What was Still is

Chapter 5: Ely

I look down at my screen to see Jack has texted that he's already at the condo. I picked up James from the studio so that we could meet Jack in time, if all goes well we could end up with keys in hand tonight. I can schedule movers for James' stuff and with any hope by Monday morning we could be set up in our new apartment.

"I can't believe you actually found a place today, Jack must be damn good at his job considering all the stipulations we have" James says as she fumbles with her purse no doubt looking for some sort of lip stick or gloss or stain whatever she has in that thing. I feel like her purse is a magicians bag she pulls stuff out there all the time that surprises me.

"Uh yeah, well honestly this is the first thing he showed me and it meets them all so it really didn't take long." turning into the visitor parking at Grand Tower. Resident parking is under ground and can only be accessed with a code unique to each tenant.

The most attracted thing is the security guard that you must sign in with before heading to the elevator bank. This is the kind of security I need for James when I cannot be here to protect her.

As we ride the elevator up to the eighth floor I can see James start to fidget, she is shifting back and forth on her feet and her hand is starting to feel clammy in mine. She tried to pull her hand away but I squeezed it in mine. I have to keep her grounded to me some way so that she doesn't completely flip shit and try to back out of this.

As the elevator opens to the eighth floor I notice one door is open and the other door is closed. This condo has to be massive since there are only two on the floor, meaning we have one neighbor which hopefully means less foot traffic past our door, also another plus on the security front.

Turning into the open door I can hear Jack talking, it sounds like Tracy by the way he is going on. My attention is pulled back to James when an audible gasp comes from her when we step foot into the open living room. Her face is lit up, the sparkle of her green eyes bounce around the room trying to take in everything at once. I may have won this battle before we could have gotten started.

Jack wasn't lying when he said the living room and kitchen were in an open floor plan, the only thing separating the two is a long bar of counters with a kitchen sink in the middle. It's outfitted with nickel plated appliances and the cement counter tops have swirls from the workers leveling them out. The cabinets above along the brick wall are all smoked glass giving them enough transparency to be beautiful but not so much that you can't hid a mountain of Tupperware lids.

Directly to the left of the kitchen area is a small area for a dining room before you are lead out to the balcony. The living room has single pane floor to ceiling windows and the hard wood floors all look original to the factory minus the buffing that occasionally is required.

There is a long hallway to the left of the foray that leads to the bedrooms. The first bathroom on the left down the hallway is bigger than the kitchen at James', with a built in vanity to the counter. There is also some exposed brick work here. James' love for the brick is yet another aide in fighting the battle of the cost. She continues down the hall as I look into each room already finding the first one to be perfect for an office space. It has built in shelves and some more floor to ceiling windows.

If I was a betting man all exterior walls minus the one for the kitchen has these windows. And I'm not going to lie they are going to give us one hell of view.
As I continue down the hall I notice a laundry room on the left past the first bathroom fitted with new front loading washer and dryers, and another bedroom again with the windows. I'm not sure what we would do with that room but it'll be nice to have the space, guest room or maybe a child's room either way we have options.