"How could anyone live like this?" gasped Theora seeing the disarray in her closet. On her side everything was in order, all the clothes were neatly on hangers, all the drawers were closed and not one thing was out of place. The other side was a complete different story countless clean shirts and pants lay on the floor along with yesterday's dirty clothes, all the drawers were open with socks and underwear in a mess some hanging off the side of the drawer some on the floor.
"Did you say something?" Nicholas asked coming back into the closet he had already worn his suit and was in the process of putting on his tie.
"What is this?" Theora said pointing to the mess
"What's wrong?" Nicholas completely oblivious
"You don't see anything wrong with this closet? Are you serious?"
"Why is something broken?" Nicholas shrugged. Theora's mouth hung open he doesn't have the slightest clue she thought.
"Look at my side then look at yours" Theora said crossing her arms over her chest glaring at him.
"Yours has dresses while mine is mostly shirts and suits"
"And.."
"And its slightly neater"
"Slightly! Nicholas it's like a tornado hit your side"
"What's the big deal Theora? Misha will clean everything up anyway"
"Misha might be your maid but she is still a human being and I just can't live like this. I can't focus with such a mess it makes me anxious"
"Okay I'll fix it" he said closing all the drawers with things still sticking out of them "there all fixed"
"Ugh you're completely hopeless" Theora said in disgust opening them back up.
"If you weren't such a mama's boy maybe you would've learnt how to clean up after yourself" Theora muttered angrily placing everything in order in all the drawers then closing them.
"Hey rule #2! Being civil with each other" Nicholas said
"Well then rule #8 everything that is on the floor or out of place goes straight to good will!"
"Hey what about rule #6 no messing around with my stuff"
"If it's out of place then it's fair game" Theora shrugged picking up the clean shirts putting them back into their hangers.
"I'm going to be late for work maybe I should make that rule #9 no arguing with the husband before work" he said tying his tie "Ouch!"
"What happened!"
"My arm it's throbbing all of a sudden" Nicholas held his arm in pain
"Have you taken your pain medication?"
"No" he replied meekly. Theora shook her head
"Well of course it's going to hurt then. Leave it I'll tie it for you" Theora said reaching out for his tie.
Theora busied herself with the tie as Nicholas lost himself gazing at her. She looks so beautiful when she's focusing on something he thought her eyes scrunch up slightly and she pouts giving her full lips more life. About halfway Theora noticed Nicholas' incessant stares and felt a blush come over her.
"All done" She said fixing the tie and moving away but somehow one strand of her sweater got stuck in one of the buttons on Nicholas' suit. Tried as hard as she may the stupid thing wouldn't let loose. Nicholas reached for it placing his hand over her's. Theora froze at his touch and her eyes went up to meet his. Their gazes collided and for that brief moment all that existed was them. Theora was the first one to look away her hands backed away slightly letting Nicholas try to free the strand from his button which he easily did with one tug.
"Thanks" said Nicholas
"Pardon?"
"For the tie"
"Oh"
"I'm going to be late. We should head downstairs"
"Yeah you go ahead I'll bring your medication with me"
"Oh something else is out of place but please don't give it away to goodwill" Nicholas said stopping midway as he was leaving the room.
"What is it?" Asked Theora.
"My heart" Nicholas smiled causing Theora's blush to intensify.
Theora calmed down her heart a bit and made sure her blush had lessened before heading downstairs. Misha had already prepared breakfast and had served it on the table. Theora handed Nicholas his medication with some water before sitting down to eat her breakfast.
"I'm planning to go furniture shopping for the living room today and might be taking Misha with me" Theora said
"Sure I'll leave Roberto behind so he can take you"
"I'm throwing out the old couches actually I've even called someone to take them to the junkyard"
"But you could give them away to someone why the junkyard?"
