old soul | matthew gray gubler

37. nowhere

They drove out of Los Angeles bright and early Friday morning. Charlotte was nervous to meet his family in just under 4 hours, but she blamed most of the nerves on her nausea. That morning, she had to get sick, but she was on the edge of her seat for the moment she'd have to tell him to pull over.

The two days since their date, Charlotte had been gathering information about housing in and outside of Los Angeles. She'd been in contact with a few real estate agents and she started reading a book about renting out one's home. Needless to say, she was ready.

She didn't want to think about how hard it would be to say goodbye to her home when it came to that, so she was just ignoring all the saddened thoughts.

"I know we said we were gonna wait until after I film," Charlotte premised, turning slightly in her seat to look at Matthew.

He wore his glasses again, dark circles prominent because they had woken up at 5 AM. He blinked, hard, to wipe the sleep from his eyes and hummed for her to continue.

"But I already started looking at houses."

Matthew's lips quirked, "Me, too."

Charlotte giggled. "Good to know we're on the same page. What areas have you looked at?"

"Not really anything in Los Angeles," he shrugged, "more or less on the outskirts. The suburbs."

Charlotte nodded thoughtfully. "I'd rather not raise kids in Los Angeles. Or settle down there the rest of my life."

"It's too crowded," he agree, "and dangerous."

"Definitely. But, like, it's difficult just picking a place to live, you know? I don't know that California, in general, is my endgame."

Matthew, who had been holding her hand since they got on the freeway, rubbed her knuckles. "What is your final destination? The place you could see yourself dying in?"

Charlotte's tongue traced her bottom lip. Good question, she thought to herself. She honestly couldn't see herself settling into one home the rest of her life, and she didn't he could either. He was too antsy, always wanting to travel. And she- well, she still had adventure left in her. She wanted to, honestly, renovate a van and drive across the United States. 

"Nowhere," she replied, blankly.

"Well," he glanced at her, "who's to say we have to settle down in one place?"

"You're right. We could just rent houses. I think it'd be nice to live in Illinois for a bit, even Nevada so our families can see the kids."

Matthew's smile lifted at the plural form of what they already had. Kid(s).

"But, then, there's the fact that we film all the time," she huffed.

"Easily fixable," Matthew pursed his lips, "we have your place. We can use it as and AirBnB instead of just renting it flat and leave it empty for whenever we need to be in Los Angeles."

"You're so smart," Charlotte rolled her eyes playfully. "All that travel wouldn't be healthy for children, though."

"Oh, true."