Chapter 20
“Hi, honey!” Lucky said cheerfully as he sat at the desk next to Liz.
She rolled her eyes. “Why do you do that?”
He laughed. “Cause I can. And because it annoys you, obviously.”
Ms. Kraft let the class work on their projects all day, so Lucky and Liz turned their desks to face each other. “Okay, so I guess we need to find a house. How hard can that be?” Lucky asked.
Liz laughed. “It can be pretty hard. Anyway, we have to do more than just find a house. It has to meet her requirements, be in our price range, and we need to deal with the mortgage stuff.”
“I guess we should get started then. I brought today’s classifieds, just in case.” He pulled out the paper from his bag and dug through it for the real estate section. “Here, you take this page and I’ll take the other one.”
“What exactly are we looking for, anyway?” she asked, glancing at the ads.
He shrugged. “I guess something with at least 2 bedrooms, since she sort of implied that we were having kids....other than that, just something that we both like, that we can afford. I figured we’d look for something in the $100,000-$150,000 price range.”
“That much? That sounds kind of expensive!”
He shook his head. “Not really. Houses here aren’t cheap. Anyway, don’t forget that you married a doctor!” He grinned.
“Oh yeah, Let’s see, it took you, what? 15 minutes before you threw it in my face? I swear, this marriage just keeps getting better...” she grumbled, scanning the ads in front of her.
“Is this stuff written in Code or something?” Lucky asked, trying to read the ads.
Liz leaned across her desk to see what he was reading. “It’s just a way to shorten the descriptions. See there, where it says 4/2 1/2/2, it means 4 bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths, and a 2-car garage. The rest is mostly just abbreviations, they’re usually pretty easy to figure out.”
“How do you know all that? And what’s a half a bathroom?” he asked, impressed.
She shrugged. “I helped my parents the last time we moved. A half-bath is like a guest bathroom. There’s just a toilet and sink, no shower or tub.”
“Okay, I think I got it now,” he said, looking back at the paper.
They sat in silence for a while, reading and circling ads.
“Ooh! I think I found one!” Lucky said excitedly. “Listen: ‘2 bedroom/2 bath ranch-style home. Large yard, 2-car garage, new roof, only $110K. One question, what’s ranch-style mean?” He looked at her for her reaction.
“It means that it’s just one story. No stairs or anything. The only problem I can see is the new roof part. It probably means they had leaks in the old one, so they had to replace it. There may be water damage inside. Anyway, we should get 3 bedrooms, don’t you think?”
“Why?”
“Well, I figure if she’s going to throw kids on us, that would still leave us a guest room. I’d cross it out. I don’t like that ranch thing. Call me weird, but I like stairs.”
He crossed out the ad and read the next one. “Okay then, how about this one: 3 bedrooms/2 1/2 baths, 2-car garage, 2-story home. Close to schools and shopping, $130K?”
She shook her head. “That close to schools and shopping part bugs me. It probably means it’s right by a shopping center or something. I want to live out where it’s more quiet and residential. Here’s one: 3 bed, 2 bath, 2-car garage, large family room, sunny lot, lots of room. Sounds pretty good.”
“I guess. How much?” Lucky hated that he was so clueless about this.
“Um...$130,000. Now, does she expect us to actually call a real estate agent and look at them?” Liz asked. She didn’t want to have to bother someone to show them a house that they weren’t really going to buy!
“I don’t think so. We could just call to find out the address and drive by. That way, we won’t waste their time,” he suggested.
“Okay, I guess we could do that. I wish there was a way to see inside, though.”
By the end of the class, they had picked four houses that looked possible. They decided to call the real estate companies during lunch to get their addresses.
~*~
“Okay, they’re all kind of in the same area,” Lucky said, coming back to the table. “You want to drive by them after school? The sooner we pick one, the more time we have to deal with the mortgage part.”
She shrugged. “Yeah, I guess. I don’t have to work until 6:00, so as long as we’re done in time for me to go home and change, I don’t care.”
~*~
They drove by the first house and Liz grimaced. “Ugh. Who would paint their house pink?”
Lucky laughed. “Yeah, it’s pretty ugly, but if that’s the only problem, we could always re-paint it.”
“I know, but I just don’t like it. I don’t know why. Let’s go to the next one.”
He sighed. If she was going to turn them all down this quickly, they were never going to find a house!
“Ooh! I like this one!” She said, looking out the window as they drove past the second house.
“Uh-uh. I don’t. The yard’s too small, and it’s too far away.” Lucky said.
“Too far away from what?”
“Everything. My parents, the schools... look around, Elizabeth! There’s nothing here!”
“That’s what I like about it,” she said. “It’s so peaceful out here. How can you not like that?”
“It’s kind of creepy, don’t you think? I guess I’m used to have noise all the time. It’s too quiet out here.”
“How can it be too quiet? You’re so weird! Fine, let’s go to the next one.”
Neither of them liked the next house, so they headed out to the fourth on their list.
“Well?” he asked, hoping that she would like this one so they could move on.
She studied it for a moment and frowned. “Sorry, this one doesn’t do anything for me.”
“What do you mean by that? What is it supposed to do, it’s just a house!” He was getting tired of her being so picky.
“I don’t like it, okay? I can’t explain why, I just don’t! I can’t picture us living there, so let’s just move on.”
“You can’t picture us living there? Of course you can’t, because we aren’t going to be! This isn’t real, remember?”
“I know that! I just meant that I can’t imagine it. It doesn’t feel right. Look, I never said you had to understand, just accept it!” she yelled. “Just take me home. We’ll have to keep looking. You didn’t really expect us to find a place on the first day, did you?”
He shrugged, still angry. He drove her home without saying another word. As she was getting out of the car, he sighed and stopped her. “Hang on a second. Do you want me to wait and drive you to work?”
“Wow, you mean you’re speaking to me again?” she asked sarcastically. He turned and glared at her.
“Hey, I can just go home, you know. Take it or leave it.”
“Okay, okay. You can wait in the living room while I change. Thanks.” She led him inside and ran upstairs. When she came back down, he was standing in front of the fireplace, looking at Audrey’s pictures.
“Is this you?” he asked, pointing at one of them.
She stepped closer to see what he was looking at. “Yeah. I think I was 6.”
“You were cute back then,” he said and quickly headed for the front door. “Come on, you’re going to be late. How long does it take to change your clothes anyway? You were up there forever!”
She rolled her eyes. “I’m a girl, remember? We don’t just throw on the nearest thing that doesn’t stink.”
“Hey! That was low. Not all guys do that!”
She laughed. “Fine, but most of them do. Oh come on, just try to tell me you’ve never done that!”
He looked away and didn’t answer.
“A-ha! I knew it!” she exclaimed, laughing.
“Shut up,” he muttered as they backed out of the driveway, which just caused her to laugh harder.
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