Page 162 of As They Are
The space was clean. This was an older home, a craftsman that was built when the rest of them went up. Each room was separated a lot like the ones in Mollie’s, but here, all of the walls were a simple yellow, though it wasn’t a bachelor pad by far. Decor was on nearly every wall. It was mostly paintings of mountains or florals.
Henry had an office with a massive bookshelf on one side and a small table on the other. Pictures of his mom and places he must have visited were on the walls, as well as floral artwork.
“Who’s your decorator?” I asked.
“This is all me. I wanted it to feel like a home.” He took off his sweater and folded it over his arm. “I reset here, so it needed to feel like mine.”
“It’snice,”I said, eyes trailing over it.
“Are you saying that as my girlfriend or as a contractor?”
“Your girlfriend, huh?” I liked the sound of that.
“That’s what you are now. And Iamcurious. You’ve seen hundreds of houses, and other than basic maintenance, I have no idea what’s going on.”
“Itisin good shape for its age. If it were mine, I’d change the color on a few walls. The floors could use a recoat. Usually, I wouldn’t go for honey oak stain, but it’s growing on me. A lot of things are.” I walked through the short hallway to a modest kitchen. “No dishwasher?”
“I prefer doing it myself. It’s calming.”
I hummed as I looked at the old wooden cabinets. “Original cabinets too. They’re in good shape.”
“You’d change them, wouldn’t you?”
The old me would have said that I needed to completely change it. But now, I wanted to change only what was needed. “I’d change the layout, mostly because washing dishes sucks. No matter what you say.”
He laughed. “You’ve just never listened to a podcast about bone density while doing it.”
“You’re right. I haven’t, and I won’t be. I’ll leave that to you.”
I went through the kitchen, stopping when I saw something on the fridge. It was a list in Henry’s handwriting, attached with a magnet.
“What’s this?”
“That’s nothing you should worry about.” He tried to grab it, but I moved it behind me.
“Now I’m really curious.” I pulled it out to read it. “Is this a list of dos and don’ts?”
He huffed out a laugh. “I made it the night you asked me to fake date you.”
I read off the things he’d allowed himself. “Only touch her when you’re on camera. You struggled with that one.”
“Yeah. I figured that out quickly.”
“Hold hands, give her gifts. Kissing but not real kissing.” I laughed. “This was exactly what I told you to do.”
“I like to remind myself,” he replied.
And then I went down to the off-limits section. “Catching feelings. We both failed that one.”
“Immediately.”
“Touching her when I want to. You could have failed this one sooner.”
He crossed his arms. “I had to at leasttry.”
“Letting her stay over.” My voice went quieter. “And here I was thinking you had secrets. Or just didn’t want me around.”
His hand tilted my chin up to make me look at him. “That wasneverthe issue.”
