“Sorry,” he said. He crossed his arms poutily and kicked at the floor with his toe.
“I hope you are sorry!”
“I am. I said I was, okay? And something else,” he said. “Don’t close all the doors upstairs.”
“I didn’t.”
“Well, someone did.”
I tried to keep my voice as calm as possible. “Any room you want can be your studio. Any room. And I won’t change my mind later. Okay? Once we buy a bed and move upstairs, we’ll pick out our master bedroom from whatever is left over.” At this point, I didn’t even care if he stole the room that was clearly meant to be the master bedroom. It was the most asinine conversation we’d ever had and I couldn’t stand another minute of it.
“So you don’t care if I take that sunny corner room for my studio?” The vein in his head kept throbbing and twitching.
“I don’t mind one bit,” I said.
“That’s all I needed to hear!”
I plastered a smile on my face and for a moment we just stood there in silence, me smiling crazily and him glaring at me. Not our finest moment.
Just then his phone vibrated. He pulled it out of his pocket and checked it. “Oh, great. The locksmith can’t make it today. He wants to reschedule for Monday at noon,” he said.
“If he can’t make it, I guess he can’t make it. According to the McGhees, this town is such a utopia that locks aren’t even necessary.”
“It is… what… it is,” he said, texting the words as he said them. “See you… on Monday. And… send.” He shoved his phone back into his pocket.
“Can we please stop fighting, Tom?”
“That’s up to you,” he said.
“I’m done.”
“Done with me?”
“I meant that I’m done fighting! Of course I’m not done with you.”
He sighed. “Okay.”
“So…” I tried to guess what I was supposed to say. “Do you want to get some writing in?”
“Not right now.”
“Well, now that we aren’t waiting for the locksmith, maybe we should take a break and walk downtown,” I said. “Clear our heads a little. We could get some lunch and check out that bookstore and the boutique.”
“I’m still full from breakfast.”
“If we start with the bookstore and boutique maybe you’ll get hungry. Wouldn’t you at least like to stop in some place and grab a beer?”
“I guess so. But then we really need to make a dent in this place. I thought we’d be more settled in by now.”
“Tom, we just got here yesterday!”
“I know. But I want it to look good for my parents and be kind of comfortable for them. At the rate we’re going, there are still going to be boxes everywhere when they get here.”
“They’ll understand. Come on. We need to get some fresh air.”
“Fine, but once we get back, we’re getting to work.”
“You got it,” I said. I gave him a kiss,