"I'm glad you think that. It's nice to hear you talk. I feel calm hearing your voice."
Link heard something in her voice that sounded like stress. “You okay?”
“Oh yeah. I’m great.”
She'd answered his question quickly. He wondered if she was okay. Pressing her on her emotions when he didn't really know her wouldn't make either of their lives better. If he knew her better, he might be able to get her to open up with her real feelings.
“Leaving town set me back on cleaning the place up.”
“You don’t have to clean up.”
"Really, it's just stuff I've been meaning to do for more than a year, and I just haven't done it."
“I can help when I get there.”
He couldn't help but laugh. "No way am I having you clean my house when you get here. Absolutely not. That's not something that I'd ever do. I can clean up my own stuff."
“Oh, did I strike a chord?”
"No, I've just been in the military long enough, and I listen well enough to have heard loads of stories about guys who get into a relationship and have the woman clean everything for them. Then in a few weeks, months, and in some cases years, the women leave because they all feel like housekeepers instead of partners."
She made a noise but didn’t say anything. He wanted to press, but again, he wasn’t going to press her until he knew her better.
“I’m just saying that if you come out here and all we ever end up being is friends, I don’t treat my friends that way. And if we’re more, I don’t ever want you to feel like you’re a housekeeper. You being a Marine, I know you understand how to keep a place clean. Everyone in the military gets judged on the cleanliness of every part of our being.”
Her laughter spilled out, making him feel tingles along his spine. He could tell that they were going to have fun together.
“Totally,” she said. “If I have a spoon in the sink, I feel guilty.”
“Exactly. I learned to keep my place clean after basic training. I can understand why people get tired of cleaning everything all the time. But it’s no excuse to force someone else to clean up your mess.”
"Right now, I feel like my house is a mess. But that's because I'm in the middle of packing everything, and some stuff is out instead of being put away. It feels so weird."
"I bet. Every time I've moved, I've always felt like my place is a disaster."
“I’m putting some stuff in storage, but I don’t want it to stay there long. I’ve heard horror stories of people paying tens of thousands of dollars because they left stuff in storage for years when they moved overseas.”
"Oh yeah, an overseas move is killer when you want to keep some stuff in the States. What size storage unit are you getting?"
"Very small. I'm just putting a few boxes in there, and once I settle on a place, I'll move them."
“That’s smart.” He wanted to tell her to just move them to his place, but that was very presumptuous. They might not get along at all once they were under the same roof. He’d seen it before, people getting all hot and heavy only to figure out later they didn’t really like each other.
“You probably need to get some sleep,” Ansley said.
“I should. I’m tired. How about you?”
“I’ll probably watch something then head to bed.”
“Oh, we haven’t even talked about what TV we like.”
Ansley chuckled. “Let’s save it for another talk. Who knows how long it will take if we start talking about shows and what we like to watch.”
“Yeah, you’re probably right. I’ll send a text tomorrow. Not sure how my day will look.”
“Sure. That sounds good.”
The call ended, and Link smiled to himself, thinking their conversation went well. Calling Ansley had been the right decision. Hearing her voice made him feel warm. Not too long, and she would be at his place. He was looking forward to her visit and to getting to know her better.
