He sighs. “No. Well… it’ll make them an option as opposed to a necessity, but I just think we should have a clean slate without question. Do you disagree?”
“Not at all. I’m a little surprised.”
Keno huffs. “I’ve obviously been a little stuck on the sex thing, so it can’t really come as that much of a surprise.”
“Yeah, fair.”
“What’s yours?”
“We need to choose which house to live in and sell the other. You know, officially move in together and shit. It’s definitely more financially responsible, anyway. We’re literally throwing away money every month to keep a house we’re not even living in comfortable for usshould we decideto spend some nights there.”
“Yep, I agree.” Keno nods. “Seriously, we should have done that a long time ago.”
“Maybe we’ve been waiting for something to give us that push.”
“Like getting married.” He smirks. “How do we decide?”
“I bought practically. A family house I did some work on to make it super nice but not pricing it so far out of the neighborhood that it actually takes away from its value. I thought about resale more than anything since we know our positions aren’t permanent.”
“Or a choice,” Keno adds.
I nod. “You bought for pleasure.”
“With kind of the same reasons in mind. I knew I wouldn’t likely take all the toys I knew I’d buy for this place, which meant the same thing. The stuff adds to resale value,andI get to have a blast while I’m here.”
“Maybe we should just stay here. We spend far more time here and we invest in all our free-time activities here… It makes the most sense.”
“Yes, but it’s tiny. Your house has space. And you have a pool. It’s not like we don’t have outdoor space there, too.”
“I’m surprised you disagree,” I say.
Keno stares at me and then laughs. “I have no idea why I’m disagreeing. This feels like a bachelor pad that I’m just hanging out with my friend in. Not a home for me and my… husband.”
There goes my heart again. Fuck.
“Okay, let’s do this. We have some things left to do before the groceries get here and we can make dinner. Let’s think about it then we’ll come back and see where we’re at in half an hour, okay?”
He sighs. “Yeah.”
“I’m going to change the bedding.” I get to my feet and grip his arm for a minute. He laughs quietly. “What?” I ask before letting him go.
Keno meets my eyes, both cheeks pink and amused. “I think the guys might have been on to something. We’re already married. Just without our knowledge or fucking each other. We’ve even been monogamous to each other, Etna.” He shakes his head. “You’re going to changeourbedding; bedding we picked out and bought together on a bed we also picked out and bought together because the other one was too small.”
“When we tell them, we’re going to hear ‘I told you they were fucking,’ aren’t we?”
“Just like Horny and Hilt knew about Lo and Caulder. And we were giving far more obvious signs.”
I sigh. “Whatever. I’m still going to changeourbedding.”
Keno grins. “The counter smells like window cleaner. I’m going to bleach it.”
Grinning, I shrug. “I just wanted to deliver the fruit flies a nasty death for infecting our home.”
“Bleach is toxic to every living thing. You’d have skipped a step by using the bleach wipes.”
“Not on the air,” I point out and head down the hall before he can answer. His quiet laughter follows me, and my grin doesn’t fade while I make the bed.
I also strip the bathroom of the dirty towels we left behind and grab the laundry basket from the closet to drag to the laundry room. Then I swap the laundry and shift the home dry-cleaning loads as well. I love how fresh everything smells. Keno might be on top of the kitchen and hockey gear, but laundry is totally my domain. I love anything freshly laundered.
