We made our way up the walk, and I handed him the key. He unlocked the place, swung open the door, and stepped inside the spacious two-story foyer. The decorator I worked with took my affinity for the modern organic style and ran with it. The décor was minimal, with clean lines, and a neutral color pallet—lots of white, and natural wood tones throughout. I loved it.
Jaxxon did a 360-degree turn before letting his eyes meet mine. “This looks like you, Skyy. It’s modern and minimal.” He ran his hand along the console table that sat near the front door. “All the furniture has clean lines. And all this damn white.”
“I know. I know. When I was picking out fabric, my eye just kept being drawn to the white. I really wanted to incorporate more color, but?—”
He cut me off, a grin on his handsome face. “I see that you incorporated some blue.”
I chuckled. “Blue is my signature color, Jay. Hello. My name is Skyy.”
“I like everything about it, so far. It’s the opposite of the house on Iredia.”
One of Jaxxon’s first purchases when he made it to the league was a home on the Caribbean Island of Iredia. At the time, I thought I wanted to be an interior designer, even though I had a degree in sports management. I couldn’t find work in my field, and I liked decorating. I thought it would be a good fit. But decorating Jaxxon’s place showed me that some things were just meant to be hobbies for some people. I liked decorating for fun and having a big budget. I liked looking at fabrics and shopping for furniture. I wasn’t interested in measuring. Interior design had way more math in it than I realized. I didn’t want to know formulas. I wanted to choose what went where. I had fun decorating Jaxxon’s place, but I hadn’t done it since. Not until he asked me to decorate the home we were standing in.
“Ugh, I was twenty-three when I decorated that place. I didn’t have any taste. I need to fly back out there and redecorate it. It’s dated and probably looks a mess.”
“Let’s talk. Which way is the living room or the family room?”
“You don’t wanna get your stuff out of the truck? Get settled?”
“I’ll get my suitcase later. The stuff from my house in Oregon won’t be here until Saturday.”
“Okay. You’re not hungry? You don’t want to eat?”
“We’ll eat. I’m taking you out to eat. Remember, I have to go to the baseball game tonight. The South Siders are playing the North Siders. Mickey, my rep, sent me a hat for each team. I’m supposed to wear one for half the game, then switch.”
“That’s dumb. I’ll just wear one . . . or are you contractually obligated to wear both?”
He chuckled. “Nah. You can wear one, and then we’ll switch.”
“Whatever.” I led him into the family room.
“At least the couches aren’t white. I don’t know what the hell I would do with white couches, except dirty them up.”
The sofa was a cream-colored chenille-type fabric. “It’s a performance fabric. These covers come off, and you can throw them right in the washing machine.”
We sat down, side by side, Jaxxon’s arm leaning against mine.
I scooted over a millimeter because if I scooted over more than that, he would start with the whining. “You always have to be touching somebody.”
“And you can never stand anybody touching you.”
“It’s a whole sofa, Jay. There’s no reason for us to touch.”
He eyed me before scooting over a fraction of an inch. “Yo, whatever. Let’s talk. I’m ready to address the elephant in the room, the agreement.”
“The agreement.” I took my phone out of my purse.
“What do you have your phone for? This was a verbal agreement. Nothing was written down.”
“I know. I know,” I assured him. “I just have some . . . addendums that I need to add to the original agreement.”
“What was the original agreement, as you remember it?”
I adjusted myself on the sofa so that we were facing each other. “The agreement as I remember it was, if neither of us is married, or otherwise . . . engaged by the time we make thirty, we’ll see if we can make something shake between the two of us. Is that how you remember it?”
He nodded.
“Okay. So, when we saidmake something shake, what specifically did we mean?” I questioned.
