Succulents on the Window Sill

Chapter 8

The knife slid between the flaps of the cardboard box, slicing through the tape that held it together. Corinne ripped it off, before opening the folds and pressing the box flat. It was always strange to open a package of little cake boxes inside of slightly larger boxes, all inside of a big box. It was box inception. Corinne was just glad for the free carriers for moving house with. 

Corinne hadn't a lot to pack up and move as she had only brought the necessities to Zach's. Her summer dresses and winter coats were all at her parent's house, stored there until she needed them. Zach had all of his clothes in his bedroom though, along with a pile of junk from his teens that Corinne didn't even want to look through. 

With Saturday's trip to Ikea, she had begun to purchase some items for the house, and although most of them were now in the new place, a few things that she had grabbed from Tesco on Sunday were not. Corinne knew that soon enough her Sunday purchase pile would be added to, and with the odd bits and pieces both her mum and Zach's were giving them, she'd need as many boxes to move as she could get. It was one perk of working in a shop. 

"Sara?" Michael's head popped around the door from the front of the bakery. "Zach's here to see you. Could you bring some more brownies out with you?"

"Sure!" She was standing at the other end of the kitchen from Corinne, packing six pink unicorn themed cupcakes into a box. She almost dropped one in her haste to turn around and run to see Zach. 

"Corinne, he wants to see you too." Corinne looked down at her flattened box, before picking it up and stacking it against the wall with the others. 

If Zach wanted to speak with her, why couldn't he have just rung or texted her how he usually did? She stepped into the bakery doorway to see what he wanted, just as Sara rounded the counter and flung her arms around his neck. 

Corinne raised an eyebrow at him, and he turned from watching as Sara nearly sent him falling to the floor, to send a somewhat scared look Corinne's way. He wasn't doing too good of a job at playing the loving boyfriend right now with an expression like that. 

"Hey. You wanted to see me?"

"Sure did." He quickly stepped to the side, leaving Sara with no choice to let go, before he marched up to the part of the counter closest to the doorway and the wall beside it. 

"I wanted to give you something."

"What is it?" Corinne watched as Zach dug his hand into his trouser pocket, before bringing out a key. A smile began to grow on his face as he passed it to Corinne.

"I got it cut for you at lunchtime." 

"Is this for the front door, yeah?" She turned it over in her hand, reading the familiar Yale branding.

"Yeah, I still need to get copies of the back and patio obviously, but for now this was the main priority."

Sara appeared at Zach's side, hands setting on his arm as she clung to it. "What's that for?"

"Front door." Corinne knew the passing of a key wasn't the most suspicious thing in the world. Therefore, she didn't mind telling Sara the truth. 

"For what? For your house Zack?"

"Yeah," Corinne answered for him. "Why are you giving it to me now though?" It had gone lunchtime, so Zach had clearly gone out of his way to wriggle out of work to give it to her. He could have easily just waited until they both got home from work tonight.

"I'm not planning to be home until late. If you could let yourself in on the way back from work that would be great?" 

"Uh, yeah." Corinne glanced down at the key, studying it, before turning back to Zach. It was hard to understand his exact meaning when unable to speak alone, but she was beginning to get what he might just be suggesting. She had no way to ask for confirmation though with Sara glued to his side; Corinne just hoped her eyes could ask the question her lips could not.