Chapter Forty-One
Forty-One
I expected so much more. I mean, moving men and boxes everywhere, and me trying to find space for his stuff. But there was none of that. Just Kendrick and a few suitcases filled with clothing and shoes.
“Where are all of your things?” I said when Kendrick walked in dragging two large Louis Vuitton suitcases.
I was more than prepared to spend the day unpacking and reorganizing my space. I mean, I had picked out an outfit and everything—an old blue sweatsuit complete with a blue and white kerchief for my head.
Now, as I stood there holding the door with one hand, the other came up and pulled the scarf off my head.
“Right here,” he said, and then, “and three more down in my car.”
“That’s all? Just clothes?”
Yeah, I’d made space in my walk-in closet and in my bureau, but I’d also shifted my couch around to accommodate his favorite reading chair and had even cleared out one of the cabinets in the kitchen so he could store the Asian-inspired black ceramic plates he was so fond of.
“Yeah—what else was I supposed to bring, my leather sectional?” He laughed as he dragged his suitcases across my hardwood floors, leaving long, scraggly seams in the thick layer of polyurethane.
I cringed, bit back a nasty comment, and then made a mental note to call Joe, my floor guy, and book a date for him to come and buff the scratches out.
Following Kendrick into the bedroom, I said, “Well, no, not the sectional, but I was expecting…”
I really didn’t know what I was expecting, but certainly more than what he’d come with.
“Baby,” he said, “this is just a temporary situation. All of my belongings are in storage.” He came and put his hands on my shoulders.
“You have a big space here, yeah. But not enough to handle all of my stuff, and would it even make sense? I mean, once my apartment is finished I would be moving right back in.”
I had assumed that this was the beginning of the rest of our lives together and that he would have at least brought a damn lamp or some silverware.
I had imagined that once the apartment was finished that he would have grown so used to being with me, loving me, that we would start making wedding plans and he’d put the apartment on the market.
But I now saw that those were just my silly fantasies.
He could have brought more, he should have brought more. Shit, he wasn’t on vacation and I wasn’t the concierge level of the Peninsula Hotel. This was a lifestyle change—this was my home!
“You could have brought more than just clothes, Kendrick,” I said brightly, planting a sunny smile on my face for added effect. “You could have brought the entertainment center.” I pointed toward an empty wall in the living room. “That space there would have been perfect.”
Kendrick turned around and considered it for a moment, then grunted and said, “Let me get back downstairs and get the other suitcases.”
“I’ll help,” I said as I followed behind him like an obedient puppy.