Summer piled her suitcases in the corner of Dana's room and then hugged her friend again. "I'm so happy to see you!" she exclaimed for the hundredth time since she saw her friend at the airport.
Dana had changed her hairstyle, yet again. In college, she wore her hair in a cute pixie style. Now, her maple syrup colored hair was long, hitting her mid-back in a conservative style. She wore a light yellow sundress that showed off her still very nice figure.
"Me too," Dana said happily, brushing her bangs out of her eyes. She led Summer out of the room. "Let me show you around."
"Let's start at the front door," Dana instructed, walking to it. She turned around so her back was to the door. She gestured widely with her arm "Okay, to the right is my room. Uh, your room, excuse me. Then straight ahead is the living room and dining room combo."
"Dining room?" Summer turned to look all around the room and not seeing a dining room. All she saw was just a large, maple wood, framed couch with tan cushions, and a matching large wooden coffee table in the center.
Mounted on the wall, across from the couch, near the kitchen, was a large flat screen TV. Behind a comfy looking lazy boy was a sliding glass door to a small balcony.
"Well, we preferred having a larger living room, so we skipped having one and just eat in the living room," Dana explained, tapping her foot at the bottom of the table.
"Kitchen," she said, pointing towards the square-shaped room. The appliances were a standard white. The cabinets and drawers were of the same maple wood as the living room furniture. And the kitchen floor had white vinyl tiles with a light blue diamond in the center of each one.
Summer was surprised at how clean the apartment, and especially the kitchen, was as Dana wasn't very neat in college. Jesse must be the clean one, she thought.
"Your typical hall coat closet." Dana patted a door to the left of the apartment entrance. She walked down the hall. "Bathroom," she said pointing to the next door on the left.
Summer peeked into the room. It was an average size room with a regular bathtub shower combination and a small sink and vanity.
Dana opened double doors across from the bathroom to show a washer and dryer set. "Laundry," She said as she shut the door and led Summer straight down the hall and into another bedroom.
The room was much neater than Dana's. The bed was impressively designed out of cherry wood. It had sleek modern angles on the headboard and footboard. The dresser, along the front wall, was cherry wood as well. It was of a similar design as the bed and it had thin, silver hardware pulls for opening the drawers. There was desk of the same color in the corner with a computer. She was impressed with Jesse's taste in furniture. They were sure to have cost him a pretty penny.
She was glad to see he treated the furniture with care. They were well polished so the wood gleamed like they were on display in a furniture store showroom.
"Jesse is...," Dana tapped her chin in thought, "how do I say this nicely?" she looked around the room, and then looked back at Summer, "he's a neat freak."
Summer grinned."I can see that. Where is Jesse anyway?"
Dana led her out of his bedroom and back towards hers. "He's working on his house. I'm supposed to call him when we're ready to go for lunch to see if he can join us. He wanted to stay out of our way while we did all our hugging and crying."
Summer followed her, glancing over her shoulder at Jesse's room one last time before catching up to Dana at her bedroom doorway.
"His house?!" Summer asked, surprised.
"Yeah, he bought this old Victorian house. He's restoring it. Hopefully, to one day live in. I think he's trying to get rid of me." Dana dug in her purse for her cell phone.
Summer laughed as she took a seat on Dana's bed. She ran her fingers through what she was sure was a wild, tangled, mess of her long blonde hair. She hated travel hair.
"That's pretty cool. And I seriously doubt that he's trying to get rid of you. He's put up with you this long."
Dana stuck her tongue out at Summer, and put the phone to her ear. "Pick up, Jess," Dana muttered, and repeated it again and again until she got his voicemail.
"Ugh. Jesse, where are you? We're hungry. Call me," Dana grumbled and then hung up with a sigh.
"The idiot left his phone in his truck again. He does it all the time. Let's go swing by his place and see if he's coming with us to lunch or not."
"Sure." Summer groaned as she tried to get up. Her joints still ached from the long plane ride.
"You don't mind, do you? It's just down the street," Dana asked, suddenly thinking that her presumption it would be okay with Summer might be taken as being rude. She might not want to go get Jesse at all.
"No, it's fine." Summer struggled to pull herself up and off the bed. She'd gotten too comfortable. "I need to get up and out. I've been sitting too long on the plane."
"Good. Besides, it's a good excuse for you to see the house. Jesse doesn't really show it to anyone. He should. It's awesome. And it's going to be gorgeous when he's done with it."
Author note:
would you ever move across the country for a job? If so, or if not, why or why not?