Page 21 of Hands off his Dudette

"The price went down this week."

"I really liked the freestanding bath with the lion feet."

"All the bathrooms were a dream. Marble."

"The cast iron sink..." Anna recalled longingly.

This was their process, laying down the good and bad every time they were making a decision.

"It's just a little fast, don't you think? I mean, we only talked about moving yesterday. Putting an offer today would just be rash."

"I don't know. I've thought about moving for a while—saved for it. So have you. In all honesty, we both could have bought something cheaper a long time ago. I feel like we were probably just comfortable here, but moving, buying our own place...that's a step forward. A grown-up thing."

As he stopped talking, Finn applied his reasoning to a very different situation. Their relationship. Was that what they'd been doing? Staying in a comfortable status quo? He didn't know. He didn't know anything anymore.

"You get the computer, I'll call takeout."

They spent the next hour researching property around Madison, recently sold and on the market, as well as similar properties in Manhattan. While many were beautiful, none had as much character as the apartment they'd just visited, according to the pictures online, and the price was more than fair.

"All right, you type up an offer. You're better at that," said Anna.

After he'd emailed the agent, Finn got started on the Lembas bread from an online recipe while Anna prepared the movie.

Something felt very different tonight.They were going to move in together, in their home. Hers and his. Strange notions skirted around Finn's thought. Images he couldn't get out of his minds. Anna's lips. Anna in his T-shirt that dwarfed her, her long legs around his waist. Anna, gasping, moaning, begging, scratching his back.

Fuck.

The takeout arrived at the start of the movie and they had Lembas for dessert.

"Why the hell is that the first time I'm making those!" Finn yelled, before devouring his seventh piece.

"It's like shortbread, but fluffier and with honey." Anna sighed in delight. "I trust you realize I'm going to need a regular dose."

"Maybe you should learn to make them, then."

Anna pouted. She always shut down at the thought of taking one step in the kitchen. He didn't really mind, cooking was rather therapeutic to him.

"Oh, shush, I promise to make them, and often. Now tell me, what do you think about the lounge?"

"At Madison? Huge, and gorgeous, and I'm loving the fireplace."

"Yes, but what do you want to do with it?"

The walls had been white and the display furniture, impersonal.

"Well, we'll have the light blue sofa, won't we? So how about blue and...gold gray? We could have a regal theme."

“Blue and gray, I say,” Finn protested.

"Spoken like a true Ravenclaw."

He grimaced. "So, your Slytherin ass wants to go green and silver?"

She smirked. "Green and blue pair well. You can have the lounge. I'll have my colors in the office."Then after a pause, "We haven't discussed who's taking the master bedroom," she noted casually, and somewhat indifferently, no doubt because she knew what he would say.

"You have it. You're paying twenty thousand more than me."

She rolled her eyes. "Come on, we're not making this about money."

"All right. You have it, because you love the clawfoot bathtub, and I have no preference."

She smiled up at him, and shifted to lay her head on his shoulder. "You spoil me."

"I know."

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