She stared across the empty room. She took a short walk to the window and touched the glass with the tips of her fingernails, to avoid ruining the pristine transparent façade. She looked down to see the street where the car was parked, as her boyfriend continued packing the car with her belongings. Quickly, she turned to the room and made a short trip around the house to make sure she wasn’t forgetting something. She picked up her guitar and art supplies in the foyer of her studio apartment. Her boyfriend swiftly opened the door not realising she was behind it as she jumped aside to avoid the blow of the door.
“Hey, you okay?”
“Yeah I’m fine, just wasn’t expecting you to come up and help me.”
“Of course I’m gonna help you.” He took the guitar from her right hand and placed it back onto the floor. He made sure that she still had her art supplies comfortably in her arms before picking it back up. She followed him down the stairs careful not to trip up on the concrete stairs leading out of the brown wooden door of the apartment. They played Tetris with their belongings and once they fit in like a perfect little puzzle, they closed the trunk and the rear doors of the car. Before driving off from the apartment, they went back up the stairs of the house. She was wearing a royal blue sun dress and a pair of matching opaque dark-blue heels. Which had once seemed like a brilliant idea that morning, proved that it was no longer a decision she was proud to call her own. They ran up to the house and looked up and down the apartment and found that they had nothing left to bring to the car. He stood at the door, “Are you ready?”
She stood silently and stared into the empty place she called home. “I don’t know, it’s definitely a place I’ll miss.”
They shared a silence. It was more an appreciation and an understanding sort of silence.
She spoke first, “Will we be okay, being together all the time?”
Thrown off, his expression turned puzzling, but he quickly recovered, “Steph, I love you and I want us to work out. We’ve been together for years. Moving in together, It’s step forward in our relationship and I think we’re ready for it.”
“I know Zac, but I just, I worry and I’m scared and I love you so much and I don’t want us to mess this up.”
“I know my love, but trust me, it’ll all work out.”
“I hope you’re right,” Stephanie tucked her hands into the pockets of her light jacket and looked down and scuffed her shoe at the ground.
“Awe, come here, Steph.” He walked toward her and wrapped his arms around her and she opened up to give a hug in return. He held her like he’d never let her go. It was a feeling she had become comfortable knowing. She remembered it from the first time he hugged her. She knew somewhere that life was just perfect with him. She wanted to live her life with him. And she never looked back.
Ashleigh Bentley 