Whatever this place was, Austin needed a moment to come to grips with the fact that he was here. Which only made me more curious.
“I’ll show you to your room, then get a fire going,” he said, not giving me so much as a side-eyed glance as he walked past me.
I barely had a chance to take in the formal dining room with the large dark wood table. And we breezed through the cute living room that looked straight out of an old TV show. One couch was brown and tan plaid, while the other held the most chaotic pattern of huge roses and vines.
The stairs groaned as we climbed up. I gripped the white banister just in case the wood beneath my feet decided to give way. The stairs lead to a narrow hall, lined with doors on both sides. All of them closed, leaving the area feeling a bit eerie. What was behind those doors? Years of secrets? Decades of life? Maybe I didn’t want to know.
“You can take this one,” he said, his voice flat as he turned the knob of a door and pushed it open. “Mine’s across the hall.”
He didn’t look at me as he pointed to a door a couple of feet down the hall on the opposite side.
“There’s a bathroom next to my room. There are some clean towels in the closet, but they might need a fluff in the dryer to smell fresh. It’s been a few months since…” He cleared his throat. It was blatantly obvious this house didn’t sit abandoned like he wanted me to think, and I got the sense he was close to telling me so, but closed up at the last second. “Yeah, I’ll just take care of that now. You can take a shower if you want and I’ll bring them up when they’re done. Shouldn’t be more than fifteen minutes.”
He suddenly looked uncomfortable. I wanted to say something of comfort but was at a loss.
“Thanks. Sure, I’ll take a shower in a minute.” I set the bags of clothing on the bed and rushed to pull out the things he’d gotten for himself, quickly stuffing them all in one bag. “Here.” I thrust the bag at him awkwardly.
“Probably should wash this stuff too,” he said.
I cringed. Now that I thought about it, he was right. There was no telling if they had been washed by the previous owners, or how many people tried them on.
“If you’ll show me where the laundry room is, I can do it while you get the fire going.”
“Yeah, sounds good.”
I didn’t like how strained things were.
He ducked out of the room while I gathered up the rest of the clothing. As I stepped out, leaving the door open, I caught him coming out of the bathroom with a huge stack of towels. I had to smile at the array of colors. One pink. One Teal. One deep blue. It was all over the place, making me think that a cohesive theme for decor was the last thing on their mind.
Which led me to wonder who this person was. Whose house was this? Was it Austin’s? Was I getting a glimpse into Austin’s head just standing here looking at a stack of fucking towels?
It was clear I needed some sleep. I was worried I was losing it.
“What?” he asked as he stopped short right in front of me.
“It reminds me of my mom.” I tipped my head in the direction of the towels. “She cleaned houses for a living. When I was younger, she would take me with her when I wasn’t in school.” I shot him a look. “Day care was expensive and she was doing it all on her own. I loved it, though, because I got to see how all these other people decorated their houses. And by other, I mean rich. Well, richer than us.”
He leaned his shoulder against the wall and crossed one foot over the other as if relaxing to hear this story.
“Anyway, I noticed that most of those houses matched. Like the bathroom was blue and white tile, they’d have paintings that were mostly blue and white. Towels that were blue and white.”
Austin nodded, but his brow was furrowed like he couldn’t see where this was going.
“Our towels were always… colorful. Mom bought whatever ones were on sale when she got desperate enough to have to get new ones. Which meant that we ended up with whatever color they had at the time we went shopping. Or whatever color my mother was into that day.” I finished with a fond smile, even though thinking of her usually made me sad. It had been six years since I lost her to cancer, and I still wasn’t over it.
Austin barked out a laugh as he looked down at the towels in his hand.
“That’s me too. I don’t really pay attention to that stuff,” he said as he straightened and sauntered past me to the landing of the stairs.
Just like that, he shut down as soon as he realized he’d given me a little piece of himself. A tiny glimpse into Austin and his real connection to this place. It hadn’t been much, but that had still been too much for him.
I could have gloated. Could have pointed it out and urged him to keep talking about it. I could have hoped that he would give me more if I did.
However, I recognized a shutdown when I saw one. I wouldn’t be getting anywhere with him if I tried. Besides, I didn’t want this weird mood hanging between us, so I thought it was best to play along like I hadn’t noticed.
“There’s something fun in having a mishmash of stuff. It feels…” I started down the steps behind him as I tried to think of the right word.
“Like a party?” he said, looking over his shoulder at me for a second.
