Stone
Miranda has been out of the hospital for a week now and today she has a follow up appointment to see how her arm is healing, and then we have three apartments to go look at. We have both been praying that her arm is healing okay because the swelling has gone down. The doctor told her that she may need surgery, but he wouldn’t know until he got another x-ray done and could see how the healing process is going.
“Hello?” she answers her cell phone. I watch as her brows furrow. Whoever she’s talking to, she’s listening intently, trying to take it all in. I take a seat by her side, waiting for her to hang up and tell me what’s happening. “Thanks, Cooper.” She cuts the call.
“They found the cars. Someone reported two men climbing out of a ditch and jumping into another car before speeding off. The guy called the police, informing them of what he witnessed, and told them it looked suspicious. It’s good for us he did, because they were trying to get rid of the cars.”
“Nice.” I can’t believe we may finally be getting somewhere with this.
“Right. Cooper says that the cars are being towed to their forensics lab to be checked over, but it could be at least a week before we hear anything more.” She sighs. The thought of waiting an entire week to hear anymore news is pretty shitty, but at least we’ve heard something.
“Come on. This is a step in the right direction, and maybe we’re in for more good news with your arm.” She turns her head to me and smiles.
“You’re always so positive.” She sits up to kiss me. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome, now let’s get going so we’re not late.” I take her good arm and help her up from the couch. Her ribs are almost fully healed, and she says her arm hurts a lot less, but is still a little sore.
After waiting almost thirty minutes to be seen, we’re finally walking out of the doctor’s office with more good news. Miranda still needs the cast, but her arm is healing nicely. In the next few weeks, the cast will come off and she’ll have to do some physical therapy, but she’ll be back to using her arm just after Thanksgiving. “We have just enough time to grab some lunch. Are you hungry?” I open the door to the truck and help her in.
“Sure, where do you want to eat?” She puts her seatbelt on and waits for me to get in.
“Well. Let’s find something that’s next to the first apartment we’re scheduled to see.” I turn on my truck and start up the GPS system, punching in the address. I ask it to list some restaurants in the area and it brings up a bunch. We decide to split a pizza at a little joint up the street.
“I hope this place is good. It’ll be nice to know we have someplace good to grab food if we choose this apartment.” She’s scrolling through the radio stations as I drive along. We’ve looked at pictures for three different places, this one isn’t far from us and it’s our favorite of the three apartments, so to have a good restaurant nearby would be a definite plus.
We pull up to the pizza place and it’s literally up the street from the apartment. The place isn’t huge, but when we step through the door, we take in all the wonderful smells from the kitchen. We walk up to the counter and order a medium pizza with green peppers, onions, and black olives. It’s our favorite. The gentleman behind the counter tells us to pick a table and he’ll bring it out when it’s ready.
I grab our bottles of water and we take a seat. “This place is cute.” Miranda is amazed as she looks around the room, looking at the different pictures on the wall. “Oh, I almost forgot I have a doctor’s appointment next week for the baby.” She looks so excited.
“Okay, just remind me. I’ll pick you up at work and drive you there.” I smile at her, thrilled to be getting more news on our baby. “Do we get to see pictures yet?”
“We do. They are going to do an ultrasound to make sure the baby is still doing okay after the accident. I feel like we’ll be fine at this point, but I’ll be happy to hear it from the doctor.”
“I know, I agree.” I grab her hand and squeeze it from across the table. “We also need to get you a new car so you can get back to work. You start on Monday, right?”
“Yeah, I just don’t know if I’m ready to drive again.”
“How do you feel about going back to work?” I’m concerned that her fears are more than just driving, but she needs to start getting out of the house more.
She lets out an exaggerated sigh. “I’m okay with it. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’m tired of being cooped up, but it’ll be hard to function even with the new cast.”
I’m trying to be understanding, but I also know I have to push her to get behind the wheel again. “Listen, baby. I understand and really you probably shouldn’t be driving just yet anyway, but eventually you need to get behind the wheel. Would you feel safer if we got you something a bit bigger, like an SUV?”
“I think that would help. My car was so small and it was really old, but I couldn’t afford a new one, so I had been trying to stick it out.”
We both look up at the man delivering our pizza and thank him. Miranda grabs a slice to put on the paper plates he left us. “What kind of car do you think I should get?”
“Maybe a Jeep, like a Grand Cherokee or something like that,” I suggest, grabbing my pizza. She continues to eat, but I can tell she’s thinking about it. When I’m done eating, I push my plate away and ask for a box for the rest of the pizza. “Baby, stop stressing over it. Why don’t we go look at a few cars this weekend and we’ll see what you like?”
