Page 9 of Entirely Yours
“Well, baby, this is a smaller town so there aren’t as many people as there are in Boston. I bet if we head over to the college campus there are more people wandering around.”
Her little brow furrows as she looks around. “But who will be my friend in Sassyass?” she wails. Chloe is forever befriending literally anyone she meets, so I don’t think that will be an issue here.
“Who is being a sassy ass?” Dad asks, getting out of the van.
“Language, Dad!”
He looks at me and then points to Chloe. “She said it first.”
“I think she was trying to say ‘Sassafras,’ but it didn’t come out quite right,” I chide.
Dad takes a second to look down the main street too, heaving a big sigh. “It’s not the south but it already feels more like home than Boston ever did.”
“You and I both know we don’t want to go back to the southanytime soon,” I remind him. “It’s a little too…Handmaid’s Taledown there.”
We both shudder and then laugh at how similar we can be. He swings his arm around me, guiding me toward the nondescript door that supposedly leads up to our new place.
I open the door to reveal a set of stairs that leads up to the second floor. The building is only three stories with a cute little bar and some shops on the first floor that span about a block. The second and third floor are made up of four units each. I’m assuming most of the tenants are students at the nearby university which is walking distance from where we are.
The best part? The studio space is down the block, and when we drove by it looked like an adorable coffee shop is going in next door. I didn’t get a good look, but I’m planning on walking the block after we get unloaded.
“Kathy said the apartment key would be under the mat, which doesn’t seem super secure, but I guess that’s small-town life for you.” Sure enough, there’s a welcome mat in front of apartment number 2B with a single silver key under the top right corner.
Chloe tries three times to unlock the door before Dad finally loses his patience and holds his hand out. She drops the key into it and says, “It’s a little tough, Pop,” making us both smile.
Dad pushes the door open and declares, “Home sweet home!”
Damn, I’m ready for a fresh start.
It takes less than five minutes for me to realize that there’s only two bedrooms in this unit.
“Hold your horses,” Dad warns. “This must be the wrong unit. Let me call Kathy.”
“Do you see any other 2B’s Dad?” I seethe. “I think this is the right apartment, but the listing is obviously wrong.” I rub mytemples, my hope of a good night’s sleep becoming a fleeting dream.
“It’s okay, Mama,” Chloe says, tugging my arm down. “I like sharing a room with you.”
And now I officially feel like shit.
I crouch down until I’m on her level, tucking the hair that’s fallen out of her ponytail behind her ear. “I like sharing a room with you too, baby,” I lie. “Mama was just looking forward to decorating your room with all of the rainbow, unicorn, sparkle magic I could find.”
Now she tucks my hair behind my ears. “We can still decorate our room like that!” She smiles at me, a mouth full of crooked baby teeth, and I suddenly have a vision of her moving out on her own one day. It crashes into me so hard, I hear myself saying, “Of course we can, Chloe girl.”
Dad walks back to us, his phone still in his hand.
“Kathy says many tenants use the living room as a third bedroom which is why they have that listed on the site. She was very adamant that a full bed fits quite nicely.” He gives the room a wary onceover.
Groaning, I go ahead and fall back onto the floor, starfish style. “It probably did say that, but I signed this lease and the studio lease in the same afternoon, and I was running late to work so I didn’t look as close as I probably should have.”
My phone buzzes, and I look to see a text from Magnolia, my closest cousin and best friend.
Mags
How’s the new place?
There’s only two bedrooms…
Mags
