Magnet and Steel

6

Lindsey led Stevie into the little elegant bar that they were having their drink in and like the gentleman he is, he opened the door and pulled her seat out for her. 

She ordered a double martini and Lindsey a Bourbon and then he turned to her.

"So are you upset that you didn't win?" Lindsey asks.

"No, not at all." Stevie shakes her head.

"Really?" Lindsey asks.

"No, because at the end of the day it's about what makes the clients happy. And They loved my designs, and that's all that matters to me." Stevie smiles. 

"You're sweet Steph." Lindsey smiles.

"I like that." Stevie smiles tracing her finger along the rim of her glass.

"Like what?" Lindsey inquires.

"Steph. I like when you call me Steph. It's something special between just us." 

"You told me your name was Stephanie, no one calls you Steph?" 

"No, no one calls me Steph. I like it." She grins.

"Well then, I guess I'll start calling you Steph then." Lindsey smirks. 

"I had fun these first few weeks and I'm excited to be doing it again, starting on Monday, I just hope that we can, we can keep this up." Stevie explains. 

"I'm sure we will be. My family is planning on watching it when it aires in December. I think it's going to be well received because this is different it's a different show than what's on TV right now." Lindsey shrugs sipping his drink.

"That I true. I'm excited to see what happens." Stevie nods. 

***

October 14, 2002

"You should come to my halloween party on Thursday October 31st." Stevie states.

"You're throwing a Halloween party in the middle of the week." Lindsey cocks an eyebrow as they approach the restaurant. 

"I always throw a giant Halloween Party." Stevie shrugs.

"We'll I've certainly got nothing better to do so I'll be there, you've just gotta send me your address." Lindsey opens the door for her. 

They were meeting Patrick and Andi today. And they had a different circumstance that Stevie was slightly worried about. Patrick has two kids from a previous marriage and Andi has two children from a previous marriage and though they've been married for a year they're only seeing each other on the weekends so the house that Stevie is renovating is a triplex home that Patrick owns and Andi has no desire to move her kids into but it's by the beach. Lindsey has to figure out a house for all of them to comfortably live in. 

"So we haven't been through your house yet, But I have seen the specs so I can guess how hard it must be for you guys to fit six people in there. So what do you need from me to get you to move?" Lindsey asks.

"Alright well we need at least four bedrooms, two bathrooms, a large kitchen, spacious family room, lots of storage, a garage and I need to be in my neighborhood, we're on the water I love the water and I want to stay on the water." Patrick tells Lindsey. 

"I will do my best to make that happen, but I'm sure Stevie has something she wants to say about that too." Lindsey points out.

"Yes, I need to know what it is that I have to do to make you stay int he house." Stevie smiles.

"So it's a triplex that we want to make into one giant household. We need to add two bedrooms on the second floor, we need to update and enlarge the kitchen on the main floor. You need to create a family space, give me a separate laundry room. The second floor bathroom needs to be updated and you need to change the second floor access to make it not an entrance but an escape route incase of fire." Andi explains.

"On the face it doesn't sound too daunting." Stevie smiles.

"So we're going to go check out your house now." Lindsey smiles. 

When they arrive Stevie and Lindsey look at each other and then look at the house. 

"How should we tackle this?" Lindsey asks.

"Let's just go straight through." Stevie sighs.

"Let's go."  Lindsey nods.

"It's kinda narrow." Stevie states.

"Apartment like." Lindsey agrees "She probably looks at this kitchen and goes honey, I'm not cooking in there." 

"I would cook in here." Stevie states.

"It'll be easy in the house I show them." Lindsey pouts out.

"This is such a boys house. There is no elements of a woman's touch it's very bachelor pad Like." Stevie wrinkles her nose.

"What do we have...oh," Lindsey states.

"Oh, is right." Stevie chews on her lip.

"It's like an all purpose mud storage room place." Lindsey laughs. "It's not even usable. Let's go upstairs." 

"Well, this is actually really nice, it's just in the wrong space." Stevie sighs.

"It looks like it's under construction. And what the hell even is this closet." He opens the door leading to a little triangular space.

"It's storage space never the less." Stevie crosses her arms.

"But not a closet." Lindsey tells her "This place just needs redone top to bottom." 

"Maybe do you think that, that is why I'm here?" Stevie asks.

"Well you're here to help me sell it." He shrugs. 

"Oooh, look at this." Stevie smiles leading them up to the top level of the house.

"It does have a great patio space, I'll give you that." Lindsey nods.

"I'm going to have fun here." She winks.

"Yeah yeah, let's go get our budgets." Lindsey sighs.

***

"I'll see what I can do, it is going to be a challenge but I'm up for it. I just need to know how much I have to spend."  Stevie smiles when they meet back up with the homeowners. 

"Our budget is 35,000 dollars." Patrick tells her.

"I will see what I can do." Stevie nods.

"What you need is a single family home. I've evaluated your house and it's at 675,000 dollars prior to Stevie's renovation. So what is your new budget."

"Between 750 and 800 thousand" Andi smiles.

"Well I am going to do my best to find you exactly what you need." Lindsey smiles.

"And I'm going to do better than Lindsey's best." Stevie winks.