Page 108 of With Wine Comes War

“I already told you to do whatever you want to this place. I want it to feel like your home too. I have plenty of rooms we can turn into another office. Let’s go look around and see if there’s one you like best. I don’t think I’ve shown you mine yet.”

You know what? I don’t think I’ve gone on an actual tour when I wasn’t exhausted, so this will be fun. Plus, if I’m going to be living here, it might be a good idea if I knew where everything was.

We went upstairs and he showed me two guest rooms that looked like every other room in the house. Very black and white with no hint of color anywhere. Big platform beds in the middle of the wall with a black and white abstract photo above them. A giant screen tv on the wall in front of the beds and large walk-in closets. They did have their own nice, big bathrooms. Then he showed me the laundry room which was huge and had tables for folding, and plenty of rods to hang clothes up. I wonder if he did his own laundry. I mean why in the heck would anyone need a laundry room this big for one person?

I just had to ask, “Do you have roommates I don’t know about?”

He laughed and mumbled out with his head down, “No roommates. I do have a housekeeper. She cleans and does the laundry.”

“Why have I never seen her?”

“I gave her a week off so you could get moved in and settled before I introduced you. My parents aren’t like that, but I’m not into cleaning and doing laundry. She does the grocery shopping too. It got to be too much for Amelia with all her other responsibilities.”

“Why didn’t you just tell me that to begin with?” I murmured.

He looked embarrassed. “I didn’t want you to think I was pretentious.”

“I wouldn’t have turned you down because you don’t like to clean, grocery shop, or do laundry.” I never saw that coming though, for some reason.

“So, you don’t mind if my housekeeper comes back tomorrow?”

The poor woman hasn’t worked in a week because of me. I hope he paid her for her time off.

“Nope. Does she live here?” He shook his head.

“No, she comes Monday, Wednesday and Friday.”

“I have some things to do tomorrow, so I won’t be in her way. What’s her name so when I get back, I won’t be surprised? Does she know I’m living here now?”

“Yes, she knows. Her name is Mary.”

This explained why the place was always so clean. “I’m looking forward to meeting her.”

“Cool. What things do you have to do tomorrow?”

Just give him basic information.

“I’m going to talk to Bruce in the morning and then go see your mom, Dr. King.”

He squinted and asked, “Are you taking another class?” I guess seeing Bruce worries him too.

“No, that’s funny. I don’t know what else there is to take. I’m just going to talk to him. I’m going to take this week off. I don’t know what’s going to happen on Tuesday, so I don’t want to have anything else scheduled. I feel like the amount of people who are going to be called to testify is going to drag this out.” He pulled me into one of his calming embraces, so I let the tension dissolve right out of me.

He whispered, “I love you.”

I hope that he still does after the hearing.

I hugged him tighter and said, “I love you too.”

I didn’twant to let go.

***

ROMAN

I went to the fridge and grabbed a beer then turned the TV on. Harrison was calling.

“What’s up, Harry?”

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