Because Of Love

“The neighborhood looks good,” Rafe said as they drove down the beautiful leafy suburb.

Talia felt little butterflies of excitement flutter in her belly. She’d waited a long time for this. She was finally going to own her own home! Yes, she would be paying the mortgage for the next fifteen years but it was the best deal out of all the places she’d looked. And this house… it just spoke to her.

“Right there!” she pointed out excitedly on his side. “The house with the big tree in the front lawn.”

Rafe’s head turned to follow her finger then he looked at her with an amused smile. “You’re pretty excited,” he said, his lips pulling higher to expose his teeth.

She nodded, bouncing in her seat. “Like a fat kid on her way to a candy store.”

He chuckled softly with a slow shake of his head. “An apt analogy.”

He pulled into the driveway that had a beautiful assortment of purple, orange and green perennial flowers on either side, stopping just a meter away from the old wood looking garage door. Once the car came to a stop, Talia quickly unbuckled her seat belt, jumping out of the Jeep, too eager to wait another minute to embrace the feeling of home she always got whenever she came here. She stared up at the two thousand square feet, two story and two car garage space Tudor home, surrounded by green grass and trees of different sizes. It looked like someone had brought a mountain home into suburbia, with earthy brown tones of wood and greys of rocks, beautiful rose bushes and jasmine trees under the windows. She could just smell the morning earthly scent mixed with that of blooming flowers seeping into the house as she sat on the bench by the open kitchen window, sipping her morning coffee. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, immersing herself into that picture.

Ow she couldn’t wait!

She turned slightly, opening her eyes when she felt a familiar hand clasping the back of her neck.

“Talia couldn’t you hear me?”

She leaned her head back, looking at Rafe’s face over her shoulder and shook her head no. Something came over his face, with that familiar crease between his brows, but it disappeared before she could clearly read into it, replaced by a smile ghosting over his lips.

“You could have waited till I turned the car engine off.”

She smiled sheepishly up at him. “Sorry.”

With the hand at the back of her neck, he drew her to him and said, “Come on. Let’s see what’s got you so excited.”

The tingles in her chest that had started from that innocent warm kiss were overtaken by the butterflies from the excitement of her new home. She wanted to show him every inch of it, for him to love it as much as she did.

Why? A quiet voice in her head asked. Why was it-no!

The sharp retort pulled her out of that line of thought before it ruined the mood. Don’t borrow trouble. Just enjoy your house with him like you would with Carrie.

Resolved, she took his hand in hers and with a fools grin plastered on her face said, “Come on. Let’s go inside.”

She led him up the stone pathway, also lined with floral plants, to the four steps that led to the old fashioned front door. She rushed up the steps, pulling him with her then turned to look up at him, bouncing on the heels of her feet as she pointed to the knocker.

“Cute,” He nodded with a faint smile.

“I know right!” she exclaimed, her voice going a pitch higher from the uncontained excitement.

He smiled back at her with an amused look on his face like a parent would at his kid going bananas on his first time visit at the gates of Disney World.

She reached for the brass lion head knocker and tapped three times, the sound echoing in her chest and making her giggle like a silly girl. Were all first time home owners as excited as she was? She couldn’t imagine them not being so, especially if their current home was like her apartment that could fit in this house’s living room.

The door immediately opened to a smiling Nelson, her realtor who had been very patient with her on this year-long journey. He was the one who gave her sound advise on how to start saving up if she was serious about owning her own place by the end of the year; don’t buy a car take the bus to work, don’t buy new furniture, move into a waiting house also known as a tiny apartment with cheap rent, fix your credit and don’t get fired. That last bit had been a little iffy when she began nagging her bosses over her new project and a promotion, but, it was all good now.

“Hi!” she sang, waving both her hands at him.

“Talia, nice to see you again,” he returned laughingly.

“If you were waiting by the door the whole time, why didn’t you just open when we pulled up?” Rafe asked behind them, his tone more business-like and a little off putting.

Why? Talia wondered, looking over her shoulder at him with an inquisitive gaze. She rolled her eyes when she found that DeLuca mask on. She hadn’t seen that outside the office in a while. She was beginning to hate that impersonal cold thing. As much as she tried to understand why he found it a necessity at work, she just wished he wouldn’t treat every new person he met the same way.

Be social, smile, say hi, she wanted to scream at him.

“She likes to knock,” he responded, a laugh still in his voice, not bothered by the iceman.

“I like to knock,” Talia echoed with the sass of an annoying pre-teen, then turned back to the man who shared her excitement.

With her hands clasped under her chin, eyes bulging out she leaned in and asked, “Is it ready?” She ended up whispering like she was divulging national secrets.

Nelson leaned in too and whispered back with a laugh, “Yes.” Then he stood up straight and said loudly, “You’ll be happy to know, you’ll have the house in three months’ time.”

Talia jumped up and down with a happy shriek, clapping her hands like a seal. Nelson stepped to the side, pushing the door further open and Talia rushed into her new almost home like a prima donna would in a Gucci store having a one time sale.Text property © Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org.

“The agreement papers are on the dining room table,” Nelson called after her.

Talia ran through the living room to the double glass doors on the left, directly across from the fireplace and into the dining room. She quickly pulled out the solid rubber wood, Marcoco Wenge, classic hourglass silhouette and scooped backrest from the matching six seater table and sat in front of the papers, her eyes roaming over them as she was eager to read through them.

“Why don’t you read through those and I’ll give Mr. DeLuca a tour.”

With a quick draw of breath, Talia turned wide eyed, her fingers pressed to her mouth at the two men standing at the double glass doors she’d just bust through. She shrunk a little at Rafe’s raised brow.

“Rafe…” she mumbled behind her fingers.