“Okay.” She agrees a lot easier than I thought she would. I stand from the table, taking her hand and leading her to the car so we can head off to see the first apartment. When we step outside, she takes a deep breath of the crisp air. It’s a gorgeous day out, the sun is shining, and there’s not a cloud in the sky.
When I climb into the truck, she turns to me. “Thanks for being so patient with me. I’m scared.”
“I know you are, and I want you to know that neither of us will be alone going forward. Even today there is security not far behind us. I just asked them to keep some distance so we can enjoy the day.”
“You’re the best.” She turns to look out the window as I drive over to what may be our new home. We pull up and her eyes go wide. “Wow, this place is huge.”
“Yeah, it is pretty big.” I pull into a spot reserved for visitors and climb out of the truck. I help her down and we hold hands as we make our way into the building. The agent is already there waiting for us. We exchange pleasantries and she guides us toward the apartment. She tells us that it’s on the fifteenth floor, which is the top floor in this building. She continues pointing out all the amenities to the place, the doorman, gym in the basement, two reserved spots for our cars, and so on. When we finally arrive on the top floor, the elevator opens to a hallway.
The agent points to our door. “There are only two apartments on this floor. Yours and the one across the hall.” She nods in the direction of the other door. She opens the door to the empty apartment, letting us in, and as soon as we step through, Miranda’s eyes go wide.
“This place is gorgeous.” Miranda wanders around the gourmet kitchen. “Baby, you’ll have a blast cooking my meals in this kitchen.” She winks at me and steps into the large living room.
“You have the snack bar if you want to eat your everyday meals here, but then over here is an actual dining room.” The agent points to the room off the kitchen that is lined with the same hardwood floors that are spread throughout the kitchen and living room. She then leads us to the two bedrooms, which are across the hall from one another. The master is really big with a large walk-in closet and its own bathroom. The second bedroom is slightly smaller, but still has plenty of room and a large closet.
“Be honest, do the other two apartments we’re scheduled to look at even come close to being competition with this one?” Miranda has a huge grin on her face while she awaits the agent’s response.
“As you know, this is the biggest of the three apartments, but they are all two bedrooms, they all have a gym in the basement, but in my opinion, this one is the nicest.”
“Fair enough. It’s also the most expensive. Is there one thing you like about one of the other two that this one doesn’t have?”
“I like the style of the kitchen better in the next one, but that’s personal preference, and why I recommend you look at more than one place.”
“Okay, let’s move on.” She looks at me. “This is going to be tough to beat, and if we don’t like the other two, I would like to snag this one before someone else does.”
The agent locks the door behind us. “You have this on hold until six this evening. That means no one else can take it before then. Now if you can’t decide tonight, well then, all bets are off. You have a chance of losing it.”
We get into Stone’s truck and follow her to the next place. The outside is nice, but not as nice as the first one. We again would have two reserved spots, and there’s plenty of visitor parking, but I feel like that’s the norm for this area. Miranda takes a deep breath as she climbs out of the truck. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, just a little heartburn from the pizza.”
I place my hand over her belly. “Or the baby.” I smile and press my lips to hers, and when I pull away, I find the agent waiting for us while we finish our private moment. Miranda slips her hand into mine and we follow the agent into the building. She grabs the key and takes us to the seventh floor. This one isn’t as high as the other building, and the apartment is smaller. Everything about this place is smaller, and yes, I do like the kitchen cabinets and counters a bit better than the ones in the other apartment, but I don’t like much else in here. Plus this one doesn’t have a dining room, so we would have no room to entertain.
We leave this one after fifteen minutes, unhappy with what we saw, and move on to the final one. We pull up and we both agree that this one already looks better than the second one. It’s on the eighth floor, which is the top floor in this building, and while we were in the truck driving here, we decided that being on the top floor would be best because we wouldn’t have to worry about noise from someone above us.
We all walk into the apartment, and Miranda and I take off together to look around while the agent stands in the kitchen to give us some privacy to talk. This is going to be a tough decision. The two apartments we like are set up similarly, and they both have everything we want. The other kitchen is nicer than this one, but this one is a bit cheaper. We can afford both, so I guess it’s a matter of which one we are really happier with.
“Well, this is harder than I thought. I definitely think the other one looks newer and nicer, but this one is cheaper.” Miranda glances around the bedroom closet.
“Baby, we can afford either one. Another one-fifty a month isn’t going to kill us.”
She turns to me and wraps her arm around my waist. “Which do you like better?”
I plant a kiss on her lips and then rub my nose on hers as I whisper, “I like the first one.”
She gives me the biggest smile. “Good, because I do too. Let’s go find out when we can move.”
