Take My Hand, Just Hold On

“Is your stomach vibrating?” I ask Robert as I back away from the hug.

“Seems that way, doesn’t it?” he smiles as he pulls out his phone. “It’s Brian, I should take this…”

I nod as he turns away and answers his phone, “Hey Brian, what’s up?” I didn’t want to eavesdrop so I went to the kitchen to wash some dishes because it was kind of a mess in my apartment.

About a minute later Robert walks in, phone to his chest, “Hey, I hate to ask, but do you think it’s possible for Brian to come over for a bit? He and I have something to discuss and apparently it really can’t wait until tomorrow.”

“If you help me tidy up a bit…” I say, looking around. It wasn’t filthy, but wasn’t something I wanted anyone who I didn’t really know to see.

He smiles and nods before placing the phone back to his ear, “Yeah, she said it’s cool. I’ll text you the address, okay?”

As he hangs up he asks, “What can I do, then?”

15 minutes later with the apartment straightened up significantly the buzzer goes off. I let Robert answer it as I sit on the couch and close my eyes lightly.

A minute later Brian walks through the door, commenting on the numerous locks at my door. I watch from the sofa as Robert smiles and says, “Better to be safe than sorry.” Obviously I was sorry and then safe. But clichés are still the right answer when you don’t want to get in to shit, eh?

Brian takes his shoes off and they both sit on the couch with me, Robert in the middle. For whatever reason, Robert refused to tell me what they needed to discuss tonight, something about “you’ll find out soon enough.” Bah.

Brian drops a manila envelope on my coffee table, “I’ve narrowed it down to three properties for you. And blacked out the price, as requested.”

Robert smiles. “Thanks. Oh, uh, Brian, you remember Brenna? Brenna, Brian,” he adds, bending down so we can look across him. We smile briefly at one another before I push Robert back up by his shoulder.

“Well I’m glad you two are back together… You seemed good for Rob,” Brian says.

Robert looks at me with a slight frown and then turns to Brian, “We’re not ‘together’. Just friends.”

“Oh. That wasn’t you in the airport pictures?” He asks me.

“Er, what airport pictures?”

He purses his lips, hiding a smile I presume. “You got a laptop?”

I nod and head to my room to grab it from my bed, curious. And hoping it was not me in said pictures. That would suck. I hand it to Brian and watch as he types in Robert’s name “+ airport photos” in Google. And lo’ and behold an image pops up of Robert and me saying our fond farewell with the caption asking “Who is Rob’s Mystery Girl?”. There wasn’t a picture of my face straight on, so that was something to be thankful for.

Well, fuck. We had both avoided the subject since it happened, and I didn’t particularly want to discuss it. “Okay, that’s Brenna. But we still aren’t ‘together’,” Robert says after scrolling over the pictures quickly.

I watch as Brian shrugs, “Alright, then. Sorry for being presumptuous and assuming you two were together because you’re making out in an airport.” He smiles playfully and then adds, “Down to business then?”

Right, I’d forgotten he was here for a purpose. Robert picks up the envelope and pulls out a few papers. With pictures of houses. “Are you buying a house?” I ask somewhat excitedly before I could stop myself.

Robert smiles and nods. “I left the one I thought you’d like most for last,” Brian says as Robert turns his attention back to the pages. “The one you’re looking at is right on the beach, but it doesn’t provide much privacy.”

Robert nods, flipping to the next page. “This one is probably going to be your least favourite, I doubted you’d like it even though it has literally everything you want. Pool, hot tub, fireplace, close to, but just outside the downtown core…”

“Why wouldn’t I like it then?” Robert questions, looking at the pictures on the back.

“It’s 12 years old. And it has a very… I don’t know, ‘family’ feel to it.”

“It looks alright to me; I’ll check it out if the other place doesn’t seem right….”

Brian nods as Robert moves on to the last page, “This is why we had to do it tonight… Since I looked at it I thought it’d be the one you want, but the bids have to be in by Monday. If we work quickly I think I can get you in to have a look for yourself this weekend.”

After looking at the final page and asking Brian some questions Robert turns to me and asks, “What do you think?”

I hold my hands up and say, “I’m saying out of this. So not my place.”

“What do you mean? I just want your opinion.”

I shake my head, “Dude, it’s the house you’ll be living in for – I assume – at least a few years. I don’t want to persuade you one way or another.”

Robert shrugs and says, “Well I think you’re probably right. If possible I’d definitely like to see it before putting a bid in or whatever…”

“Sure thing, I’ll just give Carl a call.”

“Who’s Carl?” I ask Robert as Brian heads into the next room.

“The realtor guy. I’ve not even met him,” Robert smiles, and then lets it fall. “Hey, I’m sorry about the photos that were put up… I had no idea about them.”

“It’s alright… I mean, it’s why we didn’t go out when we weren’t dating. But it’s not really on my radar of terrible things at the moment,” I tell him. Somewhat un-honestly, because it did bother me having my picture plastered over the internet. Not that anyone knew it was me. But I did, and that was enough. There was no reason to get angry with Robert about it though.

“Okay,” he pauses. “You want to come look at the house with me this weekend, if I can?”

“Yeah, sure.”