Guides for the Pre-Engagement Life

It had been a few weeks since I moved in, and we made some changes around our lifestyle in the house so that we would feel like we fit right into each other's lives. Herman was even part of it, since he was our decider when we couldn't agree on something. Though there were some things that we decided to do on our own without the other asking for the change.

Like, for example, Michael's training schedules were hectic and confusing because it would change every week depending on what he needed to train for, and there were some days that he would disappear for a whole day and returned home roughly around seven to eight o'clock in the evening. He said he couldn't change that because it heavily depended on Bob's programme, but he asked his Coach to give him days when he wouldn't train the full day, and though he had a bit of persuading to do, Michael got half a day on Fridays and the weekends were free from training. But near competition time, the privileges were taken off.

While I still worked for Fulton, and that meant that he would make me send in articles or columns or answer relationship advices for the Wedding Magazine that he left me on, and sometimes, I spent most of my time in the workspace in the spare bedroom until the early hours of the morning, but that was only when there were so many things to do with an early deadline given to me. I felt bad that Michael's wish for waking up or sleeping at the same time every day didn't happen, so I asked Fulton if he could recommend me to a job in Baltimore, though he also took a bit of persuading, he agreed. He wrote recommendations and contacted some people to interview me, but in return, I had to write a column every week for the Magazine. It would be about the process of my Pre-Engagement Life. Michael thought it was a fun idea and didn't reject the idea as soon as I asked. He always loved being part of my books or columns. I warned him that it meant even the arguments we had would be written about, and he still didn't mind.

Those changes were on our own decision. But there were some that needed a bit of talking to get rid of future arguments.

Car Rights

Michael recently bought a recent version of his black SUV, well his sponsors did, and the old one was sold to one of his Olympian buddies, I couldn't really remember who, but I think it was Ryan. Anyway, he loved the car, he washed it twice a week and made sure that it was clean inside and out. And according to Derek, no one was ever allowed to drive it.
And I mean it, no one.
That probably included me - although I've never asked...
So whenever I felt like going out, I complained that I didn't want to rely on Michael to take me around. What if I just wanted to go to the park and relax with Herman? I couldn't walk to the park because it'd take me an hour to get there, and Herman didn't like to run around if he spent most of his time walking to and from the park.
The dog and I relate so much.
I was also as stubborn as Herman, and I often don't listen to things that I am told not to do.

As a result, one day, I got lost. Yes, I actually got lost.

Well, it wasn't that bad, since I knew my way around the neighbourhood that Michael and I lived in, it was Fell's Point, and it had an amazing view of the port. But I wanted to explore the other places and was too impatient to wait for the weekend when Michael was free.
And I really wanted to see the Washington Monument, so I decided to just hop on the bus to the lovely neighbourhood of Mount Vernon, and when I got down, the view made my jaws drop. I spent most of my morning wandering around the neighbourhood, and spent my afternoon around the Inner Harbour before I took the bus to Downtown Baltimore.
I walked around like a tourist with my camera in my hand and a mini map on the other - Lia gave it to me, which she said that she used when she and Derek moved to Baltimore a year ago, and after a year, they already acted like locals. The tourists even thought that I was legitimately a tourist. An old couple from England took me with them when they went to see the Washington Monument, and another couple made me join them around the Inner Harbour. Oh, and one local woman took me around some of the main areas of Downtown Baltimore, and she even told me some history behind some of the things there. I didn't want to tell her that I've been in Baltimore for a few weeks.
It was just so peaceful knowing that people didn't recognize me. Well, only a few, but they seemed worried that I may not be the Roxanne Miller from the tabloid magazines, who got caught fondling around with Michael Phelps while out and about.

It was roughly around six in the evening, I missed the bus, and I couldn't get a hold of Lia or Derek, and I didn't want to resort to calling Michael because I knew that he would've been a bit upset that I went out without him, since he liked to be the only one touring me around. And it got worse when I took the wrong bus and ended up at a place called Cherry Hill, and when I reviewed my map, it was far from Fell's Point.
So I, sort of, panicked. I really wanted to cry when no one answered my call. I mean, I knew some of the journalists from the Baltimore Sun, and their other daily paper, b, since I've started working there as a part-time journalist - thank you, Fulton. I made close friends with some of the swimmers and two retired journalists from Fulton's company. But they didn't answer my calls either. All of them replied with an apology that they weren't able to pick up the phone, and they all seemed to have a recurring theme of wanting to take me out for coffee as a way to make it up to me.
Ah, I didn't know what to do. It was dark, and I stayed in a Starbucks to be safe while I stared at my phone. I sat there with my fingers trailing round and round the cup of my Mocha and sighed, I knew I had to call him.
The phone rang only once before he picked up. "Babe, where are you!?" He exclaimed.
I gulped. "At a Starbucks in Cherry Hill," I muttered as I gripped the cup.
"I thought I told you not to go anywhere far? How'd you get there?"
"I took the wrong bus. Can you please pick me up? Then I'll explain."
"Alright, keep an eye out. I'll be there as fast as I can."

