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Chapter 3

"Okay, okay," he whispers into my ear. One of his palms is covering my eyes, detaching me from the world, while the other one is pressed gently against the small of my back, guiding me forward. "Watch your step." His breath is hot against my skin, melting my spine like it's made out of ice.

My toes bump against a wooden surface, shooting pain through my leg, and I whimper quietly, sucking in air through my teeth.

"Are you okay?" the worry in his voice takes all the pain away, soothing me from the inside.

My toes stop pulsating like they have their own heartbeat as I nod to calm him down. "Yeah," I reply, my voice cool, "Where are we going?" I ask for the millionth time in the last ten minutes.

"You'll see," he repeats the same reply he has given me before, "It's a surprise."

I exhale loudly, protesting in my own way, but making peace with the fact that I won't know where we're going until we're actually there. We walk for two or three more minutes, and in that time I give up guessing where we're going. At one point we just stop walking and, after counting to three, he removes his palm away from my eyes, exposing me to our surroundings.

We're standing by the road on the other side of the town from where we grew up, where the road is paved and where the sidewalk actually exists, no matter how shabby it looks like. The grass is taller than it should be, reaching all the way to our knees, covering the better part of the flimsy fence surrounding the lot. In the middle of the lot there's a two story house with broken windows and its doors missing. A house neither too big or too small but, how my mother would say, just enough to turn it into a home. And right next to the house there's a sale sign with the word sold written over it in giant red letters.

"I know, I know," he says before I get a chance to say anything, as if he knows exactly what I would say if given a chance, "It needs some fixing."

I look at him, baffled by his words, cocking an eyebrow in his direction.

"Fine, a lot of fixing. But," he starts defensively, "This is way cheaper than buyin' a fixed up house."

"We don't need a house," I sigh, "My parents said we can stay with them until we get on our feet."

He stands before me, looking down at me with those gloriously green eyes of his. "I know," he wraps his arms around my waist, pulling me closer, making me bump against him, "Which is really nice and generous of them. But I really want us to have our own place."

Me too. I want him all for myself, forever. Living with my parents would make that difficult, especially being alone part, but financially, it's the best solution for us right now.

I look at the house, twisting my wedding band nervously around my ring finger.

"We don't have enough time to fix it up," I try to reason with him.

I've always been the reasonable one. Stefan is a risk taker.

"I'm gonna work on it everyday after work," he says, showing me that he thought it all through.

I shift my attention from the wreck that is, apparently, our future house, to him, frowning. "You? What about me?"

"You need to study. And stay healthy, and strong, and warm, and you won't be any of those things out here in the cold, doing manual labor," he moves my untamed hair out of my face. When he captures the entirety of it, the corners of his lips jump into a smile, ignited by the happiness of seeing me clearly.

I'm taking night classes at the local college, since I'm unable to attend the classes regularly because of my work schedule. My professors understand that I can't quit, since we really need the money. All of them are really nice about it, actually. As much as I'd love to have the full college experience, I accept that that's not my reality.