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 Posted: Sun May 17, 2015 10:02 am
Mornings in the Gallo household came early. Paris was typically out of bed by six o’clock, and showered and dressed by seven. Then she went downstairs and let the dog out into the backyard, and made sure both Anna and Sassy were fed. (Lucasta she ignored, figuring the guardian could fend for herself well enough.)
Paris was a morning person. She loved to wake up to sunlight shining upon her face. Especially during spring days when the weather was warm. Sometimes she would make herself a cup of tea and sit out on the back terrace just watching the sun’s steady rise and listening to the birds singing.
But most mornings found her in the kitchen, preparing the morning’s tea, coffee, and breakfast. This morning she had two plates full of sausage eggs, with two pancakes for Chris and a bowl of fruit for herself. She set everything out on the counter bar (their other dining areas were far too formal for such an informal breakfast).
Then she trekked back up the stairs, humming quietly to herself to a tune playing on the radio she left behind. She slipped back into her and Chris’s room and draped herself over Chris’s side of the bed, pressing kisses to his unshaven face.
“Come on, Pooh Bear, it’s time to wake up~” she said in a sing-song voice.
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Posted: Sun May 17, 2015 10:08 am
Sometimes it amazed Chris that he could even fall asleep sometimes. He lived on caffeine. He needed it to get up and do anything. He had at least two cups in the morning and usually a few throughout the day. So when it was time to wake up after a long night, it was only Paris who could get him moving.
As it was, he groaned tiredly when he was showered with kisses, his arms slowly making their way out from under the covers to wrap around his wife and try to pull her close. “Come back to bed,” he suggested instead, not seeing why they needed to get up so early on a day where he didn’t have to be at the field until later that afternoon.
Of course, he also knew that Paris probably made him food and he felt guilty that he could smell wafting up through the house. She spoiled him too much. Not that he was really complaining. “You work too hard… come back to sleep…” he tried once more, still not quite bothering to open his eyes.
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Posted: Sun May 17, 2015 10:09 am
“Can’t,” Paris said. “I have to be in the studio this morning.”
Not that she didn’t want to. She might be a morning person, but one of her favorite things about mornings was lying in bed with Chris and being lazy. They hadn’t had enough lazy days recently, what with Chris’s career and Paris working hard to graduate from college. And now she had a career. There was even less time for them to be lazy than usual.
Paris continued to press kisses to Chris’s face, finally pressing her mouth to his in the hopes that it would rouse him further.
“Come on,” she said when she broke the kiss. “I have breakfast ready for you and coffee downstairs.”
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Posted: Sun May 17, 2015 10:09 am
He groaned when she said she couldn’t, and was tempted to just roll over and go back to sleep, but she was persistent as always. If he was any more awake, he would have probably tried to milk the attention as much as possible. But he wasn’t that smart when it came to things like that.
When she kissed him fully, it did manage to rouse him a little more, and finally he opened his eyes once the kiss was broken, only for him to look up at her with a pout. “I like coffee,” he mumbled needlessly, as she obviously knew he liked coffee, but it seemed like an appropriate comment for him to make for some reason.
Chris drew in a big yawn as he stretched his legs under the covers, before finally pushing himself up enough to try and roll over the side and hopefully get his feet on the floor before sliding off completely. With Paris there it easier to get up while using her to prop up against. Not that she was much of a prop as he was twice her size… but somehow he managed to stand and reach for his robe to pull on, as he didn’t bother wearing a shirt to bed.
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Posted: Sun May 17, 2015 10:10 am
“You’re such a big baby,” Paris said.
She helped him out of bed regardless, steadying him until she felt he could stand on his own two feet without falling over. She grabbed his robe for him and handed it to him. Once she was satisfied that he was awake and not about to flop back onto the bed, Paris turned and made her way back out of the bedroom.
She trotted down the stairs, already dressed for the day in a pair of pale turquoise scalloped edged shorts and a crisp white sleeveless top, with her short hair done in perfect curls around her face. Being in the house, she walked around barefoot for the time being, showing off her red, blistered toes and the bright pink nail polish she used in the hopes of making her feet look a little less ugly.
Back in the kitchen, Paris hopped up onto one of the stools by the counter bar to dig into her breakfast, sliding Chris’s coffee closer to him as he followed.
