“You should come to dinner with us after the ceremony,” I say. “If you want to.” I turn the car into a carpark belonging to a block of flats and circle, looking for a space.
“Okay.”
There are no spaces, so I return to the road and park there. “You don’t sound sure.”
“I’m not, but it’s like pulling a plaster off. The faster you do it, the less painful it is.”
“I’m not sure I like that analogy.”
He chuckles. “Sorry. Do you want a farming one instead?”
I thread my fingers through his. “No. You’re all right. I understand what you meant. They’ll accept you.”
“You keep saying that, but what if they don’t? What if they see it as us both betraying Billy?”
I shrug. “Then I’ll still choose you. I’llalwayschoose you, Flynn.”
“Over your parents? I can’t ask you to do that.”
I stare into his eyes. “You’re not asking. I mean it. I love you. I choose you.”
His chin quivers. “I love you, too.”
“Now that’s settled, shall we go look at apartment number three-hundred?”
Flynn laughs. “We haven’t looked at that many.”
“Yes, we have, and they’ve all been so… pokey.” I sigh. “I guess that’s all my budget will stretch to, though.”
“This place will be different.”
“Fingers crossed. Give me two secs.”
I send Mum a text, inviting her and Dad to my graduation ceremony, along with the date and time. I put my phone away, and we get out of the car. I skim the double-sided information sheet from the estate agent.
“It says it comes with a designated parking space, but there’s no visitor parking,” I say.
“At least you’ll always get parked, and there’s plenty of room on the road.”
“Yeah, and it’s a quiet road, so less chance of anyone knocking a wing mirror off on their way past.”
“Are you trying to talk me out of visiting you if you live here?”
“No.” I pretend to zip my mouth shut, prompting Flynn to laugh.
The estate agent is already in the foyer, ready tobuzz us in. It’s the same woman who’s shown us around a dozen other flats. She must be sick of the sight of us. I haven’t shown much—if any—interest in the others. They looked great on the info sheets, but the pictures must have been taken from clever angles to make the rooms look bigger. Fair enough, I don’t need much space, and anything is a step up from a room in a student house, but I’d like enough room to grow into. If things stay good between Flynn and me—and I hope they do—I’ll want to ask him to move in with me.
We take the lift to the third floor. The flat we’re looking at is at the far end of the corridor, in the corner.
“I think you’ll like this one.” The agent unlocks the door and lets us in. “Because it’s a corner flat, it’s got more windows, which means more light.”
More light is good. Bigger rooms would be better.
We enter a hallway with two doors on the left wall, one on the right, and one straight ahead.
“Closet and boiler.” The agent opens the first door.
There’s space to hang coats, fit a shoe rack, and an upright vacuum cleaner, but that’s about it.
