I know. I heard Marcus leave. She stepped back to let him in. Thank you for coming. Seriously, I've been looking at that box for 2 months.
2 months? Don't judge me. I'm not judging you. He stepped inside. I'm observing.
Her house was the same layout as his same builder. Same decade, but it looked nothing like his. Where Darius's living room was functional and clean and carefully organized in the way a man's home looks when he's managing everything alone. Clare's was full of texture. Fabric swatches on the side table.
Paint chips fanned out on the kitchen counter. A half-finished mood board leaning against the wall by the window. Stacks of design magazines in a basket by the couch with sticky notes bristling out from the pages. It looked like the inside of someone's mind. Living room window?
He asked. Living room window? He opened the box. Looked at the hardware. Looked at the window.
Looked at the wall anchors she'd already attempted to install, which were in the wrong position by about 2 in. He said nothing about the wall anchors. He got the stud finder from his toolbox. I already found the studs, Clare said. Okay, I used a magnet.
He paused. A magnet? That's a thing. You can use a magnet to find the nail heads and then you know where the studs are. That's not He stopped.
It's approximately a thing. It worked. I can see that. He said, looking at the holes in the wall real clearly. She pointed at him.
See, that's rude. I didn't say anything. Your face said something. He pressed the stud finder against the wall, started scanning. Your marks are off by 2 in to the left.
I told you the magnet worked. The magnet found something. I'm not sure it was a stud. Clare sat down on the arm of her couch and watched him work with her chin propped in her hand. You're very confident for a man who came over here voluntarily on a Saturday.
My truck wouldn't start and I had nothing else to do. And yet here you are saving my curtain situation. I'm hanging a curtain rod heroically. He looked at her over his shoulder. She was smiling, not the polite smile she used when they talked across the driveway.