Loss and Longing

“Come on” he said with a grin, “I promise I won’t try and pay for anything else while you’re here.”

She laughed then and meeting his eyes, she relented, “okay, I would like to meet Scout and coffee would be good, thanks.”

Grant stepped back and after she had stepped inside, he closed the door. Then leading the way he said “come through.”

Stevie couldn’t help looking around with awe as she followed him. The hall way had shiny wooden floors stained a dark colour. The walls were white and what she could see of the large living room through an open doorway to the left it had contemporary, minimalist decor. But stepping into the kitchen further down the hall, she had to stop her mouth from dropping open. It was beautiful. The cupboards were white as were the stone bench tops. But this expanse of white was broken up by glass splashbacks in a light green colour, very similar to his eyes in fact. In the middle of the room was a huge island bench with stools running along one side.

“Grab a seat” he said indicating the stools and filling the stainless steel kettle.

Stevie sat. “You’ve got a beautiful home” she said once she’d got over the shock enough to speak.

He looked over at her and smiled, “thanks” he said.

“Was it like this when you bought it?” she asked still looking around the room.

“No” he said “I’ve re-done most of it.”

“Is this what you do for a living?”

“Not exactly, I’m an architect. I work for myself and not long after I moved in here, I needed to put in an office. So I started there and then just kept going.”

“Well you’ve done a great job” she said.

“Thank you” he said.

 “I guess you’ve heard that a lot” she mused as her eyes wandered around the room again.

“Not really” he said. Not many people have seen it.”

Surprised, she turned back to look at him.

He shrugged and turned away to make the coffee “I don’t have many visitors” he said.