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I get out and lock the car, then make my way up the front steps to the porch. I ring the bell and wait, turning a little to look out toward the neighborhood. Sean lives in University City, so there are a lot of younger people out; it must be fun to live here.
The door opens and I turn around, expecting Sean. Instead, it’s a woman I assume is his mom.
“Hello!” she says with a wide, welcoming smile. “You must be Lizzie.”
I nod and extend a hand; she looks surprised, but she shakes it anyway. Her hands are small, but her handshake is firm. She smiles with light brown eyes that match Sean’s, but her hair is long and blond and she looks like she’s in her thirties even though she’s probably at least a decade older. She’s beautiful, and I can see parts of Sean in her face.
“Nice to meet you, Ms. Kelly,” I say, before realizing that because she’s divorced, she might have a different last name.
“Call me Harper,” she says, which confuses me even more. Is that her last name or her first? And where the heck is…
“Hey, you,” Sean says, walking up behind me onto the porch. “Sorry, I was moving my car so you could park in front.”
“Thanks,” I say, smiling at him.
“Come on in, you two,” Harper (or Ms. Harper) says. Sean leads and I follow. The front door opens right into the living room: There’s no entry or grand staircase, just an open space with a TV and couch on one side and a dining table on the other. Through a door, I can see a kitchen; I assume the bedrooms are through the other visible opening. It’s a small, older home, but it is beautiful and perfectly… calming.
“Welcome,” Harper says, waving her hands around the space. “Make yourself at home. I’m making cookies…. I’ll be right back.”
She turns and disappears. I look around, wishing I could live somewhere like this. The floor is wide wood strips stained light gray, and the walls in the main room are painted a pale butter yellow. All the trim and built-in bookshelves are white, and the oversized sectional couch is dark charcoal gray. There are sheer white coverings on the wide windows, and someone with a scratchy voice is singing from the first actual record player I’ve seen in real life. A tiny hot dog scampers across the floor.
“I didn’t know you have a dog,” I say.
“I never told you about Dumptruck?” he asks.
“That miniature dog’s name is Dumptruck?” I ask in disbelief. Sean nods. “It’s kind of perfect,” I admit with a laugh as I watch Dumptruck try to hop up on a chair in the sun. Sean walks over and gives him a boost, then returns and kicks his sneakers into a pile by the door. He’s wearing one orange and one navy-blue sock today, which makes my stomach flip.
I step out of my shoes and wiggle my toes, wishing I’d worn socks. Going barefoot on a first visit feels funny. And besides, it’s a little chilly today. As if he’s reading my mind, Sean asks, “Want me to grab you a pair of socks?”
“Is that weird?” I ask.
“Not at all. Follow me.”
He leads me by the hand through the doorway off the dining area. There’s a long hallway with several open doors on either side; we walk all the way to the end, passing what Sean points out as Harper’s room, an office, a spare bedroom, a single bathroom, and finally, his “lair.”
It’s sparse and incredibly neat. The walls are stark white with white wood detail on them. There’s a mattress and box spring on the floor in the corner covered with a solid navy-blue quilt. Next to the bed is a low industrial metal nightstand; there are a desk and a shelf made out of the same material on the far wall. The desk is tidy, with an older laptop hooked to a flat-screen monitor and several binders stacked to the side. The bookshelf looks like it was once organized, but now books are lying horizontally on top of the vertical stacks.
“You need a bigger shelf,” I observe.
“Yeah, but I like that one,” Sean says, walking to the far wall and opening a door. His closet is neat, too. He pulls striped socks out of one of those hanging organizer things.
“Is your room always this clean?” I ask, looking around.
“Would it freak you out if I said yes?” he asks, grinning while offering me the socks.
“Not at all,” I say, taking the socks and sitting down to put them on. They’re black and yellow like a honeybee and way too big for me, but something about wearing them feels nice. “School spirit,” I say about the colors.
“Go, team,” Sean says sarcastically.
“Oh, hey,” I say in a whisper, glancing at the door. “What’s your mom’s first name?”
“Harper,” he says in a matching whisper. “Why? Did you think that was her last name?”
“Yes!” I say, laughing loudly, which makes Sean laugh, too.
“Don’t worry, everyone does,” he says. “Her last name is Kelly, just like mine.”
“Your parents didn’t give you your dad’s name?”
