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Chapter Eight
Xava
“I really appreciate you taking the time to show me some places.” I know how busy Emily is on a day-to-day basis. I’m not just talking about her being a mother and new wife, either. She works full-time, too.
“Are you kidding? If anyone’s showing you some places, it’s going to be me, not someone else who’s going to try to upsell you something that you don’t need. Now, before we go anywhere, I want to know what’s important to you in a condo or house. Do you know which you’d prefer?”
I lick my lips nervously. The fact I’m actually going out to look at a place to live blows my mind. “I don’t really have a preference.” I don’t know what I want. I don’t even know how I will afford any place Emily shows me to begin with, but that’s something I’ll have to figure out. Maybe I can get a job doing something in the city to make the monthly payments.
“Okay, so let me ask you this. Do you feel like dealing with the maintenance required in owning an actual home, even if it’s a townhome?”
I think she means mowing the lawn and those sorts of things. “I mean, I don’t want to go out of my way to do those things, no.”
Emily nods. “Okay, that’s exactly what I thought. I think we should keep our search limited to condos right now. Are there any amenities you know you can’t live without?”
I ponder what my sister-in-law is asking of me, and one thing really jumps to the forefront of my mind. “I’d love to have a bathtub. I don’t have access to one at Mona and Nazyr’s. Mona’s told me I can take a bath in their bathtub, but I think that’s kind of weird, so I don’t want to do that.”
“Okay, that should be easy enough to find. Are you looking for a certain number of bedrooms?”
I don’t have any kids, and I really don’t see why I’d need more than one bedroom. Well, wait… whenever Yara comes to visit, it would be nice to have an extra bedroom. “Two bedrooms would be fine, I think.”
“All right. We’ll look for two-bedroom, two-bathroom condominiums with plenty of space. I don’t want you being shoved into a place the size of a shoe box. I’ll try to make sure the closet space is more than accommodating.”
“Sounds great. I really appreciate everything you’re doing for me. Like, you have no idea.” I offer Emily a soft, thankful smile. She really doesn’t have to be doing any of this for me, and yet she is.
“Stop it. You’re family, and I always look out for my family. Now, I believe Rolando is going to be driving us today, right?” Emily looks past me at Rolando, and by the time I turn to look at him, he’s giving her a curt nod. “Perfect. Rolando, I need you to take us to The Caucasus.”
“Certainly.”
The group of us leave the house and head to Rolando’s car. It’s only a short five-minute drive before we pull up at the historic-looking building Emily called The Caucasus. “Is this it?”
“Yes, it is.” Emily beams proudly.
Rolando manages to find some street parking, and the three of us get out of the vehicle and then walk up to the massive building. It runs two city blocks, and there’s even an extension on the next street. The exterior of the building is a cream stone, while the roof is a burnt amber color. “How far away is this from the city center?”
“A five-minute walk, give or take, but I’m sure since Rolando’s driving you, you’d get there a lot sooner. You’re only a few minutes away from the entire family, which is awesome. Now, come on, I can’t wait to show you this one. I actually think you’re going to appreciate a lot of the interior design. Most of it is original, but the current owner did put a few newer updates into the apartment.”
“I can’t wait to see it,” I comment, and Emily takes us inside the building. We head down a hallway and then find the elevators, where we go up one floor. The unit is located on the second floor, and as Emily slides the key into the door and pushes it open, I’m intrigued by the unique design.
The floors are a newer, almost white wood, while the walls are made up of various stones. As soon as you walk into the home, a cream and white-colored stone stretches across the living area wall. But the alternate wall features black and gray stone, which expands to part of the ceiling. Right where the black and gray stone comes to a halt on the ceiling, there is a blue light coming from the edge of the stone, which lights up about a few inches of it. It’s such a unique artistic feature, and I like it a lot.
“You can change the color of the light to whatever you want. The current owner obviously likes blue,” Emily continues, leading me through the place, and we head into the kitchen next.
The same flooring and lighter stone are on the walls, and the kitchen cabinets are quite unique. They’re almost quilted looking on the outside, and I’ve never seen this before. It’s beautiful and adds a feminine touch to the place. “Are these something the owner did as well?”
“Yes, she replaced them a couple of years ago. She really worked on wanting this apartment to have feminine features. One of my colleagues actually sold the place to her before, and it was so dark and dank in here. She brought some much-needed life back into it, don’t you think?”
“She did, for sure.”
The kitchen isn’t overly large, but I don’t need anything too crazy. “How many bedrooms is this?”
“It’s a bit more than you were looking for. It’s three bedrooms, and there’s an office as well. The office is very tiny, but it could make a nice work area or even a study area.”
Study… I haven’t even thought about going to school yet. There’s so much pressure in trying to figure out what I want to do. I know I want to do something, but I just don’t know what that something is yet.
Emily takes me through each bedroom, and they’re all very nice. They’re incredibly spacious, and the closets are enormous as well. Emily forgot to mention that there are three bathrooms. One is attached to the master, while the other two are very close to the other bedrooms. I don’t really need three bedrooms, but I’m not going to complain about it at all. It’s better to have more space than not have enough, right?
It kind of gets me thinking… Rolando spends a lot of time guarding me. He’s pretty much around me all of the time. There have only been a couple of instances where someone else comes to relieve him so he can return to his apartment. “Rolando.” I turn and look at my guard, and Emily’s phone starts ringing, so she walks away to take the phone call.
