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“Are you serious? Oliver, this house is going to list for at least a half a million dollars. I can’t afford that.”
He shrugged. “I can.”
“I can’t let you do that.”
“Do what? Buy us a house? Listen…” He took my hands in his. “We’re really doing this relationship thing, right? You want to be together, don’t you?”
I nodded. “Yeah, but—”
“No but needed. What’s mine is yours. I want to do this, for us.”
With a soft exhale, I leaned over and kissed him. “Okay. You’re right. Let’s do this.”
“Really?” The smile on his face was one of surprised joy.
“Really. Let’s go see the house.”
We toured the house, but Oliver quickly vetoed it because the kitchen was too outdated. He vetoed the second one because of the counter space and the third because there wasn’t enough room to install upgraded appliances. We viewed house after house, but nothing really caught Oliver’s eye. I turned down my fair share of houses, too—no room for a home office, bedroom was too small, no outdoor space to entertain. The real estate agent, a guy named Shawn who was our age, with sun-kissed blond hair and muscles that made him look like he’d just stepped out of a lifetime at the gym, was unwavering and by the end of the day we’d seen at least ten places and I was starting to wilt.
“Maybe we should call off the search for today,” I suggested. Oliver hummed his agreement.
“Okay,” Shawn said. “We can try again tomorrow. Maybe we try Arlington. How does that sound?”
I nodded, scrubbing a hand over my face. All I really wanted to do was get off my feet and into some sweatpants. I couldn’t even think about another day of house hunting quite yet.
Once we were alone, Oliver put the car in gear and started heading in a direction that was decidedlynotthe way home.
“Where are we going?” Even I could hear the suspiciousness in my tone.
“One more stop for the night.”
“Oliver…”
“Come on, it’ll be worth it.”
“Fine, but you’re giving me a blow job when we get home for sure.”
He laughed. “Deal.”
We headed north until we were winding through the city. I’d always hated the DC streets, longing for the grid system New York was based on instead. Eventually, we parked on the street and stepped onto the sidewalk. Oliver came around the car and took my hand, more giddy than I’d ever seen him. We walked about a half block when he pulled me to a stop in front of a three-story building that looked very abandoned.
Oliver swept his arm to indicate the building in front of us. “This is it.”
I raised my eyebrows. “This is it?”
He nodded. “This is the home of the new restaurant.” My brows drew together, but I didn’t get a chance to protest. “I know it doesn’t look like much, but it’s amazing inside. It used to be a bank. It’s going to take so much refurbishing, but Joseph is on board with whatever we need to do to get it up to speed. There’s original tile in there that looks like it might date back to the thirties.”
His enthusiasm was contagious and soon I was smiling too, despite how tired I was. I let out a low whistle. “That sounds amazing.”
Oliver turned to me and took both of my hands in his, his face radiant. “Say hello to Metamorphosis.”
My eyebrows drew together. “Metamorphosis?”
He frowned. “Do you like it?”
I shrugged. “It seems good to me.”
Oliver kissed me quickly and smiled, pulling me close. His cheeks reddened and he was suddenly shy, looking down to where our bodies touched for a moment before looking up again and meeting my gaze. “I’ve changed.You’vehelped me change. That’s what a metamorphosis is. Growth. Transformation. I have you to thank for that.”