“I wanted to talk to you before I had to head out to the studio,” she said.
There was a purple folder on the counter nearby, stuffed with papers Chris couldn’t yet see.
“You know how we’re always bumming off of your parents when it comes to the mountain cabin and the beach house?” Paris began. “Well, I started to think we should maybe… not.”
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Posted: Sun May 17, 2015 10:10 am
Chris followed her slowly, stumbling his way down the stairs to make his way to the kitchen where he was promised coffee. His hair was a mess and his face still covered in stubble, but he would worry about getting ready for the day once he’d had his coffee and had woken up.
It took a little while longer for Chris to make it into the kitchen behind Paris, but happily picked up the cup of coffee that was passed to him. He only somewhat registered what Paris was saying as he took slow sips from his mug, making himself comfortable on the barstool next to his wife.
“Mmm,” he mumbled in agreement to show that he was listening. Sort of. He knew Paris was asking him about something to do with something, but he was really still half asleep.
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Posted: Sun May 17, 2015 10:11 am
Paris, being Paris, chose to take the “Mmm” as encouragement to continue.
“Well, I thought maybe we should get a mountain cabin and a beach house of our own,” she said. She took a few bites of fruit before continuing. “Since we’re starting a family of our own I thought it would be a good idea. You know, we can’t bum off your parents forever.”
Years ago, Paris never would have suggested such a thing. She had to admit it was a needless expense. They already had a lovely house with more than enough room for the two of them and twin babies. They didn’t need any extra property.
But she liked the idea of it all the same. She liked the mountains; she liked the beach; she liked the idea of having a place of her own to stay while she was there.
“Don’t you think a little stone cottage in the mountains would be adorable?”
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Posted: Sun May 17, 2015 10:11 am
“Mmm,” he mumbled again, this time with a small nod. Paris had such a sweet sounding voice. Sometimes he just enjoyed listening to her. He didn’t know what she was really talking about, but she seemed happy at least. She was always vibrant and knew what was best for the both of them.
And his coffee was always perfect. Even if they had their own cabin in the mountains or a beach house, he was sure that he would be able to get his coffee as he liked there as well as at their home now.
He probably didn’t show his appreciation for everything Paris did often enough. She was always taking care of him and waking him up and taking care of Anna and Sassy and the other cat…
“Yeah, that would be,” he agreed, still not quite as awake as he should be to make that kind of decision.
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Posted: Sun May 17, 2015 10:12 am
Paris should have realized that talking about these things with Chris when he just woke up was probably not the best idea. He wasn’t exactly coherent and probably didn’t process a word of what she was saying. Which was sweet, but not at all conducive to the situation. She needed his conscious agreement, not sleepy mumbles.
But that didn’t mean she couldn’t talk about it and maybe get his mind working in the right direction. Once he drank his coffee and was more awake, he’d already have the thought in mind, and the resulting conversation would be easier.
Right?
“So I started looking at places online and there are a lot of properties that are really affordable,” Paris said.
She took the purple folder and opened it between bites of her breakfast, spreading out a few listings she’d been printing out off and on for the last few weeks or so. They were, indeed, quite affordable for a middle class family.
What could she say? She still wasn’t used to throwing around the exorbitant amounts of money the Gallos liked to spend on their houses and boats and whatever else they bought.
“This one here is really cute. And it has four bedrooms, so there’d be plenty of room,” she added, presenting Chris with one of the listings she particularly liked.
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Posted: Sun May 17, 2015 10:12 am
Chris only vaguely realized that she was putting something in front of him to look at, but when he realized there indeed was a picture of a house in front of him, he took another sip of his coffee and nodded in agreement.
“The structure is nice,” he agreed, easily pointing out something he was used to. He had a degree in architecture, so of course he would see that first before realizing it was actually a house for sale. “The roof is at a good angle to keep snow from building up,” he added before taking another sip.
He wasn’t entirely sure why he was being shown pictures of houses, but he could at least appreciate how they looked. Realizing she had more than one picture with her, he slowly reached over to try and spread out some more of the pages. “No, not this one,” he pointed, pushing away one that looked much too rustic. Barn-like structures were nice… for barns… but he didn’t think anyone should be living in them, unless they had four legs and mooed.
