The Memory Playlist

Our House

My eyes scan the picture. There's a gorgeous, two story house that takes up most of the picture. It's a nice beige colour with black trimming and seems to be surrounded by similar old-style houses. What's more relevant is Andy standing in front, a cardboard sign with Sharpie on it reading, "Wanna' move here?"

I look up at Andy, my eyes wide. He can't contain his smile as he grabs my hands. "I am so sick of this house," he says. "All I see when I pull up to it is the memories of moving in with Juliet and I'm so done with her. This house has had a lot of sadness, especially since you had to come home from really shitty days. I was looking at houses in this old neighborhood because I remembered that you liked that old architecture and found this house. It's not much more than this house mortgage-wise and it gets us out of here. It's in a nice older-neighborhood just outside of Los Angeles so we'll still be close to the studio. I have the papers to sign and return tomorrow, but I'm not going to sign unless I've sold you on this house." He looks at me with expectant eyes.

"Andy, you seriously..." I can't find words to describe how I'm feeling.

Andy gets defensive first. "I just wanted to surprise you."

"No! Don't get me wrong!" I stand up, pull him up, and immediately stand on my toes as a testament that I am beyond onboard with this to kiss him. The fact that he looked at Victorian-style houses because he knows I love the look of them and found one and just the fact that he knows we should leave this sadness is incredibly perfect.

Surprised, Andy wraps his arms around my waist. "So, good thing then?" he asks when he pulls away.

"You're seriously perfect," I say, kissing him again. "I am seriously with an angel."

He smiles. "This house is so perfect, Baby Doll. I don't think I could find a better house if I tried. I had to find the just right one and I found this and.... I swore you would love it but didn't want to jump to conclusions." I let him go on about how it's in suburbia, which he's told me he's loved and that he wishes this house was further from LA, and how it's fully restored and modernized, and he talks about how there's a school a few blocks away and that there's a grocery store and restaurant behind the house, and that when he was looking at the house the neighbors were super friendly and started talking to him about the house. He's so excited for this and with his every word I get that much more excited too.

This is finally the fresh start that we need. No more coming home and remembering coming home from funerals just to face insomnia. No more coming home to remember buying a house that Juliet liked. No more awkwardness between me and Andy in Andy and Juliet's house. Now we get to come home to a house that we'll make a home. We can fill that house with pictures and memories and warmth and music. There won't be anymore negativity, any judgement of the walls holding past secrets, any sadness. This house is a fresh start for me and Andy to build a home together, and I'm so ready.

"Baby Doll, are you almost ready?" Andy calls from the living room. His voice echos in the nearly empty space.

I smudge the shadow under my eyes a little more. Tonight is Halloween and Andy and I are going out with his friends. Although Halloween is a big deal to me, we've been moving out the last few weeks so it's pointless decorating this house or the new one, which dimmed my Halloween spirit a little, but Andy promised to make it just as great. We've decided to match, as couples sometimes do, and while he is in a '60s Adam West Batman costume I'm in a modified '60s Cesar Romero Joker costume. The suit is purple, striped, and clings to my body to look more feminine, and I am wearing the vest underneath, but I decided against the shirt underneath so there's more cleavage and it's not as warm. I used some of green hairspray to tint my hair to the right color, pushed it all to one side and teased it, and did my make-up like Cesar Romero's.