Imogen turned onto her opposite side, her body nearly crashing into Fiona's. She was now just starting to wake as they both lay in bed, her eyes slowly fluttering open. As they fixated on the curly-haired beauty, Imogen immediately smiled. She gently ran her fingertip along the bridge of Fiona's nose, tapping the end of it lightly.
"Fions." Imogen whispered softly, making sure her girlfriend wouldn't have to wake up to her usual loud, chipper voice. She paused for a moment as Fiona inhaled deeply, expecting her to now be awake, only to see her settle into the comfortable sheets more. "Fiiiooooonaaa." She now sang, attempting one last time to wake the girl. After giving it another second, Imogen sighed gently and slid out of bed to get ready for their day, knowing Fiona's alarm would free her from her deep sleep.
Today the lovely couple would be going apartment, or condo, or house hunting. Fiona had grown tired of the loft and wanted a softer environment to adjust to - a place that wasn't so fancy, one that a more home-y vibe to it – and she was bringing Imogen along to help her out with the choices considering she would be spending almost as much time as Fiona would be in the new place. Fiona typically would be the one up first considering her body never really adjusted to all the time changes she had been through with all her moving around the world and, especially when it came to any type of shopping, she would put in extra effort to be up at the crack of dawn, forcing Imogen to awake early as well and leaving her grumpy for the first few hours of those marvelous days.
Imogen hopped into the shower, quickly cleaning herself off. She got out no more than 10 minutes later (she was one to always try preserving water; she also tried getting Fiona in the habit of a 10 minute shower to no avail), dried off quickly and dressed in black jeans, a hot-pink knitted v-neck sweater, pink high-top Converse, some bracelets, dangling necklaces and her signature glasses (after applying her typical amount of makeup). She pranced back into the bedroom of the loft to check on Fiona, figuring her girlfriend would only need a few more minutes to get ready considering she definitely had no one to impress that day, only to have her jaw drop to the ground at the sight of Fiona still sleeping with only twenty minutes until their first scheduled showing.
"Fiona Celestine Arabella Coyne!" Imogen shouted, causing the knocked out Fiona to jerk awake and sit up, rubbing her eyes vigorously to adjust them to the lighting in the room. "What?" She screamed back, feeling as if Imogen was about to warn her that someone had just broken into her place.
"You're still sleeping!" Imogen lectured. "Why are you still in bed, we have to go!"
"Oh my God." Fiona groaned in annoyance of the way she had just been woken up. She flattened her hands on her face, taking in a deep breath before sliding them off. "I'll be ready soon, give me a couple minutes."
Imogen smirked, not believing Fiona for a second. "I'm sure it'll only take a couple minutes," she stated sarcastically, "considering how when we just go to breakfast it takes you two dreadful hours to get ready."
"I will be ready soon Imogen." Fiona stressed, sliding out of bed.
"Fine." Imogen challenged, making her way into the living room, plopping down onto the couch and switched the channel to watch the early reruns of Saved By the Bell.
Fiona quickly hopped into the shower, breaking the records of her typical forty-minute showers (even after being together for a while, Imogen still couldn't quite figure out what Fiona did in there for so long). She dried her hair, leaving them in their natural curls, kept her makeup light, dressed in dark blue jeans, a bright blue v-neck and some outrageous heels that made Imogen's leg muscles cramp just looking at them. Applying on her lip-gloss as she walked out into the living room, grabbing her purse off the coffee table and slinging it onto her shoulder, Fiona now rushed Imogen.
"Okay I'm ready." She said, stuffing her lip-gloss into her purse. "Let's go, let's go, let's go. We've got ten minutes." She hurried.
Imogen scoffed turning off the television and stood. "Don't even think about rushing me when you're the one who woke up late."
Fiona grabbed her hand, lacing their fingers together and basically yanked her out the door. "You could've woken me up." She blamed.
"I tried. Twice." Imogen countered truthfully.
XXXXXXX
After some dangerously fast driving, Imogen and Fiona were able to make it to the first showing on time. They went through all the small talk motions before entering the first possible future home for Fiona.
It was an apartment: fairly small, quiet, dim lighting, two bedrooms and two baths. It wasn't something Fiona was used to, but she was taking it into consideration because she knew with her decorative touch it could be perfect. That was, until she learned there was no washer and no dryer, and instead she'd have to use a community one. She refused to have her clothes tumbling in the same water some greasy person could have used just as well, and with that, they moved onto the next place.