Michael arrived half an hour later. Though I assumed it would've taken him a bit quicker to pick me up, but he explained that it was traffic around the route he took because people were still on the way home from their jobs. I also thought that he was teaching me a lesson.
We didn't really talk in the car, because there was a bit of a negative vibe between us and there was a really upset look on his face. I assumed he was in deep thought.
By the time we got home, he didn't talk either. Instead, when we went into the bedroom to put away our things, he suddenly turned me around and handed me the car keys. I didn't know how to react. I only looked at the keys in my grasp with a confused look on my face.
It was the keys to his beloved SUV, how was I supposed to react?
I then watched him take my house keys from the top of the drawer and waved it around for a bit, his head turned left and right as he said, "We're definitely swapping keys."
"Huh?" I blurted out as I shook my head in haste. I pushed his car keys closer to him, but he just pushed them back towards me.
"You can drive it," Michael instructed me. "Thinking that you took the bus for the past few weeks while you still didn't know your way around makes me feel like a bad boyfriend."
"No you're not! I know how to get to work and back, I don't really need your car," I debated.
"But the car is just parked at the car park of the aquatic centre most of the time anyway, and you'll have more use with it, besides, if you want to explore the places away from here, you'll need a car," He persuaded as he put the house key back on top of the drawer. "I'll have the house key now, and you'll have full custody of the car."
"Honey, I can buy my own car," I continued to argue. But he shook his head and brushed my hair away from my face and gave me a peck on the forehead, his thumb caressed my cheek as he whispered, "I trust you with it."
"Ah! That just gives me more pressure to take extra care of it!"
"I'm serious, you can drive it. You don't need your own car because the only places I go around Baltimore is the aquatic centre, and that's not far from here. It'd be a good run."
I gripped on the car keys and looked Michael straight in his eyes. "I promise I'll take good care of your precious baby."
He chuckled. "Babe, you're more precious than a car," He told me before giving me a kiss. "But there's one thing I want from you in return of using that car though."
"I knew it!" I playfully pressed against his chest for him to take a step away from me. I swung the car keys around my finger and asked, "What is it then?"
"You'll have to be the one to pick me up from training."
"Deal," I agreed without a delay and wrapped my arms around his torso.
He gave me permission to drive his car.
I felt so loved.

Household Chores

Splitting the housework was one of the most important things we dealt with, but it needed to be sorted because I didn't want to be the only one cleaning up around the place. Michael was a typical man, he wouldn't clean up after himself if no one told him to and he was used to not having a nagger around. But the good thing was that his experience living with three other women for most of his life had him tamed - a bit.
Our Moms told us that household chores were important and didn't want us hiring maids or professional cleaners. They said it was good practice for us to learn household chores as well as learn to not spend our money on things we can do ourselves.
As a couple, we decided that we would always go to the grocery store together, because he never really liked going on his own knowing that he would forget something - even though I texted it to him - and I didn't want to be bombarded with unnecessary questions and gossip from the women who knew who I was. The only exception would be if there was really something important or if I nagged.
We also sorted out that we took turns on vacuuming the floors, and he washed Herman while I cleaned the car - he even joked about me washing the car in a bikini - and then I would clean the bathroom.
There were three things left that needed to be dealt with; the dishes, cooking and laundry.

"Why don't we just take turns doing the cooking and the dishes?" Michael suggested as we put away the items from the bags.
"Are you saying that you're going to willingly learn to cook for me?" I asked while closing the door to the refrigerator. "And doing the dishes isn't a problem?"
"Hey, don't deny that you liked the meals I made you." He continued to convince me.
I chuckled. "I love it when you cook for me, honey," I complimented him and gave him a peck on the cheek. "So, our agreement is that we take turns, right?" I tried to understand his suggestion. He said that on days he would cook and I would wash the dishes, then the day after that, I would cook and he would wash the dishes.
"We have a dishwasher. Hilary taught me how to use it. So it wouldn't be so hard." He bragged as he tapped onto the door of the dishwasher.
"Yeah, but we still don't know how to use the washing machine," I complained.
Michael's head lazily turned towards the laundry room door, even I stared at it. The two of us were oblivious, well, we had other people doing our laundry when we were younger, and during our time in Ann Arbor, we'd usually go to the Laundromat. Lia preferred doing the laundry when we lived together, so I was sorted. Michael had an elderly woman clean his house and do his laundry when he was on his own, I figured that was how he maintained his house in Ann Arbor.
"Do you want to actually test it?" He asked as he rummaged through the drawers and pulled out the instruction manual. It wasn't his first washing machine, but his Mom recently gave us one after Whitney bought her a new one.

