meraki.

Founding Mothers

"Alright, so...." - Harry announced as soon as he stopped the car, right outside of his apartment. He turned to look at Anna, who had been sitting on the passenger seat, with her hands folded in her lap, staring out of the window, too embarassed to talk, for the whole trip. It hadn't been a long trip, but the awkwardness and the deafening silence had made it feel like it had lasted eons. 

She turned to look at him, biting the corner of her mouth, waiting for him to say what he had to say. 

"Let's go." - he simply said, clapping his hands together, before unbuckling his seatbelt, and opening the door. He retrieved the car keys and quickly got out of the car, walking to the back door to get Anna's suitcase out. 

It was far too big to fit in the trunk. 

Anna got out of the car too, just in time to catch Harry muttering under his breath about how much the suitcase weighed. 

"I can carry her around!" - she said, taking it away from Harry as soon as it was on the concrete floor. 

"I didn't offer to carry it." - Harry looked at her, furrowing his brows.

"Of course you didn't." - Anna nodded, shrugging. - "Nevermind." 

Located in a residential neighborhood, not so far from university, his work place and the bus stop, Harry's apartment was a nice, small, neat upper middle-class accomodation. It was on the third floor, on the right side of the elevator. The mat was a boring brown mat, absolutely ordinary. 

Anna slowly wiped her feet on it, while Harry fumbled with the keys. 

When he finally opened the door, he made its way into the apartment, looking at Anna from over his shoulder, and she picked up the suitcase, not wanting to drag it and produce unpleasant noises. 

She stopped in the lobby, the weight of the suitcase winning over her weak arms, forcing her to put it down with a small thud. She looked around, studying her surroundings. On her left, she had two white bookshelves, each one of the shelves filled with random stuff, colorful items and any sort of book. 

The first door on the left lead to the closet, where Harry kept his shoes and jackets. 

He had walked in there, taking off his light coat, and his boots. 

He then turned to look at Anna, who was still standing next to the suitcase, now studying the picture hung on the wall to her right, just above a black wood windowseat. It was a copy of Bansky's Founding Mothers painting. 

"Hey." - he called her, and she turned to look at him. - "Don't you want to, you know, take your jacket off?" 

She remained silent for a while, looking at him, as if she didn't know him, then she shook her head, coming back to reality. She looked down at her brown jacket. - "Yeah, sure." - she slid it off her shoulders, and walked to the closet, handing it to Harry, who was waiting with his hand outstretched. 

"Where did you get that painting?" - she asked him, pointing at the Founding Mothers' copy. - "I've been obsessed with it since Ocean 8 came out, and I haven't been able to find it anywhere.." 

"I know some people.." - was everything Harry said, and Anna nodded, thinking abut how lucky he had been, while he hang her jacket on the coatrack. - "I'm gonna have to ask you to take your shoes off too." 

"Really?" - she tilted her head, looking at him. 

"Yeah, I got hardwood floors, and I cherish them dearly." 

"Alright!" - she then proceeded to take off her flats. She crouched down, took them in her hands and walked into the closet to place them next to Harry's boots. - "Woah. You have quite the collection of interesting shoes!" - she said, spotting the ginormous shoe rack at the bottom of the closet.