Taking her hand, I pull her toward the kitchen, where the agent is still waiting. “Well, what do you think?”
“We would like to take the first one. How soon can we move in?” Miranda is smiling from ear to ear as I inform the agent of our decision.
“Great. I will get everything processed and get you a date by this evening.”
We thank her for her time and head back home to start organizing things. Thanksgiving is around the corner, and although we’re going to Logan and Sky’s for Thanksgiving to see their new place, we both agreed we’d like to be moved by then as well. That way we can decorate our new place for the holiday.
We’re walking out of the building when the agent asks, “What was the deciding factor?”
Miranda smiles at her. “The pizza.” I start to laugh.
“Are you serious?” The agent is shocked.
“Well, we had an awesome pizza for lunch before meeting you. We really liked the first one better, and since we really enjoyed the food by the first one, why not? The place is right up the street and there are plenty of other restaurants in the area if we want to eat out.”
She nods her head. “As long as you’re happy. I ask because there’s always a different reason, but it helps me as an agent to point out things that I know my clients like.”
I tell her, “We also liked that the first one looked newer and was a tad cleaner. You could tell the last building was older, and don’t get me wrong…they’ve kept it in shape…but why go for older when you can have new?”
“Fair enough. I’m going to get out of here so I can get everything squared away for you two and I’ll be in touch this evening with a move-in date.”
We thank her and then climb into the truck to take off. “Are you ready to head home?” Miranda asks, putting on her seatbelt.
“One more stop,” I tell her as I put on mine. She narrows her eyes at my unexpected stop, but says nothing as I pull out of my spot. I noticed a dealership on our way here. It was only a few minutes away and it’s on our way home.
When I pull into the parking lot she chuckles. “You are determined to get me into a car, aren’t you?”
“I wouldn’t say determined, but it’s a beautiful day, and you’ve been spending a lot of time in the house, so why not? I’m not saying you have to pick one, but you do need to drive soon.” She sighs, but says nothing more as I pull into a spot.
“I thought you wanted to look at Jeeps?”
“Well, this is an Audi place, and I figured it’s right here, and it’s what you had before, so let’s see what they have.”
When we step out of the truck, the vultures are already watching. One of them steps up. “Can I help you folks today?”
“Yes, my fiancée needs a new car. Actually, I want to look at an SUV. I’m thinking a Q5.”
The gentleman smiles. “Right this way.” He leads us to a Q5 that is black on the outside but the inside is tan.
“I’m having a baby. I do not want a tan interior.” Miranda looks mortified at the color.
“Baby, we can get a different color interior. What do you think?” I ask, opening the door for her to climb into the vehicle. She sits in the driver’s seat and I go around the passenger’s side.
“It’s comfortable. I just don’t like the interior.”
“No problem. If you follow me, I’ll show you another one we have on the lot. It’s silver and the interior is deep gray.” The gentleman closes the door for Miranda after she climbs out and leads us toward the other vehicle.
Miranda opens the door and sits inside. “This is much better.” She has a smile on her face. “Boy, this thing has everything.” She looks at the salesman.
“Yes, ma’am. This one is fully loaded.”
“Do you like it?” I’m really hoping she says yes. It would make me really happy for her to have a car again.
“I do, but I think you should test drive it.”
“It’s your car, why don’t you test drive it?” She gives me a nasty look and instantly I know I’m going to hear shit as soon as we’re back in my truck. “Okay, I’ll test drive it.” The salesman grabs a plate and we switch seats. While he’s gone, I grab her hand and squeeze it. She looks at me with frustration. “I’m sorry, I was just trying to be encouraging.”
“I like the vehicle, but I’m too nervous to test drive, especially with a stranger in the car. Plus…” She holds up her arm. She’s going to use that arm as long as she can.
He comes back and puts the plate on, and then climbs in the back. I can tell he wants to ask questions, but chooses wisely and sits quietly while I start the vehicle and pull out of the lot. The test drive is short, but it’s fine, and it’s a sturdy car, so I bring it back to the dealership and tell the guy we’ll take it. Miranda’s chin drops. “You don’t want to test drive something else first?”
“No, I like it. You like it, so why not?” I shrug my shoulders.
“Who will drive it home?” She has panic in her voice and now I feel I have to explain to the salesman, because he’s looking at her like she’s crazy. Once I inform him of the situation, he tells her not to worry, that the car can be delivered, and that they would be happy to take care of that for us. She thanks him and we sit down to finalize the paperwork. Forty-five minutes later we’re done, and Miranda has her SUV being delivered in the morning. Now I just have to get her to drive it.