Most of the household appliances were from our Moms, even the vacuum cleaner.

I followed after him when he rushed to the door. He flipped through the pages quite quickly before he stopped at the one with the picture of the washing machine and the labels. We both stare at the page for a few minutes before he turned to me and asked, "I guess we'll have to test it out. Are you ready?"
"I guess so," I muttered as he flipped to the next page and instructed me throughout the way. I listened and did what he told me, we adjusted the options and such, but when we got to the amount of powder, he handed me the paper and decided to put more than what the instructions told us to. "Michael!" I yelped when the powder overflowed from the container, he stopped and seemed surprise that he poured that much already.
"Crap," He mumbled as he put away the bag on top of the shelf and watched the water soak all the powder. He closed the lid and added, "I think we should just wait and see."
"You're 24 years old and you don't know how to do laundry?" I asked with a grin while putting the paper next to the powder. It was high up, so I had to tiptoe to reach it, and Michael embraced me from me behind while I was reaching.
"You're 23 and you don't know how to do laundry either," He replied with a chuckle and lifted me from the floor headed towards the door, but before we made it to the door, the washing machine began to make noises. We both looked and saw that the powder turned to foam and bubbles and fizzled out of the washing machine.
"Holy crap, turn it off, turn it off!!" I pointed as Michael rushed through the bubbles and reached the switch which he flicked and came out rather soaked and covered in bubbles. I covered my mouth so I wouldn't be caught giggling as he looked annoyed at the fact that he was soaked. He even glared at the washing machine.
"See, you put too much!"
He looked at me with a defeated expression. I continued to giggle before his straight lips curved to a mischievous grin. His arms opened and beckoned me closer to him. "Come babe, I think you need a bit of washing too," He cooed.
I shook my head. "No way, I already took a shower," I rejected and slowly took a few steps away. I saw Michael scoop up a lot of foam from the top of the washing machine and caught me before I could run, and the foam was smeared all over my face.
"No- Don't! Ah-!" I groaned as he let go of me and chuckled at my soaked form.
"We're even now," He proudly commented.
I pretended to be annoyed and walked back into the laundry room. I scooped up a lot of foam from the floor and once I noticed he was closer, I threw it all on him. I squeezed between him and the door to make my escape as soon as he got distracted. I ran towards the hallway, but my giant of a boyfriend managed to catch up, and because we were wet, we both slipped and landed onto the carpet.

The both of us were laughing, not only because of our playful moment, but because our backs were in pain from the rough landing.

"Oh that hurts," I managed to say in between my giggles and the heavy exhale. I wiped the remaining foam off my face before I turned to Michael. He was staring at me with a gentle smile on his face. "Is there some more on my face?" I naively asked.
He shook his head. "No," He mouthed as he shuffled closer and rolled on top. I wiped the foam from his face and placed it onto his head instead. I let out the remaining giggles before we lay there staring eye to eye with no words coming out of our mouths.
"I'm lucky that I get to do this every time I do laundry with you," He suddenly whispered before leaning in and pressing his lips against mine. My arms instantly went around his neck and didn't hesitate to kiss him back.
Being there with him just made me forget about everything else, and lying there in his arms seemed so surreal. I disagreed with what he said, because I was the lucky one.

"Herman? What are you-"
"-Ah! Dammit Herman!" Michael was tackled off of me. He was rolled on his back as his dog, dear Herman, stood over of him and felt high and mighty. I sat up and laughed at Michael's displeased face. "This is the sixteenth time, Herman!" He complained while his dog barked and wandered away without a care in the world. That dog definitely knew when to turn up and ruin a good moment, and clearly, Michael kept count.
"We clearly know who the king of the house is," I teased as I pushed myself up and took notice of the mess we made. Both the carpet and the wooden floors had water marks and puddles. It started all the way from the laundry room to the spot we landed in, which was the living room. And the dog didn't help either, his foot prints were clearly imprinted on the carpet once he got off of Michael.
He groaned one more time while he stood up. He also took notice of the mess and sighed, his hand held onto mine as he muttered, "That dog's ruined a lot of our moments."
I turned around and trailed my free hand down the side of his face. I tiptoed and kissed his nose and looked him straight into his brown orbs. "If we hurry, there's time to shower before we go meet with your Mom. And Herman isn't allowed in the bathroom when we're in there, if you know what I mean," I pointed out with a wink.
Michael didn't hesitate on that bargain and cleaned up without another word.

A simple man with not so much fuss...
Lady Luck, I don't know how to thank you.