The White Queen (S.Rogers)

Chapter 34

Steve gave a groan of frustration, rubbing his hands over his head. "I don't get it. The guy at the store said it would be easy to put together. It's a table for Christ's sake!"

Brooklyn laughed easily from the kitchen. "Do you need help?"

He looked at the various parts of the table, laying on the floor around him. "The instruction manual is confusing. I thought we picked an easy one!"

Juliana, sitting cross legged next to him, held out the screwdriver. "It's okay, Steve."

He sighed roughly, before taking the tool from her, and setting it aside, before rubbing the top of her head. "I know, Sweetheart."

Brooklyn finished what she was doing in the kitchen, which she was being vague about, before washing her hands, and coming around to sit down with them, reaching for the instructions. "They are in pictures."

"I know." He growled, grabbing what looked like a table leg and compared it to the instructions.

After his confrontation with the neighbor in hall, who had been, well not exactly harassing Brooklyn, on her way up from getting the food from the delivery person, but definitely pushing boundaries, and after a rather satisfying dinner, they had enjoyed a quiet evening, watching movies, eating ice cream and generally just having fun with each other, until Juliana had started to drop off.

Now, after the little girl had been put to bed, well, that was adult time, and that was between Steve and Brooklyn.

This morning, after a rather grumpy Juliana had a minor melt down over the fact that, yet again, no one had set the coffee pot, something she obviously blamed Steve for. Brooklyn had calmed her sister down, while Steve made breakfast. He had watched as the sisters sat on the couch, discussing the issue. It apparently upset Juliana that something that was a routine in their house, I.e. Juliana starting the coffee pot every morning, was being disrupted because Steve was staying over.

Brooklyn had looked at him, sighed, and agreed with Juliana that the coffee pot situation needed to be fixed.

Steve left them to it.

After breakfast, and getting dressed, Brooklyn had looked up, on her phone, the best place to buy a kitchen table. Which was this place called IKEA. Steve had seen adverts for it, but hadn't yet gone. The store was in Red Hook, which was comfortable for Brooklyn. Steve agreed, and once they corralled Juliana up, they flagged a taxi and were on their way.

It was vastly overwhelming. For all of them.

A guided maze through the store led them past piles and pile of stuff. Just stuff. The setups of different rooms, of all types was interesting, but again, overwhelming. They wandered through the store, looking at all the different set ups, occasionally something other than what they were looking for catching their eyes. Juliana latched on to a stuffed animal, carrying it through the store, making him smile.

They finally reached the kitchen/dining room set ups, and then began the discussion on what they were actually looking for. Most of the chairs didn't look like they would hold his weight, and he was attracted to the ones that had benches. Brooklyn had her eye on a black set, with spindly legs.

In the end, they compromised on a classic unfinished wood set. It was called Ingo, and the chairs matched perfectly.

Brooklyn also picked out some chair cushions, pointing out that little bottoms didn't like hard surfaces.

After finding the broken down table and chairs, and sliding the heavy boxes onto their cart, along with the cushions, they went on their way, trying to figure out how to get to the check out.