Milkshake Hearts

Chapter 72: House Searching

"That just happened. But- I'm going to go change now, and you can return to whatever you're meant to be doing separately so it isn't obvious we've been hiding in a bathroom together," Courtney tells him.

"Yeah, but first..." Shayne trails off, reaching out for her. She complies, stepping into his arms and letting her own settle at his waist as he places a gentle kiss against her lips.

"Love you," she whispers.

"Love you too. And it was very sweet you didn't want to take your ring off, but can I ask why?" he asks, and she smiles shyly.

"I don't usually mind taking it off for shoots and characters and whatever and I don't really know why but today I just... didn't want to take it off and hand it over to someone else, however much they probably would've looked after it fine. I just needed to protect it," she shrugs, and he nods. He leans forward to kiss her one last time before finally stepping away and out of the bathroom, wandering alone back towards the office.

"Where've you been?" Ian swoops on him the second he steps into said office.

"Various places," he shrugs casually, "helped Court takes some photos while she was still Brianna, chatting with the editors about some stuff."

He can tell Ian doesn't buy it.

"Where is Courtney? Haven't seen her since the shoot either."

"I dunno, last I knew she said she was going to get changed," Shayne answers, feigning ignorance.

"Hmm, okay then, ah well," Ian nods. He winks at him before he leaves Shayne to go, though, and Shayne sighs as he continues on to his own desk.

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"Whatcha up to, Shayney baby?" Courtney asks him, leaning down against the back of the sofa behind him the next Saturday afternoon, having just finished a makeup-testing Instagram live in their bedroom.

"Half-assed house searching," he answers, and she quickly launches herself over the back of the couch to take a seat beside him, nudging his laptop slightly to the side so she too can look over it.

"Found anything?"

"Nothing exactly, but I think like... ideas? There's a lotta stuff out there to choose from, I think I'm getting more of an idea of what I don't like than what I do," he muses, flicking through a few tabs to show her options he's brought up.

They are, thankfully, generally in agreement: they want a couple bathrooms and ideally three bedrooms, they want the rest of the space to be relatively open plan and flexible, they want a kitchen that actually functions as a usable kitchen not just a tiny little thing they could never prepare a casual meal for friends or family in.

"Backyard would be nice. I mean, I know maintenance and all, but it'd be cool to have some outdoor space sometimes, you know?" Courtney muses, when they flick through the photos on one particular listing of a nice-looking house only a few blocks from their current apartment, featuring a small grassy back courtyard.

"For sure, and I mean, would be cool for the kids when they come over, and so we don't have to go to your Dad's every time you feel like lying in the sun in a bikini..." he teases, Courtney laughing.

"Yeah, but my Dad's place got the pool still."

"I actually have zero complaints about hanging out at your Dad's place, it's fun. But anyway... you think maybe we should like, go to an inspection for this one, just have a closer look? See how it all goes?" he suggests, and she nods.

They remain low-key about their house searching, but from that point, it picks up. They go to two open inspections on the following Saturday and another on the Sunday, and although none of them quite tick all the boxes they want, they give them increasingly clear ideas of what they want (and even clearer ideas of what they don't). They tick off a couple more the following weekend, plus a conversation with a mortgage broker that Rob knows about finance rates, land taxes and a whole host of concepts around home ownership that pull them both way outside their comfort zone.