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Posted: Sun May 17, 2015 10:13 am
Paris was surprised Chris was being as involved as he was. She’d been expecting some more “Mmm”s and “uh huh”s and “yeah”s, but here he was commenting on structure and the like.
Typical Chris, focusing on things like that.
“You can take the time to go through these if you want,” she said, nudging the folder a little closer to him. She glanced at the clock to check the time and realized she would need to leave soon.
“I’ve also been talking with a realtor. Her card’s in a file by the computer. I’ve got some beach house listings printed out there, too. I thought it would be a good time to go ahead and start looking at these things, that way if we decide to buy one we can have them ready but the time the babies are born,” she said.
She began to quickly shovel food into her mouth. She finished off the rest of her fruit before digging into her eggs and sausage, drinking her tea as she warned Chris, “Don’t let your food get cold.”
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Posted: Sun May 17, 2015 10:13 am
“Mmm,” he mumbled once more as he continued to nurse on his coffee, but he eventually did pick up a fork to start slowly eating the breakfast Paris had made him. She was always so considerate. Making him food and coffee and being sweet. He was such a lucky guy.
And he liked the beach, so that was good. They should go to the beach more often. Maybe they could ask his parents if they could borrow the beach house. Or maybe they could even look into getting their own place. That would be nice. Then they wouldn’t have to keep asking his parents and make sure they weren’t using the place.
“Okay,” he agreed, still feeling somewhat in a daze from being woken up. He liked the pictures that Paris had picked out. Maybe he would even want to design a place for them. That would be fun, right? Then he could have it exactly as he wanted it.
“What if we looked at a place for ourselves…?” he wondered out loud as he picked at some of his eggs. “Like, at the beach…” For some reason he had the idea in his head about a beach house or cabin...
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Posted: Sun May 17, 2015 10:14 am
“That is what we’re talking about, you know,” Paris said.
Still, the fact that he was pretty much reciting what she was requesting back to her meant the idea was successfully in his head. Now all she had to do was reinforce it when he was coherent enough to have a regular conversation about it. She could have been sneaky and done all of this while he was out of it, but that wasn’t her way.
Or at least she didn’t think it was her way. She was trying to be fair.
Looking at the clock again, Paris finished off the rest of her food and leaned over the counter to set the dishes in the sink before sliding off of her barstool.
“Think about it for a while, okay? Look online for other things if you want. There’s plenty out there. And we could always find an older place and fix it up like we did with this one, or if you just wanted to buy the land and design our own house…”
She trailed off as she dangled that little bit in front of him. She knew he might like that. It would give him something to do when he wasn’t playing ball.
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Posted: Sun May 17, 2015 10:14 am
He liked the idea of designing his own place. He didn’t get the opportunity to do that when they moved to the house they were in now, although he definitely had a hand in helping to redesign the inside and fix it up. He was particularly proud of the closet he’d built for Paris, even if he was now too intimidated to actually venture inside it.
“Yeah… I could do that,” he agreed with another nod as he slowly began to wake up a little more with food in his stomach and caffeine in his blood. Whatever they ended up doing, he was sure they would have a nice place for themselves.
There was a lot to go into building a house from scratch, so obviously if they found land to purchase that would be the best. But should they do that now or later? Probably before the babies, that way they would have time to get ready. Or it would at least be easier to have everything done without babies being around.
“Yeah… that would be nice…” he added, slowly shifting through the pages in front of him that Paris had printed out. Some of them had things listed like… square footage and the number of bathrooms… but he liked the designs of some of them...
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Posted: Sun May 17, 2015 10:14 am
Pleased with herself, Paris moved over to give Chris a kiss on one of his scratchy cheeks before leaning around to plant another kiss on his lips.
“You mull on that for a while,” she told him. She lifted her hand to his head to affectionately card her fingers through his hair, tucking a few of the growing strands behind one of his ears.
“I’ve got to get going now. I don’t want to be late,” she said.
Paris left the kitchen for a moment to grab her dance bag. She came back in seconds later to grab a few bottles of water and a smoothie she’d made for herself earlier.
“Would you mind putting the dishes in the dishwasher?” she asked, coming around the counter bar again to give Chris one last kiss.
“I love you. Think about it, okay? It’ll be nice,” she said.
Paris backed up slowly and made her way out of the kitchen with a bright smile on her face, feeling moderately successful as she went.
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