Loose Ends

Nineteen

Sebastian sat across from me at the kitchen table paying and going over bills on his laptop, a deep concentrating frown creasing his handsome face. I got up and walked around to him, plucking the bill from his hand and went back to my seat.

"Sabine! What are you doing?" Sebastian gasped in surprise.

"Shhh," I hushed him pressing a finger to my lips, as I pulled my laptop open and typed in the bills web address. The water bill. Good.

"Sabine -"

"You've been running twice as much water since I started coming over. Let me pay my half," I said non-negotiable.

"Lady," he huffed frustratedly.

I cut my eyes up at him, as I typed my card information in to the proper terminals.

I pressed enter with a definitive stab and said, "Paid."

He pushed back in to his chair and sighed.

"That's not what we agreed on Lady," he said.

"We didn't agree on anything when it came to running your flat. It's only right that I do this," I said, placing the water bill down on the table. "You pay half. I pay half. Next."

He reluctantly passed me the gas bill. He already paid his internet bill. It was for the second time I noticed he didn't have a television in the flat. I had become so used to going without one that I didn't think about it.

"Sebastian," I asked, as typed in my name. "Why do you have all those DVD's, but no TV?"

He smiled secretively up at me and said, "I'll show you after we pay the bills."

Sebastian pulled me in to his office and let go of my hand, stopping in front of the closet. He opened the door and pulled a black box with a lens on the face from atop of a shelf. As my eyes landed on the machine, I understood what it was. Dragging a folded wooden table from out of the closet, Sebastian snapped it open upright and placed the black box on top. He then closed the closet door, grabbing a thick white sheet hanging from the ceiling in the corner from it and dragged it across a ceiling rod.

I stepped back looking at a homemade movie theatre. Sebastian flipped a switch on the box and a whirring emitted from the machine. The lens flipped to life projecting a blue light across the screen.

Sebastian looked at me expectantly and asked, "What would you like to watch?"

We pulled out a bunch of sheets and blankets creating a big pallet on the floor, collecting our pillows from the bed and propped them under us. I got comfortable against Sebastian's chest, as he took a remote pointing it at the projector and started the movie.

"Hold on. One more thing," he said, suddenly pausing the movie and grabbed another remote pointing it at the windows around him.

The closed blinds flipped casting the room in shadowed darkness. The only way you could tell it was light outside was from the sunlight lining the closed shades.

"Now, we can watch a movie," he said satisfied, as he got comfortable again pointing the projector remote again and pressed play.

I lifted my head watching his easy smiling face bounce in the screen light. He was definitely a simple, old fashioned kind of man. Not many bachelors would forgo having a TV in their apartment for a homemade theatre. There would be too much to catch up on. This was definitely better. Imagine having friends and family over. A romantic movie night. Family time with three laughing children. You couldn't beat the variability this could have and - I acknowledged the desire for all of it.