The second place was a house. It was adorable on the outside, having a touch of that house seen in the movie Up. It was homey, with an older vibe to it. It had three bedrooms, two point five baths, a small backyard and a laundry room. Fiona fancied this place a bit more, that is, until Imogen and her artistic senses felt uneasy with the shapes and sizes of the bedrooms. She also was unhappy with the countless layers of paint that she knew covered up the walls. With the girlfriend not satisfied, Fiona dropped the house from her thoughts and moved onto the next place.
Back in the car, Imogen was still quite confused with the whole situation. "So if you're going to NYU, why do you want to waste money on a place out here? You could get a fantastic place in New York with an incredible view."
Fiona shrugged. "It's just easier having my own place to come back to when visit you while you attend the University of Toronto."
"Why not just keep the loft?" Imogen questioned. It wasn't like she cared what Fiona spent her money on, it just didn't make sense to her. She actually loved the loft too, it was beautiful, but she did understand Fiona wanting a more comfortable place to live in that was less about aesthetics.
"It's worn out with more bad memories than good." Fiona honestly responded. "I need another fresh start."
The third place was a condo. It was perfect: the type of people that lived in the building were the type of people Fiona was used to (snobs, as Imogen would refer to them), the building's pool was on the roof along with a huge spa, there were washers and dryers in the tenant's rooms, the one bedroom was giant and the bathtub was big enough to swim in. The only problem? It came furnished. Fiona was not about to deal with some of the clashing colors, the harsh lighting, the too big couch and drapery that was just awful. She hated the colors on the walls and she knew buildings like these had guidelines to keep everything as is, or at least have it returned to it's natural setting once moving out.
As they left the condo, Fiona sighed walking hand in hand with Imogen. "This is hopeless." She said, defeated.
Imogen, completely broken hearted by the sad puppy dog look on Fiona's face due to the failure of their day took the realtor off to the side when Fiona was distracted, basically threatening him that if the next house wasn't up to par, she'd ruin his chances of getting any commission.
The next place they hit was a condo, again. The nice part about it was that it was in a more urban type of area, close to the best shopping. It was up on one of the highest floors, decorated with giant windows filled with a gorgeous city view, had a washer and dryer, two large bedrooms, two large bathrooms, unfurnished, normal-colored walls, carpeted living room, tiled kitchen. Everything about it was perfect. It was in Fiona's price range, it had no flaws, had never been lived in before and Imogen approved of it, throwing a smug look at the realtor.
"Okay I think this is the one." Fiona cheerfully accepted.
"Fantastic." The realtor let out a sigh of relief. He actually was frightened by Imogen. "Now all you have to do is sign and it's all yours."
Fiona looked around once more, taking in what was about to be her new home. The realtor froze at the hesitant pause Fiona gave, slightly nervous. "I'll let you two talk this over. I'll be waiting downstairs. If you want it, just sign and bring this down to me in the lobby. If not, just bring it down empty." He opened the door and stepped out, glad he didn't have to be in the same room as Imogen any longer.
"What's wrong Fiona?" Imogen asked, concerned as she took her girlfriend's hands into her own.
"Nothing," Fiona replied, shaking her head and looked at the ground. "Nothing, it's…perfect."
"Why won't you sign for it then?"
Breathing in deeply, Fiona knew it was time for her to come clean. "Immy…" she started, squeezing her girlfriend's hands. "I didn't get into NYU. Well, I mean I did, but I declined." Hearing that, Imogen's jaw dropped. She knew Fiona wanted to attend there since she was young, so she didn't understand why she would give up the opportunity to attend. "Fiona, why would you…" She trailed off, not wanting to make Fiona feel about about her life choices.
Fiona looked into Imogen's eyes, continuing as she smiled softly. "I got an offer to go to the University of Toronto….and…I accepted. I didn't want to leave you. We've been so good and I…I love you. "
"I love you too Fiona." Imogen swiftly replied, smiling widely.
Fiona, a bit more relaxed, continued once again. "Well since we love each other, and since you've spent most of your time at the loft with me rather than at home with your parents, and considering we're going to the same school…" she hinted as Imogen slowly caught on, her heart rate speeding up. "I want you to move in with me. This place won't be home without you."
Imogen immediately teared up, sniffling and dropped Fiona's hands, sliding her arms around the older girl's neck. "Oh my golly, I would love to move in with you Fifi!" She squealed. "I'm so excited, I'm so happy! I'm feeling all these intense good emotions at once and I don't know how to handle it!"
Fiona giggled softly, bringing her lips to Imogen's and kissed her once, strong and passionately. Imogen returned the kiss just as lovingly.
Pulling back for a moment, Fiona picked up the pen and signed for the place, her signature larger than normal. She set down the pen, turning her attention back on Imogen and slid her arms around her waist. "Welcome home Miss Moreno."