“Fuck.” He said only the one word. And it was enough.
My gaze flew to Jasper. This was not good. I could see it on my bestie’s face; he was about to lose his mind.
And then he exploded.
“This is my new home! It’s everything, everything I ever wanted,” he breathed. “Izzy, I must have it. I have to live here. You know me. You know me! It’s meant to be.” His form continued to tremble as his excitement grew.
Kyson squeezed my shoulder. This time I shivered at the familiarity with which he touched me. “Your boy has a couple screws loose.”
I couldn’t help it. I burst into laughter. I took in the antique furniture, the pattern of one chair a myriad of woven flowers in bright reds, golds, teals and oranges. It was gaudy. It was god-awful. And my best friend in the entire world was in love with every inch of it.
He fluttered from piece to piece then pointed to one that looked like it was a love seat with a wooden end table attached. The feet were made of a heavily carved, curved, glossed wood almost reminiscent of a claw-foot tub. “This is a design from the Victorian era. My guess, late eighteen hundreds. Technically, it’s not real, but still antique by our standards. It’s a knockoff but it’s at least sixty years old!” He gushed. “In Queen Victoria’s era, these used to be in the homes of the rich and fabulous. They’d sit and take a phone call looking regal and sophisticated.” He plopped his ass rather daintily in the seat and opened the drawer. He grinned wide. “And here is where you took notes.” He pulled out a pad of paper and a pen. “So cool!”
“Oh, sweet mother...” I groaned.
“What’s happening here?” Kyson’s breath feathered light against my ear.
I swallowed and tried to ignore it, focusing on Jasper. “He’s in furniture and apartment heaven.”
“You’re kidding,” he admonished. “I can taste the dust mites on my tongue.”
I shook my head and watched Jasper prance, yes prance, to a velvet couch. “And this beauty, this one’s real,” he said with such awe in his tone it was like he was getting every single one of his wishes and hopes handed to him at one time. “It’s sage green, tufted antique from the nineteen twenties. I’m sure of it.” He sat in it and stretched his arms out along the putrid-colored fabric. Calling that thing sage green was being kind. It was a sickly pea green, in my opinion, but you couldn’t deny the look on Jasper’s face. He loved it.
“Jas...” I warned. “Remember what we said in the car?”
His gaze flicked to me. “Yes, and I remember saying last night that if this place is it, this place is it. The apartment proves it. It’s meant to be mine.”
“Honey, you don’t know that. Let Kyson ensure this place is not going to fall into the empty showroom below.”
“You like this?” the property manager asked, total shock in her tone.
“Like? No, honey. I looooooove this.” He made the word love last for five syllables.
Kyson chuckled and moved about the room, checking the sockets and the lights, tapping on the walls at random. He went to the small kitchen and turned on the faucet. Thankfully, there were newer appliances, but no fridge. Odd... They’d taken the fridge but left several antique pieces behind. My guess, they didn’t know what they had. Maybe it was lucky that my best friend was an antique freak. He loved anything old as dirt except his fashion. He proudly wore every era and mixed and matched as he deemed worthy and fashion-forward.
“All I’m gonna say, Izzy, is if there is a claw-foot bathtub, you know what that means,” Jasper breathed.
I closed my eyes and quietly said a prayer. I didn’t pray that there wasn’t one; I just prayed that if this was the place for us, he’d get what he wanted and so would I, in a building and location that didn’t cost an arm and a leg and a year to renovate.
Jasper entered a door that led to a tiny hallway. On the right was a bedroom. Thankfully, there wasn’t any furniture but there was more crazy wallpaper, this time a silver-and-black print. Much to his delight, there was a chandelier dangling from the center of the room.
“Oh, my God, oh, my God, oh, my God,” Jasper chanted with his fingers to the sides of his cheeks.
If the antique furniture didn’t seal the deal, that chandelier did. He’d be happy as a clam with that thing hanging over his bed. Something sparkly and pretty he could gaze at while resting in his bed or being banged by his next partner. Me and my best friend didn’t judge people for their sexual proclivities, or care one way or another about each other’s desires. We loved who we loved. We liked who we liked. We were raised by homosexual couples. It’s just part of our lives. With that being said, my bestie loved girly things. And just like all the women I knew, myself included, we liked men who were bigger and broader than we were. Having a chandelier in his bedroom would absolutely suit the man he was. And who was I to deny him his heart’s desires? He dropped his entire life to be with me and follow a path completely opposite of what we had planned.
The longer I thought about it, the more I realized I owed him this happiness. If this apartment made him love his new home here, I should be championing it, not working against it.
“If you want this to be our place and this to be your home, Jas, I’m here for it. We just need to make sure we can afford it, okay?”
He licked his lips and sucked the bottom one into his mouth so it disappeared. “I really want it, Izzy.”
“I know, baby. Let’s see what the property manager says...” I trailed off when she yelled super loud, obviously realizing she could hook us, “Claw-foot bathtub with shower! And it’s so cute!”
Jasper’s eyes twinkled. Actually lit up as though his bright and pure soul was glowing from within.
I laughed and tilted my head to the side. “Go check it out.”
“Eeeeeek!” He raced by me, shaking his fists in front of him the way an eager baby did when it was excited about a new food or toy.
I sighed when I entered the living room. Kyson was making notes.
“How’s the bathroom?” I asked.
“Perfect condition. There were more upgrades to the apartment than the business. Everything up here is top-to-toe fine.” He looked around and cringed. “I mean, for people who like this sorta look. Definitely not what I did in Suda Kaye’s place.”
“She had you renovate the apartment above her shop?”
He nodded. “We gutted the kitchen. New cabinets, granite, appliances—the whole nine. The rest of the space was fine. Did some updating to her bathroom but it’s smaller than this place. Since there’s ten more feet in width in the business below, add that to the length and you’ve got a full bathroom and small bedroom as you saw. Hers is one open room, aside from the bathroom.”