A Deadly Homecoming

Chapter 3-1

Chapter 3

“I hate grocery shopping,” Jeff said the next morning as he pushed a grocery cart down the cereal aisle.

“If you want to eat, we need food,” Spence pointed out. “And we do need to eat if we’re going to have the energy to get all the furniture and everything else in place.”

“Ugh. Don’t remind me.”

The only thing they did before taking off to shop was put away the clothes that didn’t need to go into dresser drawers. They were in no mood to haul the dressers upstairs until after breakfast, so they went out to find someplace to eat. Breakfast had reminded them they needed to buy food, so that’s what they were doing.

“Sugar-coated or not,” Jeff asked, taking two boxes from the shelves.

“Neither of them. This or this?” Spence replied, showing him two healthy cereals.

“That, I guess. At least it’s got fruit.”

They moved on after Spence put both boxes of the cereal in the cart. By the time they’d finished, they had two full carts of basics with a few extras, like a couple of good steaks for dinner to celebrate moving in. As they’d agreed when they first decided to buy the house, they split the cost equally. They would do that with everything except the mortgage. Spence insisted on paying that himself since the house was in his name.

When they got home, they put all the food away and then set to work on getting the house more or less in order. Because they had two sofas, one went in the living room and the other under the windows in the office. The boxes holding the dozens of reference books they owned between them went into the office as well. They put together the bookcases from Spence’s condo, setting them against the living room wall that had once held built-in shelves, then left the boxes holding the rest of their books in front of them to be dealt with later.

Spence’s two arm chairs went into the living room as well, facing the fireplace. They decided they should use Jeff’s dining table and chairs because the table was rectangular and worked better than Spence’s round one. Jeff didn’t have a desk, so there was no debating that Spence’s would go into the office, along with the two three-shelf bookcases.

With that finished, they broke for lunch.

“At least upstairs will be easier, once we get everything up there,” Jeff said as they made sandwiches.

“Tell me about it. What are we going to use the spare bedroom for?”

“Storing everything we don’t have room for? Like your dining room table and chairs, my armchairs, and the two rugs I could easily have left behind.”

“That works. It’s no harder to haul them up than down, and we won’t have to cover them in plastic.”

While they ate, they made a list of what they needed to buy, including a washer and dryer. Spence called to set up their Wi-Fi while Jeff put the dishes they’d dug out of one box to use for lunch into the dishwasher.

The afternoon was spent taking everything upstairs—Jeff’s bed, the dressers, and the extra furniture. His two armchairs ended up in their bedrooms instead of being stored. They finished unpacking their clothes, then decided to call it a day. Or they would have if they hadn’t realized they needed to empty the boxes of dishes, pots and pans, and small appliances if they wanted to make supper.

“This is never ending,” Jeff grumbled as he found a place for the coffee maker and the microwave. “Damn it, where the hell did I put my blender? I thought it was in the same box as the rest of my appliances.”

“You’re asking me?” Spence said as he finished putting their collection of glasses and cups into one of the cupboards.

“Yeah. I know.” Jeff opened three more boxes from his apartment but didn’t find it. “I know I packed it.”

“It’ll turn up. You probably ran out of room and stashed it in with your sheets, or something,” Spence told him, patting his shoulder.

“I don’t think so.”

“Don’t worry about it. If it doesn’t turn up, we can get another one.”

“But I love that damned thing.”

“Jeff. Relax. We’ve been at this all day. Let’s cook our steaks, nuke the potatoes, and make a salad. Once we’ve eaten, we can look for it. There’s still way too many boxes we haven’t even opened yet, to say the least of emptying.”

“Yeah. You’re right.”

They fixed dinner, eating it in the dining room, “Like real gentlemen,” according to Spence.

That earned him an eye roll from Jeff, and a “Since when do we qualify as gentlemen?”

“Your guess is as good as mine, but I’m willing to fake it.”

After dinner, and doing the dishes, they emptied two more boxes before deciding enough was enough.

“Maybe we should take Carol up on her offer and let her deal with these,” Jeff said, waving his hand over a stack of boxes in the office.

Spence laughed. “I don’t think that’s quite what she had in mind.”

“Well, hell.”

They ended the day by drinking a couple of beers while sitting on the back porch steps. Then, after locking up, they showered before going to bed. Their final reward for a job almost finished was to make love before falling asleep in Spence’s bed.