The Stacks

Chapter 19: The House

"It's bad, huh?" Harry asked, slipping his arms around my waist from behind.

"Yeah," I said in a hoarse whisper. "I mean it's not really dirty; there's just a lot of stuff. What is all of this?" I asked, motioning towards the piles of boxes and bags.

"Cathryn was a shopper," he said, huffing out a small laugh. "She had so many dreams for this house and she shopped almost any chance she could get. The problem was that we were both busy with grad school that most things never made it out of their boxes. Obviously."

"Do you sleep out here?" I asked, nodding towards the recliner.

"Yeah," he said quietly, almost reverently. "I just can't sleep in our room without her."

His words felt like a punch hitting my chest. It was hard to reconcile the fact that he still mourned for Cathryn, yet he claimed to love me. I tried not to show my confusion; I simply nodded in understanding. I told him I would support him with everything he was going through, but it just felt awkward to know his heart was still divided. And I had no idea at what point it would stop feeling like that. Of course he would always remember her and he would always carry some sadness in his heart for her, but it didn't seem like he was fully functioning without her just yet, regardless of his confessions of love for me.

I decided I would simply offer practical help for the moment and not worry about how to handle his lingering grief just yet. "So, where do we start?" I asked.

"What do you mean?" He eyed me suspiciously.

"I mean that I'm going to help you clean up," I told him.

"No, you don't have to do that. That's not why I brought you over here."

"I know - you brought me because I asked you to," I said. "Here's what I think - I first met you when you were having trouble even caring for yourself; I can't imagine it was easy for you to care for your house, too." I was stating the obvious for his benefit. "But now it's just overwhelming for you, isn't it?"

He shrugged and tilted his head in a sideways nod, looking somewhat upset.

"Let me help you," I said gently, holding his hands and looking up into his saddened eyes.

Still holding my hands, he leaned down and pressed his lips against mine, coaxing me to open my mouth to him after only a few moments. Our steamy kiss lasted long enough, but he pulled away suddenly, looking at me with what appeared to be shock.

"What?" I asked, wondering what was going through his mind.

He shook his head and smiled. "Nothing. Let's get started, shall we?"

"Okay, let's start in the kitchen," I said, leading the way. Looking  more closely, it was a surprisingly cute room with white cabinets, antique metal handles and red trim around the countertops. It looked to be the same design from around the time the house was built, probably in the 40's, but it definitely contained more modern elements, like the stainless steel refrigerator and stove, and the red small appliances like the Kitchenaid mixer and the coffee maker.

I opened the doors to the under-sink cabinet and I saw nothing but rags, a kitchen plunger and a can of dusting spray. "Dish soap?" I asked, looking back at Harry.

"Ah, part of the reason I haven't done dishes in a while," he said with a closed-mouth smile. He bent down and took a look for himself. Reaching to the far back of the cupboard, he pulled out a bottle of Dawn that had maybe a teaspoon of liquid left.

"Okay...." I said. "Why don't we figure out what else you need and we can make a run to the store?"

We went over the cleaning tasks to be done and discovered we would need dish soap, Windex, laundry detergent, Lysol, some sponges and some trash bags. "Why don't you run to the store and I'll stay here and get started on the dishes. This should be enough for a few sinks full anyway."

"You sure?" He asked.

"Of course, I don't mind at all."

He kissed my cheek and headed out. I pulled my phone out of my purse and turned on Spotify. Listening to music was always the best way to do household chores, in my opinion. Once the music flowed into the quaint kitchen, I pulled the dishes out of the sink so I could find the drain plug. Running the water until it was as hot as I could tolerate it, I plugged the sink and poured in the last little bit of dish soap. I searched a few drawers before I found a faded washcloth. I used it to wipe down a small area of the countertop where I planned to wedge the dish drainer. Then I set out to wash as much as I could without the benefit of a scrubbing sponge - those dishes would have to wait until Harry got back.

I had only been working for about 20 minutes when I could have sworn I heard Harry coming back into the house. I glanced towards the stairway next to the kitchen, where we had originally entered, but I saw nothing. I was sure I had heard the stairs creaking, but I shook my head and went back to washing. After another 10 minutes or so, I stopped suddenly, almost positive that Harry was standing right behind me. How he could have gotten in without me noticing was beyond me. I turned around and found nothing. No one. Not a trace of Harry.

Trying not to be spooked, I calmly dialed Harry's cell number. "Hey," I said cheerfully when he answered. "How's it going?"

"Miss me already?" He laughed.

"Kind of," I answered.

"I'm actually on my street. I'll be pulling into the drive in about thirty seconds."

I laughed and hung up the phone, waiting eagerly for him to drive in. When he came into the house carrying cleaning supplies, in addition to a pizza and a bottle of Coke, I was flooded with relief. I wasn't sure what to make of my eerie senses while he was gone, but I eventually chalked them up to the fact that I was unfamiliar with Harry's house. Each house has it's creaks and settling noises and I hadn't been there long enough to know what was what.

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Thanks for your patience. There's only one chapter update tonight, but I'll be working on more soon. And thanks for 11K reads! <3

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