The Library

In the morning over breakfast, Brody and I talked about the moving schedule.  I had this weekend off, and I was going to try to switch my next two weekends so I had next weekend off, then worked two in a row.  He was going to call the moving company he had used when he moved into this house, and hopefully we could get my furniture moved next week.  Then, in three weeks, hopefully we'd be on our way south for a much needed vacation.  Everything was happening super fast, but I really did feel ready now.

I had only been at work for an hour or so when I got a text.  I looked at it and saw it was from Sarah.  We had texted occasionally, but she hadn't called again since the first time a few weeks ago.  This time, we ended up texting back and forth throughout the day.  The first few texts were a little painful, because she just didn't say much, but the end of the day we had a good conversation going and I was glad she had texted me.  It definitely felt more like a "sisterly" conversation by the end.  I made a mental note to call Nadine and maybe try to arrange a visit sometime soon.

I had managed to get my work weekends rearranged the way I wanted them, and I was relieved to have my three day weekend starting tomorrow.  The last couple weeks had worn me out and I needed some time to recharge.  Not that packing and getting ready to move leaves much room for recharging, but at least I could do it in yoga pants after sleeping as late as I wanted!

The weekend passed really uneventfully.  I hadn't heard from or seen Cassie at all since the letter she'd put in my mailbox, and James hadn't called (or stopped by at 4 in the morning) either.  Brody spent Friday night at my house and donated a large chunk of his Saturday to helping me pack and loading and unloading boxes.  We got this batch of boxes out to his house, and this time I got to help him carry everything downstairs.  On Sunday, we took advantage of the beautiful weather and went for our first hike of the spring.

I wasn't ready for work again on Monday.  I was sore from hauling boxes and hiking (that's embarrassing.  I really need to get back to the gym more regularly) and had enjoyed the weekend so much.  Mid-afternoon I got a text from Brody that said, "Come over after work?"  It was quickly followed up with a text that said, "I feel weird asking you to come over to your own house.  But I also want to make sure you know which house.  It's the one that used to be mine and is now ours."  I laughed reading it and responded that I would.  He told me he'd be there when I got there, which was surprising to me.

I stopped to pick up a bottle of wine on my way home after work, because it felt like a wine sort of night and I had no idea what Brody had at the moment.  When I pulled into the driveway, the garage door opened and I saw that Brody had made room for me to park there.  I pulled in and parked, and got out.  He was waiting just inside the garage and walked over and handed me a garage door opener.

"Hi," I greeted him, grinning.  "You made room for me."

"I did," he replied. 

I kissed him.  "Thank you.  I feel like I belong here now."

"Good!  And I have a surprise for you," he said excitedly, his eyes sparkling.

"Okay..." I replied, following him through the kitchen and towards the stairs to the lower level.  "You haven't converted the basement into some weird torture dungeon right?  I'm not into that."

He laughed.  "No, you'll be completely into this surprise, I promise."

I was definitely intrigued.  At the bottom of the stairs, instead of turning left towards the room with his punching bag, he turned right towards the two rooms we'd been sticking my boxes in for now.  He stopped in front of the door at the end of the hall.  "All yours," he said.  I cocked an eyebrow, and he motioned for me to open the door.  When I did, my jaw dropped.

He had taken the room and turned it into a mini-library.  Certainly not the Beast's library, but one wall had three bookshelves side by side, taking up the entire wall.  Next to the window was the loveseat/chaise lounge combo that I had really liked when we were looking at furniture.  In one corner was a comfortable looking papasan chair, and a small desk sat in the other corner.  He'd already unpacked all my books and put them on the shelves. 

"Do you like it?" he asked.

"Are you kidding?  You made me a library!  It's perfect!"  I threw my arms around him and hugged him tightly.

He chuckled and wrapped his arms around me tightly, hugging me back.  "I know you were worried about not having your own space, so I wanted to make sure that you did.  I won't even go in there unless you invite me.  We can paint if you want, and I guess you'll need to pick out some curtains, but I didn't want to make all the decisions and have you not feel like it's actually your space.  If you want the room next to it too, it's yours."

"When did you do this?" I asked.  I kept my arms around his neck but pulled back enough that I could look at him.

"I've been planning in my head for awhile, and I bought the furniture Thursday.  I took the afternoon off work today to get the garage cleared out, be here for them to deliver the furniture, and get the books unpacked."

I let go of him and walked into the room, flopping on my new chaise.  "This is amazing.  Thank you!"  Brody leaned against the door frame and smiled at me.  "Are you just going to stand there?" I asked.

He shrugged.  "Remember, I won't go in without an invitation."  He looked at me expectantly, but I just smiled deviously.

"That's right," I replied, sliding the hem of my skirt up higher on my legs.  "So I could sit here and torture you."

"You could," he agreed, his eyes on my legs.  "But that wouldn't be very nice."

"You're right, you should probably come in then."  He quickly joined me on my new favorite furniture, one hand tangling in my hair and tipping my head up so my lips met his, and the other sliding roughly up my leg.  It continued under my skirt until his thumb brushed across my underwear, then it stopped, his thumb resting just beyond where I wanted it.

I started to shift an arm down to slide my underwear off but he let go of my hair and grabbed my wrist, pinning it down against the chaise.  He pulled his lips from mine and moved them to my neck, stopping to suck gently before he said softly, "Two can play the torture game."

"Not fair," I protested, wiggling beneath him.  "I only tortured you for about 7 seconds and you're way better than me at it anyway."

"I know," he said, smirking at me before he pressed his lips to my collarbone.  Luckily, he didn't tease me for long, and we quickly broke in the new furniture.

