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Can's car tumbled over the gravel driveway, pulling to a stop. Grey had overtaken the sky and gentle rain had settled over the windscreen. Sanem glanced at their house, the cobbled walls and grey paneling shimmered under a layer of mist. She wondered how different the house would feel, with three of them living there, rather than two. It had been advertised as a family house - with three bedrooms, a prospective nursery and plenty of garden space. It was one of the reasons they had chosen it. It had been a skeleton of a building at first. Bringing it back to life had taken longer than originally anticipated. After the honeymoon, Sanem had moved into Can's house, for what was supposed to be a month or two, but turned into four. They kept stumbling onto new problems - quite literally. Sanem's foot had fallen through the rotten floorboards on the back decking. Fortunately, she hadn't hurt herself, but it meant that Can, and the team of builders they had contracted, had to replace both the front and back porch. It had been worth the effort. They replaced the old cedar decking with grey-washed cladding and snow-white fencing, Sanem had installed a chain of hanging lanterns between each of the white support beams and Can had crafted a rope-suspended bench using the left-over decking wood.
Inside was quaint, but far from cozy. It still had only basic furnishings - they had not had time to amass enough trinkets, ornaments, and memories to decorate the whole house. The precious few they had occupied the main bedroom. The open plan living room and kitchen space was still barren. Sanem decided they would need to liven it up before the baby arrived. Oh no. She shouldn't have gone down that rabbit hole, now her hands were shaking again.
"Sanem." Can noticed the tremors, his words gentle words pulled Sanem away from her thoughts. "Maybe you should talk to your mother, she might be able to help." Sanem nodded. He hated that she was feeling like this, and hated that he didn't know what to do to help.
Can's phone chimed from his coat pocket. He had been ignoring it all morning and a pile-up of work emails and messages was forming. He peered at the screen.
"Leyla has been calling." He mused, Emre had also sent a few concerned texts. Sanem checked her own phone, she had been too lost in her own head to notice it trilling. Leyla had attempted to call her too; a mass of texts had arrived from Deren as well.
"They're probably wondering if I'm dying." Sanem joked. Can didn't respond, he was lost in thought, still staring at his phone.
"Is everything okay?" She asked.
"Evet... Something has come up with the Kırmızı Kurt budget. It's not a huge problem, but Metin wants to talk through it with Emre and me. Do you mind if I go to the office for a few hours? Or I could ask them to come here instead... "
"No, it's fine." Sanem interrupted, smiling at him. "I'll visit my parents... talk with them"
"Are you sure you want to do that on your own?"
"I think that might be better." She nodded. "I'll be fine." It wasn't just Can she was reassuring.
