“No more than average. The recliner’s a little creaky, the sofa is not as big as I’d like, but it all does its job.”
“Come on. Let’s pay for this and hit the furniture store.”
“I’m buying new furniture?”
“Yes. You’ll love it.”
Remi suppressed a smile, and followed along behind her as she chose a register and they got in line. Fifteen minutes later they’d filled her trunk and half the backseat and were heading to the only furniture store in town.
A couple of blocks down from Cooper’s Mercantile, she pulled into the parking lot of a furniture store. They got out and made their way to the front door, but this time when Remi stepped in front of her to look around the store before they went inside, she waited patiently behind him. When he finally went inside and waited for her to lead, she smiled up at him as she went by, no snippy remark about him making sure the atmosphere felt safe or not.
He started to thank her for understanding, but decided that it would end up in her becoming defensive, so he just smiled and followed her around the store.
Cristie didn’t hesitate. She went straight for the living room furniture, looking back at him over her shoulder. “You want something big and heavy, right?”
“Something that I can melt into and be completely useless.”
Cristie grinned at him, and led him to the other side of the living room display. “Do you care what color?” she asked without looking back.
“Nope.”
She tried a few sofas, then a few love seats, then one near the wall with several large boxes on dollies lined up in front of it caught her eye. She walked over and peered over the top of the boxes. “Oh, this one is pretty!” she said, squeezing between the two dollies and disappearing from sight.
Remi followed her over, and watched over the tops of the boxes as she tested the recliners, two of them, one at each end ofthe ‘L’ shaped sofa, then sat at the curve of the ‘L’, testing out the support of the sofa.
“What do you think?” she asked.
“I don’t know. Haven’t sat on it yet.”
Cristie got up and took hold of the handle of one of the large dollies and pulled it further down the aisle.
Remi did the same with the other dolly, then walked over and sat down beside her on the sofa she’d chosen. It was a camel colored sofa, overstuffed and heavy, over-sized in general. When he sat down on it, he almost felt like it was hugging him. He sighed and relaxed further into the sofa.
“I know, right? And check out the recliners.”
Doing his due-diligence, he got up and moved to one of the recliners. He sat down and used the handle on its outer side to extend the footrest and lean the back into a semi-reclined position. “This is nice.”
“I vote this one.”
“Oh, do you?” he asked.
She smiled at him, and let her eyes drop to his chest instead of his face. “If you like it. It is for your house.”
“I like it. I do like it. It’s nice. But I have one.”
“It’s used, and you said yourself you wanted a larger one than is in there.”
“I suppose you’re going to pick out drapes and a coffee table, too?” he asked.
“Yes. And a throw rug.”
“A throw rug?” he asked.
“It makes it look more put together in the house. Kind of like the frosting if it was a cake.”
“If you think I need it, then I’ll get it.”
She grinned at him and jumped up to go find the salesperson.
