Harper & Lee Plus Three

Coming Together

I shut my alarm off on my phone and dragged myself out of bed. I hated the opening shift. Hated it.

I took a shower because I was soaked in sweat. We seriously needed a window AC but they cost legit over a hundred dollars. I worked less than twenty hours a week at Rigby's and made only thirteen bucks an hour. It was a no-way sort of deal. We'd just have to sweat until it finally was fall.

I put on my work uniform, which was just a polo shirt and khakis, which were already getting tight. I took a banana with me and ate it on the bus, then had an exhausting day at work. Less Karens, thankfully, but more foot pain which just came out of nowhere.

I grabbed some more food from the store, including our all-important spices, before catching the bus home. I walked in the door of our place at two.

"Don't 'what' me! You tell me what is on the side table!" I said, pointing to this big glass thing with a princess castle, purple plant, and mermaid statue in it.

"It's an aquarium!" she said, happily running over to it. "When I went to pick up the side table, they asked me if I wanted to take the fish too so I did! I saw this dirty little fish bowl on the table in the picture and I thought it was, you know, just what they were putting on top of the table."

"Wait, there's a fish in here?" I asked, getting closer. "Why is this thing humming?"

"It's the filter. I guess fish are supposed to have one," she said, shrugging. "I went to the pet store to get her food and the guy there told me she needs a bigger tank and I saw all the cute stuff they had for girl fish! I couldn't help myself!"

I looked closer and saw this tiny little white fish with red spiky fins swim out from behind the plant. She had little red spots on her face that looked like freckles.

"OMG she's so cute!" I said. "What are we gonna name her?"

"The lady said her name was Gertrude."

"Eww! No!" I said.

"I think she looks like a bad girl with those spiky fins, so I was gonna call her Bad Bitch, BB for short!"

"I love it! Hi BB!" I said to her. "What kind of fish is she?"

"The lady said she was a betta fish," Etsy said. "But other than BB, how does the place look? I did awesome, didn't I?"

I looked around the room and saw a couch along the wall.

"How did you get a couch in your car?" I asked.

"It was a drop off, but the stupid guy who was bringing it was here when I was in the shower so he left it on the curb. I found a musclehead guy mowing his lawn next door to help me bring it in," she said. "You ready to leave for round two?"

"Yeah, just help me get this stuff put away first."

We unloaded the groceries and then we were off into Etsy's car and on a mission. First, we picked up a set of old dishes with forks, knives, and spoons. All of it was mismatched, but we didn't care. We just needed utensils.

Our next stop was on the other side of town, so we went to the Starbucks drive-thru to get a coffee and some lunch. This person had a lot of three floor lamps and two table lamps. The silver table lamp was going to be for Etsy's room, and the other table lamp was mine. Black was my favorite color, and this lamp has hand-painted black bats on it, so I wanted it. The floor lamps were for the downstairs. Our last stop had a doormat for the porch and placemats for the big dining table Lee was getting.

When we got home, we plopped down on our reclining sofa with cupholders. We put her laptop on the plastic storage tote that we were using as a coffee table and started watching one of her The Office dvds from the box set she had.

Lee got home after sunset with the big ass table and six chairs. They were dented, scratched, and falling apart. I moved our crumb-filled picnic blanket out of the way so he and Etsy could bring everything in.

"Wow, look at this cheap shit! No wonder they were only a hundred bucks!" Etsy said.

"It's either cheap shit or we keep eating our meals on a picnic blanket. Take your pick," Lee said, placing down a chair. "They said we should go pick up some wood glue from the hardware store. I'll go take an uber there after school."

"Aww, you're the best!" I said. I started looking around the room. "Wow, this is legit really starting to come together!"

"We just need to liven up these boring white walls," Etsy said.

"I'm sure we can find some cheap posters somewhere," I said.

We spent the rest of the night with Netflix in the background while we took some time to chill on our phones. When it was time for bed, I got up. But before going to my room, I went to the third bedroom and turned on the light.

The room was dusty, dirty, and full of our spare moving boxes and other junk. I tried to envision where we'd put the two cribs, or how on earth we'd fit two sets of clothes for two babies in that tiny closet.

"What are you looking at?" I jumped. Lee put his arm around me. "You have that face. That face you make when you're thinking, when you're getting creative."

"What do you think of painting the walls green?"

"Green? But what if they're girls?"

"I mean like a light green, almost like a mint. It'll be pastel. Really neutral."

Lee sighed. "Painting will be kinda expensive though."

"We can do it ourselves. Etsy can help. It's just painting. How hard can it be?"

He pulled me closer and kissed the top of my head. "I guess we'll find out."

I took a quick shower and went to bed, barely able to fall asleep because I was too busy fantasizing about the nursery.