Notes: I couldn't get this out of my head. Enjoy!
xx
Danny's (Other) Apartment
He bought the apartment in a kind of panicked daze. He signed the papers without really thinking about anything other than the investment. If he'd really examined it, he would've realized why Suze Orman's "Invest in Property" suggestion during her seminar had sounded so great to him.
His apartment- the one he slept in, and ate in, and called his home- wasn't the same anymore. After he'd found them in his bed, he'd screamed until he was hoarse, drunk until he couldn't see straight, and then sobered up, and immediately ordered an entirely new bedroom set. Everything in his room got thrown away. Not one item was spared from his scouring.
Even after all that, his apartment never felt the same. Some of the hope for the future he'd envisioned there was lost. So, he bought the new apartment as an investment. And maybe because he wanted something pure- a place she hadn't destroyed.
x
In quiet moments, after long shifts at the hospital or on Friday nights alone at his piano, he thought about the other place. He didn't go over there frequently- just once every two months as Suze had recommended, to "check on the place." But he thought about it. He thought about it a lot. When he let himself dream, for only a moment, of a happier life, filled with people who loved him, his dreams took place in that other apartment.
x
When he got back together with Christina, she was at his place constantly. She didn't mention the new bedroom set, she just pretended nothing had changed. He didn't tell her about the new place. If asked, he would say that it wasn't important. It hadn't come up. In reality, he wanted to protect something from the damage she caused.
X
They moved out to the burbs. She insisted he sell his place. He refused, but offered to sublet it to placate her. He wasn't planning on actually doing it. He just said it. He didn't care enough to fight, so he said what he needed to say, and he hoped that would be it.
Then Paul, who he absolutely refused to call "Dr. L," asked them if they knew about a place he could rent. He could have told Paul about his other apartment. Then Paul wouldn't have lived in his home, inviting others in to touch all of his things. It would have been so easy to let Paul rent the other place, and would have caused much less disruption in his life.
But, he didn't. He let Paul rent his apartment. He didn't tell him, or Christina about the other place. He didn't reflect on this choice at all. He had too much going on to think about his real reasons.
x
He and Christina broke up again, as he'd known in the back of his mind they would. Paul was still living in his apartment, though. So he, for the first time since he'd bought it, slept in the other apartment. He liked it. He flicked on the lights in the unused bedroom, and felt at home. More at home than he'd ever felt at that house in New Jersey.
x
Christina slept with someone else in his bed again. Paul, to be specific. This time, Mindy was there to convince him he didn't need a new bed frame- burning the sheets would suffice.
She had asked, while they were cleansing his apartment, where he had stayed after he'd left Christina. "You could've stayed with me, you know. " She dropped it in casually as though it wouldn't rock his world to hear her inviting him into her home so freely. He almost told her then, about the other place. He almost admitted that he owned it, and pulled her down the hall to show her. But, then he saw the glint of that ring on her finger, and said, "Thanks for the offer, Min. But, I don't know if I could stand your Beyonce playlist for that long."
She'd laughed first, and then yelled at him about Beyonce, and that was it.
x
He'd broken up with her. Idiot. The night he left her crying in her room, he didn't go back to his apartment. He went to the other one. He drank scotch and cried on the couch there. Somehow, he'd come to associate this place with his happiness, and he'd lost that tonight.
x
He was trying, desperately, to get close to her again. He needed her back in his life. Somehow. She was looking at apartments, trying to prove her independence.
All too quickly, she announced, "I'll take it," to the realtor of this terrible, too-far-away apartment, and he knew what to do instantly.
He'd give her his place. She could live there. It wouldn't be exactly what he wanted and hoped for when he kissed her on that plane, but it was so much closer to it than what he had now.
He begged her to at least think about it, and she acquiesced.
x
He couldn't find enough excuses to visit the other apartment. Somehow his sanctuary had gotten even better with her presence in it.
x
She moved out. She went back to her place. He understood why, and helped her move.
The next day, his calendar said "Two- month check." Logically, he didn't need to check on the place today. He'd just been there yesterday. But he went anyway. He sat on the couch in the new place, and smiled. It felt different in here, better if possible. She'd infected the place with her lightness, and she'd left traces of it in her wake. The centerpieces were askew. She'd moved them to pile up stacks and stacks of clothing as she'd unpacked and never moved them back. Three of the cabinet doors had been left open, and the bed was still unmade. He loved it. She been here. He could still feel her here. She'd once again made herself at home in his life.
He got up to leave, when he noticed something she'd left behind- a DVD. He picked it up, and read, "You've Got Mail." He sat back down, and put it in the DVD player.
Two hours later, he had an idea. He was going to get her back.
x
They were back together and it was better than he could have ever imagined. They freely argued about the number of kids they'd have and he had never imagined that he would be so openly committed to someone. He dreamt of their future together nightly. In his dreams, they'd knocked down the walls between the two apartments, making one big place to raise their family.
He'd bring that up to her soon. They needed to hire a contractor.
xx
Notes: Please comment!