The Artist

Moving Day

"This is the stuff nightmares are made of."

"Shut up. My apartment is not that messy," Mia rolled her eyes as she walked past him into the small apartment.

Chris just gave her a look while he brought in all the empty boxes they'd be packing her stuff up in and retorted, "It looks like there was a natural disaster in here. There's a laundry pile on the couch, a stack of papers that may have trapped a small child under there we don't even know, and I can't even see your coffee table there's so much shit on it!"

"It's all stuff I'm using!" She argued, looking at all of the paint tubes, palettes and many half full cups of paint water.

There was that sassy look again before Chris said, "Yeah right. Most of that has been here ever since I met you."

"Well..." Mia trailed off while grabbing a box and starting to put her paint tubes in it. "I've been using it a long time!"

"Liar," Chris teasingly muttered under his breath right before a pillow was hurled at him.

For having such a small apartment, Chris knew moving all of her stuff to his house was going to be an undertaking. There wasn't hardly a surface that didn't have something on it but Chris couldn't help but chuckle. There was something oddly endearing about her mess although when he thought about it, he realized it probably was just because it was part of her and he adored her so deeply that he found just about everything about her heart warming.

It took them most of the day to get all of her stuff packed up and Chris had to keep redirecting her when about every 20 minutes she'd find something that brought up a special memory or some emotional response that she just had to tell him about. Eventually though when it was starting to grow dim, they had all the boxes in Chris' car and were heading back to his house.

Dodger was out immediately to greet them, jumping around them when they climbed out and Chris suggested, "Hey babe, want to unload all your stuff tomorrow?"

"Sure but I want to bring my paints in," Mia informed him, not wanting the warm temperature in the car to damage them.

Chris helped grab the two big boxes while Mia carried in the easel behind him and said, "So I was kind of thinking that we could make the guest room into my art room, or if you want to keep it a guest room, I could store my stuff under the bed. But I was thinking that might be great so that I can close the door and you don't have to see the mess."

"I actually already had a place in mind," He called out over his shoulder before he pushed the door open and leaned against it, holding it open so Mia and Dodger could file in.

Chris walked into the big living room. It was facing the backyard and had tons of large windows letting in natural light. There was a pristine white couch, coffee table and tv in the room but the other side of the room there was a couple cozy arm chairs and a lamp. Mia noticed when they walked into the living room, one of the chairs was gone and had been replaced by a beautiful tall narrow cabinet pushed up against the wall.

"I was thinking you could set up your easel and everything here," Chris suggested, showing her the new cabinet with room for her things. "I mean, we can make the guest room a place for your art too but I thought this would be a good spot with a view of the backyard."

Mia was so touched but asked him, "Chris, I don't know... I mean, are you sure? What if I get paint on the hardwood floor? Or I leave a mess out or-"

He didn't let her go on, shaking his head while he walked over and loosely hooked his arms around her waist and pulled her close, "This is our home now. Ours. I don't want you to feel like you have to hide your stuff or keep it out of the way. We spend most of our time in here so it makes sense to have it here. Besides, I love watching you paint and I can't wait to come home and see you here... although I might help you clean up after the Mia tornado comes through."

"I was getting so emotional until you ruined it!" Mia laughed, slapping his chest while looking up into his blue eyes.

"I'm just kidding... well sort of. You do leave a mess behind you like a tornado," He chuckled which only earned him another gentle thud on the shoulder. "But I love it because it makes me think of you."

Mia stood on her toes so she could kiss him sweetly and then said, "I have a little present for you."

Chris let her go so that she could go dig around in the box she brought in before pulling out a painting of the two of them, as well as Dodger, that she had lovingly poured hours into, telling him, "I thought that since today we're moving in together and we get married exactly one week from today, we needed something to commemorate that!"

He walked over and held the painting in his hands, looking down and studying each brush stroke as he felt his heart warm from the inside out. Chris smiled widely while he kept his eyes on the painting and said, "We're putting this above our bed. I love it so much."

"I'm glad you like it, my love," Mia smiled, standing on her toes to kiss his bearded cheek.

Chris wrapped his arms around her waist, gently walking backward and pulling her with him until they landed on the couch. Mia laughed while Chris ungracefully pulled her down onto his lap and the two quickly found a good position with Chris laying on his back and Mia half on top of him. His hands were resting on her full round behind while hers roamed along his chest as they slowly kissed.

"One more week until I get to call you my wife," He beamed while tucking some of Mia's dark shiny hair behind her ear.

"I'm looking forward to that," Mia's eyes sparkled.

"Me too."