Claire and Owen: "Run"

Chapter 3

Claire's POV

We get out of the taxi with our luggage and stand in front of a tall, old looking apartment in the city of Chicago. I sigh, wheeling my suitcase down the rocky pavement beside Owen.

"It's different," Owen observes quietly. He gives the building a hard look. We continue walking to the front lobby and the doorman opens the door wide for us.

"Different?" I repeat. We step inside. The lobby is full of different shades of wood with a fireplace on the left side of the room, surrounded with various furniture and a front desk on the right. "It's well... Nice." I couldn't complain about our new apartment. That's the last thing Owen wants to hear. He's really excited about moving here. I am too... Well, sort of.

"I love it." Owen squeezes my hand and we walk to the front desk hand-in-hand. The lady behind it is busily typing away at her laptop, her eyes glued to the bright screen.

"Hello."

She jumps up in surprise from my words. "Sorry," she quickly apologizes. She looks at us closer, narrowing her dark eyes. "What can I help you with?"

"We just bought apartment 314 and were wondering if we could have our room keys." Owen calmly responds.

"What are your names?"

"Owen Grady and Claire Dearing."

"Okay..." She types into the laptop. "Where have you travelled from?"

"Los Angeles, California," I answer this time. Owen smiles at me. I return a nervous smile.

"And do you have any ID on you, Mr. Grady?"

"Right here." Owen hands the lady his identification card. She looks at it for a quick second and slides it across the counter. He swipes it and places it back into his wallet.

"Wait one second," the desk lady tells us. She walks over to a table behind her desk and looks in various folders.

"I can't wait to see the place," I whisper into Owen's ear. I want to convince him I'm as happy as possible.

"Me too. I took an online tour of it and it looked great. Very home feeling." He reassures me. "You're gonna love it."

I nodded my head. I can trust Owen. I know it'll be amazing.

The desk lady walks over to us and hands us two golden keys. "If you lose these we have spares," she tells us. "But only so many. Welcome to the building."

We both take our individual keys. "Thank you," Owen said, giving the lady a small nod. "Let's go Claire." He takes my hand and we go over to the elevator.

"Wait," I said. The doors shut. "What floor is our apartment on?"

"Third floor."

"Okay. Good."

Owen laughs at me. "Relax, Claire. Your going to love the place." He places his hands on my shoulders and pulls me in for a kiss. I passionately kiss him back, closing my eyes. I don't even notice that the elevator stops on the third floor and there's people staring at us kissing in the elevator.

"Excuse us?"

I pull away from Owen instantly and come face-to-face with two parents and two twin girls who look 8. My cheeks turn bright red.

"I'm sorry. Excuse me." Owen grabs my hand and pulls me out the elevator with him.

"Welcome to the building, sir!"

*******

Owen unlocks the door and smiles at me brightly. "Welcome home."

Wow. For a small apartment, it really is something. We first walk into the front entranceway. Beside it to the left is the dining room, kitchen, and living room. It has an open floor plan with a huge glass window that looks above Chicago in the living room. I run over to the window and press my face against the glass. For the third floor it is a fantastic view.

"What do you think?" Owen walks up from behind me, wrapping his arms around my waist. He leaves sweet kisses on my neck.

"I love it." I can't lie. This place is great. Not as great as my old house, but a close second. "I thought I wouldn't, but I do." I shudder when he kisses my jaw. God, why does he do this to me?

"I knew you would." He spins me around. I kiss his lips passionately, wrapping my arms around his neck. His arms pull me legs up. I wrap them around his waist, pulling him in closer. We continue to kiss each other back and forth until there's a knock on the door.

I groan. Owen smiles sadly at me and I drop onto my feet. He walks to the front door. "Oh, okay. Thank you." He closes the door and comes over to me. "Our furniture has arrived," he announces.

"Finally," I said relieved. "That means we have to unpack. Ugh."

He rolls his eyes. "We can unpack now and by tonight we should be done. The place will look amazing. Let's go." I take his hand and stroll out of the apartment.

*****

"Want to take a final tour?"

We finished unpacking and refurnishing and decorating the house by 10:00 PM. It look a team of five workmen and us to haul the furniture in and out to the apartment. I nod my head at Owen and we go into the kitchen.

"I bought us food earlier," he said. "That's why I disappeared for half an hour."

"That's why," I said.

The kitchen has a few vases with flowers in them. A fruit bowl filled with apples and oranges is centred on the counter. On the fridge is magnets holding up photos of us, the boys, the raptors, and photos of our friends. Well, Owen's friends.

"You did incredible at decorating," I said, kissing him sweetly on the cheek.

"Why thank you." He beams. Owen looks at the fridge. I know where he's gazing at. He steps closer and takes the magnet off of the photo of him and the raptors. His smile fades as his eyes cloud up.

I'm a worthless human being.

"Hey," I said, gently taking away the photo from his hands. "It's okay."

"Yeah." He nodded his head. "It's just fine." He kisses my forehead. I put the photo back up on the fridge. "Show me what you did with the dining room."

After a tour of our house, we finally eat dinner at 10:21 PM. I pull out the Chinese food we ordered and take out two plates. "Order up!" I call to Owen, who's in the bedroom.

"I'm starving!" He runs over to the kitchen and sits down on one of the stools at the counter.

"Me too. Let's dig in."