Don't Marry Your Contractor*

Chapter 32 - The Carriage House, Redux

Present Day:

On a cold but clear late February morning, Justin and Charlotte shared a late breakfast. She was wearing old sweatpants and an equally worn 437th Airlift Wing sweatshirt and he was dressed for work. As they finished eating, Justin topped off his traveler with hot coffee and kissed his fiancée lightly on the lips. "Thanks for the nice wake up and breakfast was good too. I'm off to the salt mines."

Charlotte sipped her coffee and agreed with his earlier comment. "You too, I'm really starting to like having a warm roomie or is it hot boyfriend?"

"Right, me too. Anyway, I'll pick up the Certificate to Occupy at City Hall and then we're scheduled to meet our new tenant at 1 PM. After that I'll take you to the airport."

Charlotte nodded and stood up. "Right, check-in is at four so we should have plenty of time and that also gives me a few hours to take care of a few things around here and pack for the week."

"Okay, see you then."

Later that day, Charlotte heard Justin's truck rumble up and park behind the house in his spot in front of the carriage house. She left the back door wearing her airline uniform and matching pilot's leather jacket. "Afternoon J. Everything go okay with the city?"

He smiled in the affirmative at his friend, lover and now business partner and held out an officious looking form. "Sure did Char, long time coming but those fools at the historic commission finally signed off but then the minions of bureaucracy used the holiday as an excuse to slow leak the CTO, finally we are good to go, and just in time. Our new tenant should be here in a few minutes."

Charlotte gave Justin a gentle kiss. "Great J. How about you give me one more walk-through? I haven't been up there since your crew set up the furniture."

As they were walking up the steps to the newly remodeled above garage apartment , Charlotte reminisced. "You do remember that I lived up here most of my last year at Boise State after Gram got sick again?"

Justin nodded solemnly. "Yeah, I do. I was living in an old house in Garden City, but still came by all the time to see mom and dad and of course Lena and the girls. I remember asking them why on earth Charlotte is running in combat boots every morning."

Charlotte laughed at the memory.

Justin then asked. "So you remember when you went off to join the Air Force right after graduation?"

Charlotte rolled her eyes. "How could I forget? June, July and August in Texas getting yelled at for three months and all of that."

Justin laughed. "I do remember wondering why you were working out in the heat of the day and running up and down the streets on the North End for months before that."

Charlotte smiled again. "Had to be able to run three miles in boots in thirty minutes by the end of OTS. I wanted to make sure I could do it on day one and I did!"

"There was never any doubt but then there was that haircut, not exactly sexy, but I sure thought you looked hot."

"You did?"

"Oh yeah..."

Charlotte smiled. "I had heard all of the stories from Gramps so I cut my hair as short as they would allow and showed up that way. It wasn't quite G.I. Jane short, but you get the idea."

At the top of the stairs of the small landing, Justin pointed to the new digital door lock. "This is what everybody does now. You give the tenant their own code and then when they leave, you delete it. Way better than re-keying locks or worrying about tenants copying keys."