Page 55 of Bad Reputation

“You didn’t answer my question, though.” I slide my hand over her side, down her hip.

“About going to look at houses? Yes, of course I’ll go. I love looking at an unfinished space.” Her eyes open, more green than ever. “What time should we go?”

I’m distracted by pulling the sheet away from her body, though. “Later.”

I get a good grip on her hips and kiss my way down her body. For a good long while, I’m lost in her throaty purrs and sighs of pleasure.

When my brain winds down again enough that I can think of the realtor once more, the sun is blindingly bright coming through the windows of my bedroom. I dig around for my phone and email her back, letting her know that today is good for me.

A couple hours later, Emma and I are standing in the front yard of a ranch home, holding hands and blinking into the sun. The house itself is unimpressive and bland, and the yard we are standing in is mostly sand and dirt.

“This home is great!” crows Ally, our middle aged realtor. She tugs on the hem of her too-short bright red power suit. “Two bedrooms, two baths. A recently remodeled kitchen. You guys just have to see the inside.”

I just grunt, unsure about the suitability of the house so far.

Emma nudges me with an elbow. “We would love to see it.”

Ally grins broadly and walks up to the front porch, wrestling with a lockbox on the front door. She grimaces as she pushes the door, which only opens with a long scraping sound. “You can see that this house is sort of a handyman’s special. It has a lot of potential, but it’s priced really reasonably…”

Emma glances at me. “This is your show. Do you want to go in?”

I hesitantly nod. “Yeah, I guess so.”

I lead Emma inside, blanching a little at the green wallpaper and orange shag carpeting that greet us. It’s straight out of the late seventies.

“This is a great starter home,” Ally says. “It just needs some love and attention to be beautiful.”

I clear my throat. “Are most of the homes in my price range so… in need of work?”

Ally smiles. “Not all of them. This one needs more work, but it’s also bigger than a lot of the places on your list. Come in a little further and look around. I think you’ll find that the house has really good bones.”

We drift through the house while Ally describes how the kitchen has been remodeled, how the bedrooms can look amazing with very little work. The bathrooms are hilariously out of date, but there is enough space for an office. Plus there is a pretty large back yard, which could easily house the grill and swingset that I envision.

Ally leaves us alone in the back yard for a bit. Emma looks at me, curious.

“You haven’t really said much the whole time. What do you think about this house?” she asks.

“I don’t know,” I say, sighing and running my hand through my hair. “Ally keeps talking about how much potential the house has, but I have trouble seeing it. What do you think?”

“Me? I don’t know.” She bites her lip.

I look at her. “You have an opinion, Emma. It could very well be your house, in a not too distant future. Can you imagine living here?”

She flushes bright pink. “Is that what you think?”

“What?”

She looks down at the ground. “That this could be my house some day.”

I hesitate, confused. “Well, yeah. I’m asking your opinion because it actually matters whether or not you could see yourself settle in here someday soon. Moving in is the next step, isn’t it?”

“It is…” she says, but she still won’t look at me.

“Emma,” I say, gently grasping her wrist. She looks at me, seeming conflicted. “Am I crazy in thinking that we’ll eventually want to take that next step together?”

Her eyes mist over as she looks at me. When she speaks, her voice is a little choked up. “You are definitely not crazy. I just… I’m just happy to hear that you feel the same way, I guess.”

I draw her in, closing my arms around her. “Of course I do. I might be a stubborn ass, but I feel like… like since we got past the whole being broken up thing… I don’t know, I just thought…”

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