Growing Old With You (Part of Those Three Little Words threequel)

Part 24

9th January 2002
Roger's POV
"Fuck me... god, excuse the language but how in hell did you get this?" Brian looked up at the mansion and I shrugged, a smile on my face at his amazement. "I pulled a few strings. Being pretty can get you far in life, you know" I said and he shoved me, laughing.

"No need to brag, Rog" he mumbled and I cuddled into his side, looking up at the house with him, "it's a bit cold, isn't it?" I asked and he hummed, putting his arm around me and walking me to the front door. We went to separate to get through the doors but both of them opened and we felt like children being able to go through together, like when you're a kid and try to squeeze through the tiniest gap.

The doors opened onto a beautiful reception room with a huge staircase, even bigger than the one at our actual house. "Wow... how much was this, then?" Brian looked at me and I knew he would be annoyed so I brought the number down just a little.

"Five million"

"Five-what!? Five million pounds!? Bloody hell, Rog" he let go of me and wandered around, inspecting the stairs and finding a little storage cupboard. He went to open the door and the whole thing came off the hinges, almost knocking him over, so I rushed over and the two of us pushed it back into the doorframe, "oh god, don't tell me it's gonna be like that house from that film" He mumbled and I frowned.

"What film?" I asked and he had to take a second to remember the name, "oh, the money pit. You know, where the house all falls apart and they've got to rebuild it all?" He looked at me and I had no clue what he was talking about. "I'll show you one day. It's so funny, I love it" he patted my shoulder then took my hand and we had a little walk around, seeing the state of the other rooms.

They weren't in that bad of a condition but there seemed to be a lot to do, a lot of walls needing re-plastering and a few missing doors that would have to be replaced. Brian took down some notes of what we had to do as we went around but we mostly spent the time planning which rooms could be what.

I had a look out at the garden and it was in a bit of a state, all the hedges were overgrown and there were weeds all in the flower boxes. "Got a job for you whilst we clean up" I pulled Brian to the window and I heard his little gasp, "the kids will have fun doing that... so will I" he chuckled and both of us just stood there, smiling at our new garden.

"Right, we'd better have a look upstairs. Care to join me?" Brian put his arm out and both of us walked up arm-in-arm to have a look at the upstairs rooms. "So, what made you want this one? Did you come look at it before?" Brian asked and I shook my head, "no, I just put in a bid for it and got it for the eig- um, five"

My stomach dropped when I saw his face, it was a mixture of a lot of emotions I couldn't quite pick out. "Eight million... are you-is that what you paid?" He asked and my cheeks flushed red as I nodded, getting to the top of the stairs, "yeah... I knew you'd be annoyed about it so I didn't want to tell you"

He sighed and rubbed his face with his free hand, "alright. We'll talk about this later, okay? They'll be kicking us out soon" he opened a door and I just went along with it, following him into all the rooms. They all had beautiful wooden floors and lots of light which I knew the kids would love when it was all decorated.

"Hang on, how many rooms are there?" Brian asked and I got the little pamphlet out of my pocket, scanning down until I found it, "um... six and a master bedroom, it says. So Lola will have to be in with us or Tigs then, right?" I looked up at him and we stopped, looking at all the rooms.

Brian pointed at one at a time and named the kids still living with us, "that one for Lou, for Rory, for Emily, Ru... no, they should have a room each. Hang on" he counted under his breath then looked at me, "yeah, they'll all have their own room" he double-checked himself then pointed at the last room, "so then that'll be ours"