He never seems to stop smiling, envisioning himself walking through these halls every day, playing out in his mind how he’d behave if he lived here. He’s talking as if he’s already got plans for each room, how he’d repurpose it for his uses, or enhance its beauty. He’s mostly just having fun dreaming, and I can see why this is a regular pastime by the joy it brings him. But something about his surge of delight strikes me more profoundly than I’d anticipated. It’s like a growing itch that I want to scratch to give him everything he wants, even if it’s absurd.
The start of my downfall comes when I find the two spots in the house that I absolutely fall in love with. The kitchen calls to me like a siren song, and when I step inside, my jaw drops in awe. The floor is dark-stained hardwood that looks original to the home, and there are big support beams along the ceiling in the same color. The counters are black-swirled marble on top of pristine white cabinets, with brass knobs and fixtures everywhere to give the room a splash of warmth. The backsplash is a black glossy brick tile with white grout, and it truly feels like the perfect combination of New York City and country chic in the flesh, to the point that it makes me laugh—it’s like a kitchen made with Luke and me in mind.
Then there are theappliances. They have two gas range stoves side-by-side, and the size of them dwarves anything I’ve ever seen outside of an industrial kitchen. There are so many knobs and buttons on them that it’s intimidating, but my first thought is,I want to play with that.It looks so classy and somehow matches the colors of the rest of the kitchen that it must have been custom-built. Then, there are three convection ovens, a microwave oven that looks almost futuristic, and a built-in fridge hidden in the cabinetry, so it doesn’t look like an eyesore among the rest of this beauty.
I could see myself cooking in this kitchen daily, toiling around by the stove, chopping vegetables on the island, and staring out into the modest backyard patio as I wash dishes. The thought sends a quiver through my spine. Fuck. Maybe Luke is rubbing off on me.
However, when I find my way upstairs, my fate is sealed.
The entire third floor has been repurposed to house the library. Dark mahogany floor-to-ceiling bookshelves line every wall, tall enough to require rolling ladders for the higher shelves, and they’re allfilledwith books. My spine tingles as I take in the collection on display for all to see, and it sparks somethinghard to name in my chest. It feelsintimate,almost like bearing witness to this stranger’s soul. Maybe that’s because I’m used to hiding mine, so seeing it exposed in someone else’s home seems more sacred.
But the ceiling is what stops me dead in my tracks. There’s a massive chandelier built out of what looks like the roots of a tree, dripping with glittering light from the center of the room. Above it, the ceiling is painted deep indigo, and an astronomical mural has been painstakingly charted out to look like a map of the night sky, etched in gold leaf. I can’t seem to look away from the intricate designs, feeling a wave of calm energy wash over me.
Luke finds me standing in the middle of the room, staring up at the masterpiece, wholly lost in its beauty. When he stands next to me, he puts his hand on my back, his long fingers delicately tracing circles all the way down, sending a burst of sensation through my core like little starbursts to match the mural.
Suddenly, my brain flares up with the telltale signs of déjà vu, and I shiver. Standing here, in the middle of the most beautiful library I’ve ever seen, with Luke at my side, there’s that odd feeling like I’ve lived all this before. From that heightened sense of awareness, I turn to look at Luke, studying the way he’s smiling as he stares up at the ceiling, the light of the ornate chandelier sparkling in his crystalline eyes, and when he looks back at me, I know what words are going to come out of his mouth before he says them.
“This room was made for you.”
Then the feeling’s gone, slowly dissipating into the ether now that its task is complete. With its departure, a startling insight flashes through my mind as if it was hand-delivered to me by the gods above as a parting gift. The answer to a question I never even fully voiced rings out with startling clarity, and even though it’s been there all along, it never made sense to me like it doesat this moment. Almost like a pathway only opened upaftereverything led me to this exact moment. Now, it’s so clear, it’s laughable.
And as Luke tilts his head to the side and gives me that ridiculously charming half-smile that I fell in love with first, I know with absolute certainty that I want to be with this man for the rest of my life, no matter what it takes. Fear and cowardice be damned.
“I want to buy this house,” I say, the words leaving my lips without hesitation. The admission makes my whole body tingle with a strange sense of rapture that only adds to the rightness of this spontaneous decision.
Luke laughs ruefully at the remark—he doesn’t believe me. Why should he have any reason to think I’m being serious?
“God, I know.” He shakes his head with a small smile and walks across the room, admiring its beauty with honeyed melancholy. “I think this is literally my dream house. Can you imagine what it would be like to live here?”
Dmitry suddenly whistles his appreciation at the ceiling as he joins us from downstairs—as if the universe orchestrated his arrival at this exact moment on purpose so I’d realize what I need to do. When Luke wanders away, I wait until he’s out of earshot before I pull Dmitry aside and tell him my plan.
At first, Dmitry laughs at me. “Luke’s gotten into your head,” he says, brushing it off as a playful joke. But when he takes another look at me and sees that I’m genuinely serious, he freezes with confusion. “Ethan, this house is ten million and some change,” he frowns.
I don’t even twitch at the number. “So, put in an offer five hundred thousand above the highest bid, all in cash.”
“Incash?” Dmitry balks. He stares at me like I’ve grown a second head. “Get outta here. Are you fucking with me? You don’t havethatkind of money.”
“I can wire the funds as soon as you need them.”
Dmitry gapes at me, open-mouthed, until he seems to realize how rude that is, and snaps his jaw shut. He stares me up and down with a very skeptical brow. “No fucking offense, Ethan,” he says, “but you don’t look like a secret millionaire.”
I drag a hand down my face. I never thought there’d come a day when I needed toconvincesomeone I was rich. All this time, I’ve taken great pains to keep it hidden, trying to avoid unnecessary fuss, but the one time I’m actively trying to let someone know that I’m good for the money, they don’t believe me. Typical.
“I know this sounds crazy.” I sigh. “I’m questioning my sanity a little, too, at the moment. The last thing I ever thought I’d do was buy a mansion in the middle of New York City, but… Here we are.”
“Luke would have told me if he was dating a rich guy.”
“Luke…doesn’t know,” I say sheepishly. “Most people don’t.”
“This isn’t a funny joke.”
“Google it,” I say desperately.
“Googlewhat?”
Pulling out my cellphone, I tap away on the screen, putting my name in the search bar with the keywords ‘lottery’ and ‘Michigan,’ and watch as half a dozen archived articles pop up to local newspapers reporting on my jackpot-winning ticket. I hand the phone to Dmitry and watch as he reads the words with blatant skepticism before his expression softens to confusion and then downright awe as he realizes I’m telling the truth. He looks back up at me, wide-eyed and pale-faced, and I can tell he finally grasps the reality of the situation.
“You do understand this is anexpensiveproperty?” Dmitry says carefully. “Even buying it outright doesn’t stop you from having to pay for the upkeep. It’s not gonna be cheap.”
