A few minutes later, I was the one having conniptions. The whole group had trouped upstairs to see my new digs.
I fell to my knees when we walked in.
“It’s so beautiful. It’s huge!” I ran around the big open space.
“We can put the bunk beds here and a bookcase here, and we could even buy one of those fancy screen things to give us more privacy,” I told Maeve excitedly.
“This is a twenty-million-dollar condo,” Beck said irritably. “You’re not going to sleep in the living room.”
I turned down a hallway that I had thought just led to a small bathroom, but it led to the other eighty percent of the condo.
“This is amazing!” I squealed.
“This is a state-of-the-art tower,” Belle said, giving her sales pitch. “Along with a very generous master suite and two other bedrooms with en suite bathrooms, there is also a study.”
“A craft room!” Maeve and I said automatically.
“And room for a home gym.”
“Which shall be my pantry,” I declared.
“There is already a pantry,” Belle said, leading us back to the kitchen. She opened the door to a huge walk-in pantry bigger than my current apartment. It even had its own wine-storage fridge.
“I’m in heaven. I accept!” I yelled, wrapping my arms around Beck and kissing him. “I accept your apology, and I accept my new crown as queen of the homeowners association, and I accept being your booty call.”
“That wasn’t part of the deal,” he said, frowning.
“You don’t want to sleep with that?” Vera scolded. “Look at those tatas! You can’t buy those, let me tell ya!”
“No,” Beck said to me. “I was just giving this to you with no, well, very few strings attached. At least no strings that led to me.”
“Too bad,” I said happily.
“I didn’t even have the proper presentation. I didn’t have the flowers or the cake.”
“And you got me a cake!” I kissed him again. “I love you!”
“It’s ice cream cake,” Beck said. “I helped design it myself.”
“We are eating that after the mashed potato bar.”
67
Beck
Tess ordered groceries on her phone as we headed downstairs.
Her friend had left to pack up her stuff because she, quote, would rather sleep on the floor than spend another night at their current apartment.
“I’m doing bacon and three kinds of cheese, and I’ll throw some beef in the Instant Pot, and of course, we’re making fried onions,” she said, putting in the order. “This is going to be fantastic.”
Tess kissed me. She smelled strongly of chocolate.
“I’m going to shower,” she said as I unlocked the front door. “When I’m done, the groceries should be here.”
I braced myself as we walked into my condo. I half expected my sisters to be climbing the walls, but they were playing nicely with my brothers.
“I thought you all had dates?” I asked as Tess skipped down the hall to presumably shower.
