Doors

Chapter 30: Christian and Satine

Chris fumbled with his key in the lock slightly, the only sign Y/N could discern that the nervousness she felt was shared. He pushed open the door, and Y/N followed him inside.

Chris placed his keys in a bowl on a side table while Y/N took in the apartment. It wasn't what she expected. She wasn't sure why, but her brain had conjured a New York City apartment version of the cabin. Something warm and cozy, a little threadbare, a bit eclectic.

What she found instead was something closer to an HGTV aesthetic. It was very modern, with the main living spaces combined into one large room. There was a kitchen much more spacious than hers with an island/bar seating. Modern pendant lights hung over it: geometric, shiny, chrome fixtures. There wasn't anywhere she could call a 'dining room,' but the kitchen butted against the rest of the apartment where there were chairs and couches for seating. Everything was very neutral, with random pillows in deep blues scattered around. Despite the modern design, the lighting was soft, avoiding the sterile feel rooms like this often had. There were doors at the edges of the room that lead to what she assumed were closets, probably a bathroom and a bedroom too. The whole vision changed her idea of who Chris might be once again.

"Drink?" Chris called on his way towards the kitchen. "I have wine, I have beer, I have other things around here somewhere." Chris started to pull glasses out of a cabinet.

"Okay," Y/N replied quietly.

"Okay what?" Chris chuckled. Y/N didn't respond right away.

"You alright?" Chris asked, much more seriously. "I meant it when I said this was almost entirely not about secreting you away to my place. If you don't want to stay, that's okay. Raincheck on the drinks." He put a glass back in the cabinet and shut the door softly.

"No, it's not that. I'm just trying to figure you out. Your apartment is not what I expected. It's really nice."

"Did you expect it to be a dump?" Chris said; the good humor was evident.

"No, it's just very polished. Kind of like something I might design for someone. I'm impressed, that's all."

"I can't take credit. It was mostly like this when I got it, and I basically bought the entire showroom design on the floor at the store. I'm not really very inclined to that sort of thing." He walked to the far side of his kitchen where there was a wine rack. It wasn't full, like it would be if it were decorative; there were only a few bottles left on it. "Wait, what do you mean like you would design?"

"Oh, that's what I do. I'm back at school getting my masters in interior design." Y/N realized that she had no idea what he did for a living, and vice versa.

"I didn't know that, I don't think it ever came up." Chris pulled a bottle from the rack. "I think I only have red, if that is the determining factor for if you stay. I seem to recall red wine not being kind to you."

Y/N laughed. "That's fine, I think I'll live." Chris returned to the cabinet, pulled out two glasses, and filled them. "Speaking of, I don't think Mary ever told me what you do."

"She hasn't given you my full biography? Surprising." He crossed the kitchen and handed her one of the glasses. "Architect. I actually helped design this building," Chris confessed, sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck.

"Hm." Y/N took a sip of wine. "Again, unexpected, but I'm not sure what I thought you did. Trust fund socialite?"

Chris chuckled. "Sorry to disappoint."

Y/N absently wandered through the apartment, looking at all of the furnishings. Even if Chris hadn't painstakingly selected everything in the apartment, it was all clean, which said a lot for a bachelor living alone. Now that he'd mentioned he hadn't picked anything out, the apartment felt strangely un-lived in. Y/N wasn't sure if that was just her imagination.