"I have good news," he said as I snuggled against him after.  "The auditor is finished, everything is good, and we can book our trip."

"That is good news!" I agreed excitedly.  "Today has been pretty awesome, especially for a Monday."  My stomach growled then, and Brody laughed.  We got dressed and headed upstairs to find something for dinner.

After we ate, Brody asked, "So did you pick a place yet?"

"I did," I said with a grin.  I had chosen a resort in the Riviera Maya area of Mexico.

He handed me his laptop and credit card.  "Book it," he said.  "My only requests are a direct flight if possible and first class."

"You are spoiling the shit out of me," I observed, as I opened his laptop and started typing.  "Be careful or I'll get used to it."

"I hope you do," he replied.  "I'm tired of your death glare when I spend money on you."

"Yeah," I agreed sarcastically.  "It's a really terrible problem when your girlfriend doesn't want you for your money.  And speaking of your money, you're putting a lot of trust in me here, just handing me your credit card."

"You don't want me for my money, remember?" he joked.   


Once our trip was booked and official, time seemed to drag.  I spent a lot of time at home the rest of that week, getting things ready to move.  Lauren helped (mostly by keeping me company and pouring wine) and by Friday at noon, I had everything ready to go.  I loaded a few boxes of my essentials and a bunch of clothes into my car and drove out to Brody's house.  The movers were coming tomorrow morning but I didn't want to spend the night in the chaos of boxes that was my room.

I took a shower once I got to Brody's house, and had a text from him waiting for me when I got out.  After I dried off I read it.  "You still at your old place?"  I texted back that I was back at our house.  It felt weird calling it "our house" even though with all the time I'd spent here lately, it was starting to feel a lot more like a place I was living.  I didn't get a response from him, which I found odd, but I assumed he had just gotten busy with something at work.

I was surprised when I heard the garage door opening.  "Hi," I said, confused, when he walked in.  "What are you doing home?"

He frowned and sat in the chair adjacent to the couch where I was sitting.  "You're going to be upset, and I'm sorry," he started.  I narrowed my eyes.  That's not exactly setting a conversation up for success.  "Neil was supposed to be on call this week and weekend, but he called this morning--his mom is in the hospital, and he's going out to Phoenix to be with her.  I was going to let you know when I got home tonight.  It's been pretty quiet lately.  I guess I should have let you know this morning, not that it would change anything, because I got a call."

I nodded slowly, knowing exactly where the conversation was going.  "What time is your flight, and where are you going?" I asked.

"6:15, and Dallas," he replied.  "I'm sorry, Liv.  I hate that I won't be here for you actually moving in.  If you want to reschedule it to a day I'll be here..."

"No, that doesn't make sense," I said, shaking my head.  "Tomorrow is fine, it'll be fine."

He nodded.  "How mad are you?"

I shrugged.  "I'm bummed because I'll be spending my first night officially living here by myself, and it's frustrating because your person in Dallas has seriously the worst timing ever, but I guess I'm not really mad at you."  

"You guess you're not really mad at me?" he said, fighting a smile.  "That's not super convincing."


"Shut up," I said.  "I'm trying really hard to not be pissed about it, okay?  Don't press your luck."  Even though things had been so much better since Brody had gotten the on-call schedule going, I couldn't help but be frustrated about the timing of this call.  And I really wasn't mad at Brody, but it's okay to be mad at the situation, right?  Either way, I knew one thing:  I did not want to fight with him before he had to leave.  I learned my lesson on that one.

"Sorry," he said sheepishly.  "I shouldn't tease you, especially when you're trying so hard to not be mad about this."

I nodded, then forced the next words out of my mouth, "Do you want a ride to the airport?"

"I need to shower and pack, we can figure it out when I'm done, okay?"  I nodded, glad for the time to manage my frustration.  As he disappeared upstairs, I grabbed my Kindle out of my purse and headed downstairs.  I opened the door to my library and closed it behind me, then curled up in the papasan chair and turned on my Kindle.  After reading for about 20 minutes, I felt much better.  Logically, I understood why he had to go.  I was glad he was going so that Neil could be with his family. The timing just sucked, but there was nothing Brody could do about that. 

I read for another 15 minutes or so before I headed upstairs.  When I got there, I found Brody on the couch with his laptop.  He had showered and changed into dark jeans and a striped button down.  When I sat down next to him, he set his laptop to the side, and I leaned against him as he wrapped an arm around me.  "So, can I take you to the airport?" I asked again.

"If you want to, I'd love that," he replied.  "Thank you for being understanding.  I know it sucks and I wish I didn't have to go.  I'm going to try to get home on Sunday." 

I motioned to his laptop.  "Do you need to do some work before you go?"

"I'll do it on the plane," he said.  "Do you want to go for a walk?  It's so nice out."  I agreed and we spent the next 45 minutes wandering aimlessly around his neighborhood, enjoying the spring sunshine.  We decided that Brody would drive to the airport, and I'd ride along and then take his SUV back to my house, where I could use it to move some more of my stuff that the movers wouldn't be taking in the morning.  I was so ready to have everything moved and to get settled in Brody's (our) house. 

When I got home, I loaded everything I wanted to move with Brody's SUV so I didn't have to do it in the morning.  I was glad that I had decided to hire movers, because I was tired and sore just from moving a bunch of boxes over the last week.  I'd never cut it moving furniture.  I fell into bed early so I could get up early and be ready for the movers to get here.

In the morning, I made the last few preparations for the movers and then waited.  They were late and I was irritated by that, even though I told myself it didn't make a difference as long as they came.  My only plans for the day were moving and unpacking.  When the movers finally arrived, I was not at all pleased to discover who one of them was.