"Nicholas no one wants those ugly couches"
"Well of course now that they don't have cushions"
"Even with the cushions no one would take them even if they were for free"
"Misha back me up here"
"In all fairness Nicholas those couches were an eyesore" said Misha
"Fine do as you wish I'm not allowed to have a say anyway" Nicholas sighed getting up to leave "I'll probably be late today I have a lot of work backed up"
"Don't you have someone else to do it for you? Christmas is only a few days away you could get a better rest over the holiday and the doctor did tell you not to strain you arm too much"
"Unfortunately I can't Christmas is our busiest time. Speaking of which I have to leave now if I want to be fashionably late" Nicholas said looking at this watch before waving a quick goodbye and leaving.
"Shopping time!" Misha squealed once Nicholas left.
Theora had a basic idea of what she wanted the living room to look like she was going for brown more earthy tones. She looked around a few stores but couldn't find a couch set that she liked until they got to the last store and immediately she found one she loved. It wasn't more of a set rather one large long couch but the two couches at the end could be separated but Theora liked how they looked together and thought she'd place them in the living room the same way.
In the same store she also bought a coffee table to go with the couch and then she and Misha headed to an antique store to buy some decoration pieces.
"This one looks nice" Misha said picking up a vase
"We have so much stuff Misha we can't buy all of them the living room will look tacky but you're also right it does look cute. I don't know how do I choose among all of them"
"Tell you what everything is a maybe for now when we're finished looking around we'll go through them and pick our favourites" Misha suggested
"Good idea. Thank god I brought you along"
"As Roberto says the world is lost without you Misha" joked Misha
"Misha can I ask you a question?"
"Of course"
"How do you trust someone when they've hurt you once?" The thought had been bugging her all day she needed someone's advice on this and who better than Misha. She knew to some extent the nature of their relationship.
"This is about Nicholas isn't it?"
"I... just don't know Misha. What am I supposed to feel about this sudden change in his attitude?"
"Theora have you ever noticed the tattoo on Roberto's neck slightly to side?"
"I can't say I have"
"He tries to hide it with his collar but the wings show when he isn't paying attention. It's a tattoo of an angel"
"For his angel, you"
"Well it wasn't always a tattoo of an angel at first it was a tattoo of a sword going through a skull. He covered it with the angel tattoo to symbolise me"
"Misha what are you saying that Roberto was"
"A gang member yes"
Theora's mouth hung open, Roberto seemed like such a calm collected person how did he ever get involved in a gang.
"Roberto and I grew up in the same neighbourhood and knew each other most of our lives. In high school he asked me out and we started dating. We were young but we knew it was true love" Misha smiled recalling those days but it soon faltered "but during senior year Roberto started hanging out with the wrong people soon he was a full fledged gang member. At first he hid it from me but it wasn't long before I found out and I ended it with him"
"But you still ended up together"
"A year later I was working as a maid at someone else's home and one night when I came back from work I saw Roberto waiting for me by my door. He said 'I can't go on without you Misha' and then I moved past him went into my apartment and locked the door"
"What you didn't even let him in?"
"He had hurt me and I wasn't going to forgive him that easily heck I didn't even think I would forgive him period"
"Then what happened"
"I opened the door to go to work the next day and found him sleeping at the door then found him still there when I came back and I relented a bit let him come inside and gave him something to eat. He then confessed that he didn't want this life anymore and that he had left the ganglife. I have to admit I was very cruel with him those first few days but eventually I saw that he really meant it and finally I forgave him. We both then found jobs at the Markopolous home and here we are now"
"So you tested him first?"
"Not so much as test him. I needed that time for me as I was hesitant to accept him after he hurt me. Take your time as well Theora if Nicholas truly loves you in time that love will win you over no matter what"
Theora fell silent thinking about. Maybe if she did give Nicholas some time she could learn to move on from the past.
"Theora it's almost dark we should finish up here and go home" Misha said. Theora nodded and they both headed to the cashier to think over the things they would buy then pay for them.