What if...

Chapter 14

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In the following week, Jen had gone to do the test shots for the movie, again with the same guy, and they both were told that they needed to shown the shots to the studio bosses, and if it got greenlit - which seemed to be a formality - they would both get the part. She was over the moon when she arrived at David's house that night.

He was already waiting in the open door as he had obviously scouted the street for her car to drive up, and looked at her expectantly. She ran up to him and jumped into his arms, and he catched her, having trouble to stabilize both of them. Burrying his face in her hair, he asked:

"I take it, it went good?"

"They practically said they won't do this without me, but they need the final approval of the studio bosses, which seemed more like a formality", she said, squealing the last part.

"Ok, that practically screams for a celebration. I realized that I still owe you a first date. So how about I take you out to that Italian place downtown that I talked about? It's very private and chances are low anybody would see us there? And afterwards, I want to show you something...", he asked, looking at her hopefully. Obviously, he hadn't expected anything less as he was already dressed in a nice shirt and suit pants.

"That sounds perfect...", she beamed at him, "just let me take a quick shower and put on something nice."

The kiss on his lips turned more heated soon and he ended it with a pat on her back, saying:

"Alright, you better do that now before I change my plans...", he joked.

She hurried upstairs, picked out one of the dresses she left at his house, laid her clothes out on the bed before heading to the shower. After about half an hour, she descended the stairs in the fitted black shift dress and black heels, her hair flowing down her back. When she reached the bottom step, he held out his hand with admiration in his eyes, before complimenting her: "Wow, I don't think I have ever had a date this beautiful".

She blushed a little, then replied: "You are not too bad yourself."

They got into David's car and drove to the restaurant he suggested, and were seated at a lovely table on the terrace of the restaurant. They enjoyed their dinner, had some wine and simply enjoyed each other's company. As the weather was still nice and warm, they decided to take a stroll through a nearby park, sit on a bench and watch the stars for a while. When it got chilly, David placed his jacket around her shoulders and wrapped her up in his arms as they walked back to the car.

When he started to drive, she soon realized that he was not driving them back home. She asked him:

"Where are we going?"

He gave her a mysterious smile and replied: "I said I wanted to show you something".

She realized they were headed to Bel Air soon after, a nice part of LA she had always dreamed of living in one day. She looked at the palm trees on both sides of the street, and at the hedges that were probably hiding the most beautiful mansions she could think of.

After some time, David steered the car in one of the smaller streets in the neighborhood, and came to halt at a hedge with a gate that did not look quite as luxurious as the ones around it. He opened the gate to the property and let them in. As they walked down the driveway, she could see a a garden that for sure required some work, but that held beautiful trees and roses, and David grabbed her hand to lead her down a small path to the right. She did not quite know what to make of it, but this property reminded her of some kind of dusty mid-century fairytale. She took off her heels, slightly confused, as they started to walk over grass, past a beautiful brick manison that seemed to be unoccupied. It was older, but had its charm for sure. When they reached the backyard behind the house, she saw an old pool that was only half filled with green water. She was already asking herself what he had planned when she was distracted by the beautiful view of the city. After enjoying this for a moment, she turned to him:

"Oh wow, David, this is beautiful. But what are we doing here?"

"You know, someone I met on set for the movie mentioned that his aunt passed away a while back and that his cousin was thinking of selling her house. He was contemplating to renovate it and then sell it for a profit. I asked the guy to persuade his cousin to let me see the house as is.... you know I made quite a bit of money with that thing, and I have a feeling that there is more to come... so I thought investing in property, especially in a neighborhood like this, would not be the worst idea... You wanna see it?"

She nodded her head excitedly: "Sure!!!"

David got out the keys and let them in through the back entrance. They looked around for a while and you could tell that an old lady had lived in this house and that it urgently required an extensive renovation, but you could clearly see the potential. In her mind, she was already tearing down walls and choosing hardwood floors.

"I know it is old and it is hard to imagine what it would look like. I talked the guy into selling it to me as is at a price... it's still a lot, but it is a steal for a place in this area. And it has a lot of potential, I think..."

She looked at him: "It really does! It's a great place!"

"Ok, I guess it's a good thing then that I bought it."

"You did what?!?!"

"I bought it. And I want you to be involved in remodeling it. I know you are into this and I know that you have a great taste..."

"I would love to do that!"

He took her hands, then he took a deep breath before speaking: "Good. Because I know it will probably take a while for all of this to be done. But when it is, I want you to live here, together with me. If you want that?!", he asked.

She felt tears starting to form in her eyes. There was the man of her dreams, showing her around a house he had just bought for them to build a future together. And she could not wait for it to start. So her reply could only be:

"YES!"

He looked at her excitedly: "Are you sure?"

She snuk her arms around his neck, looked into his eyes.

"I have never been as sure of anything else in my life."

After a long, tender kiss, he broke away, smiling at her, before moving to a neighboring room. Within a few seconds, he returned with a mini cooler and a blanket. He unfolded the blanket on the living room floor of the empty house and motioned her to sit down with him. As soon as she had, he picked two ice cold Bud lights out of the cooler, opened them and handed her one.

Together, they sat on the floor of the living room of their new house, drinking a beer and already making plans for the renovation.