Depend On Me

Moving In Together (1)

Chapter 3: Moving In (1)

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“Your apartment… is really you…” Gabriel remarked as he looked around. The apartment was spacious and everything in it seemed to be well organized, even color coded. It was an impressive sight to say the least…

“Haha… not that much… Actually I have a housekeeper that keeps everything in check. Usually it’s a huge mess here.” Elizabeth admitted, she put her handbag on the stand near the entrance. “She quit yesterday since she’s going to have her first child and all… So I’ll have to search for someone to take her place.”

“If you need a housekeeper, I could totally do it instead of paying rent.” Gabriel suggested, he didn’t mean to toot his own horn but he was rather good in house chores.

“I wasn’t going to make you pay rent anyway but… Alright! That seems like a plan!” Elizabeth said without much hesitation. This solved one of her problems in a rather effortless fashion.

“So… How long have you been living on your own?” Gabriel asked, he took his shoes off and entered the apartment rather cautiously. ‘I don’t think I’ve ever been… in a woman’s apartment before…’ He thought to himself while looking around, the interior was all in black and dark blue which gave it a rather elegant feeling. All the furniture was matching as well, the walls were in a dark navy color in the living room, which is as far as the man had gotten. All the colors and the way things were organized all seemed to be in a particular order, it was perfect in a sense, and something Gabriel had never experienced before. Since he was so used to living in the same rundown apartment building since he graduated and eat the same food every day, pay his bills, go to work, then sleep. He had such a ridiculously motonous life that some people would struggle to compute how anyone would be able to live such a dull life. It's not to say that each day has to be particularly interesting but in Gabriel's case he didn't know the first thing about interesting.

“Since I turned 18… I actually moved out in a single bedroom apartment at first… I spent maybe about seven years there until my business took off. And now I live here…” Elizabeth explained, she had a difficult path until she managed to reach the position she was in right now, but it was a path well worth taking. Her attitude was so carefree at that moment, it made the man hesitate to speak again, it was like each word out of the woman's mouth made him stutter so he spoke even slower than before just to hide the fact he was so nervous being around her.

“That’s incredible… We’re the same age yet you’ve done so much more than me…” Gabriel remarked, there wasn’t any hint of jealousy in his voice, it was admiration and also a bit of self deprecation.

“Hahaha.... that’s very sweet of you but I’m not that young!” Elizabeth laughed as she made her way to the living room. She took out a spare pair of slippers and handed them to the man. “How old were you again?” She asked in a kind voice.

“I’m twenty five… aren’t you around the same age?” Gabriel asked, the woman simply smiled at him as she spoke.

“I’m twenty nine, I’ll be turning thirty this year. But thanks for the compliment.” Elizabeth said as she turned on her heels and went into one of the spare rooms, she carried out a box from that room into her own. “This will be your place…”

“You don’t need to move your things, let me help.” Gabriel tried to help the woman with the box but she took a step back and didn’t let him touch it.

“It’s fine… I can handle it, it’s not even heavy.” Elizabeth said as she placed it on the ground and pushed it under her bed. The contents of the box still unknown to the man.

“Then… Would you like me to make dinner instead?” Gabriel asked. “I just feel uncomfortable not doing anything around here…”

“Usually Cassandra handles cooking or I eat out… but since you suggested it, thank you I’d like to try your cooking.” Elizabeth gave a small smile. “Do you need help with anything?”

“We can go grocery shopping together… if you’d like.” Gabriel’s voice sounded a bit off and his mannerisms were stiff to say the least. He was obviously nervous around the woman.

“Sure, let’s do that… I’ll just change clothes since I’m sweaty and all…” Beatrice closed the door to her bedroom, about ten minutes later she came out in casual clothes and her long blond hair was braided into a braid that stood over her left shoulder.

Gabriel was taken a back after seeing her dressed so casually, for a moment there it was like he’d forgotten how to speak.

“You ready to go? You won’t change clothes?” Elizabeth asked, since both of them had been working till morning, and the man was still wearing his work clothes. She was rather cheerful despite not having a wink of sleep and working for a bar despite not being paid for that work she's done. She was obviously a very responsible person maybe even to a fault.

“Ah… no just…” Gabriel hesitated to speak and turned his back to the woman, heading for the door. “I was thinking for a bit…” As he stood there looking at her somehow he couldn't peel his eyes away from the woman. She wasn't wearing anything special, nothing special at all but Gabriel felt his heart skip a beat after looking at her. It's like no matter what the woman did, he'd still like it.

“You were thinking? Ah… could it be about what happened at your place? We can try filing a report tomorrow if you’d like.” Elizabeth suggested but as she looked at the other’s back she somehow didn’t feel that was the topic that was on the other’s mind.

“Yeah… I’ll do that…” Gabriel said as they left the apartment and headed down the street to a convenience store that’s opened 24/7, it was about 4:50 in the morning and the sun was yet to raise in the sky…