His request, and the things I saw in my mind when I imagined fulfilling it, made me nearly double over to try to calm the enormous butterflies in my stomach.
“Show me your new place,” I said, gulping, my pulse racing.
What we would do in that caravan would mark a before and after. I knew that. We both did.
He let me go and led me inside. I felt as if I was entering directly into his mind, and I wondered how a person as mysterious as he was would decorate a home of his own, or this vehicle that was passing for a home. What I saw inside was the very lastthing I would have imagined, knowing that it belonged to Thiago Di Bianco.
The furniture was rustic but cute. To the right, a table was wedged into a tiny space with a grayish sofa and blue plaid pillows. There was no way he’d bought those himself, and I was tempted to ask him where they’d come from.
The little kitchen had two small windows with curtains that matched the pillows. On the ground was an Iron Man doormat. He had obviously picked that out himself. Clean plates and glasses were piled up haphazardly in the drying rack. To the left was a double bed that just barely fit the space. It was neatly made, and a pile of books sat on a shelf that served as his nightstand. There was a TV in one corner, and another door that I guessed led to the bathroom.
I was surprised, as I walked farther in, to find the drawing I had made for him months before and that he had gotten so angry about. The image of us as kids with his sister, Lucy… It made my heart ache; I was touched.
This place, it was Thiago, it was everything he represented: austerity, gentleness, longing, masculinity, and most importantly, simplicity. Because that was what he was: a simple guy with small dreams, a brilliant mind, and a camper for a home.
That was him, and it wasn’t surprising, exactly, because I had known all that already. What surprised me was how much I liked what I saw, and how I identified with all the little things there that were a part of him…and a part of me.
What surprised me was how much I felt at home.
