A Higher Love
Without it, Life is Wasted Time.
"What do you think?" A woman's voice asked. Cloud could hear the flip and flop of his own shoes as he walked around.
"It's beautiful. Big...way bigger than what we have." He said.
"Oh my god! did you see the pool!?" Marlene exclaimed excitedly. Cloud smiled.
"Yeah, I saw it. How could I miss it? What of it?"
"Cloud, seriously...finally me and my friends will have some place cool to hang." Marlene rolled her eyes. He laughed at her. "I'm serious! We have no privacy ever!" Marlene argued.
"I like it that way." He teased her. One thing was certain, and that was that Cloud was a pro at irritating Marlene. She huffed and threw a hand in his face. He knew she wasn't serious and Marlene was used to Cloud egging her on. Cloud took a deep breath.
"Well, I gotta wait on the chief." He said looking at his watch. "She'll be here soon. In the meantime, do you mind if my son and I go look over the third garage again?" He asked the woman.
"Of course!" She encouraged. "Did you have a plan for it?"
"Oh yeah, we have bikes to work on!" Denzel told her. She laughed.
"He's serious, my wife is about to kill us over what we've done in the back alley behind our bar." Cloud told the woman. "Frankly, we have outgrown our apartment...truth was we outgrew it three years ago but we're in the drivers seat to make a move. My kids are already teenagers and I'm going to lose them before I have a chance to remember these years." He continued as he, Denzel and the realtor walked toward the third garage.
It was true, Marlene was now 15 and Denzel was 14. It was hard to believe that so much time had passed and that so much had been endured. Denzel was a team favorite in junior baseball, often playing second base. He was nearly taller than Cloud and solid muscle. Cloud owned three bikes now, one being Denzel's. He and Denzel were working on them or improving them all the time and it was time that Cloud cherished more than Denzel would ever know. The beloved Fenrir, holder of so many memorable rides, won best of show in the Midgar Regional Bike Expo the year before. It had been an enormous honor. Cloud and Denzel had worked for three months to get it show ready.
Marlene had become an integral part of Cloud and Tifa's most recent business endeavor: teaching mixed martial arts. Actually, Tifa operated the school, only hiring instructors who had been taught the way she learned s many years ago in Nibelheim. Enrollment had hit fifty students. Marlene had taken an interest in learning Tifa's trade and so Tifa put her with who she believed to teach in the most similar fashion that Tifa had learned. Marlene was doing well, but she had a long way to go. Barret Wallace was more than tickled when watching her in the classes. In his words she was "a little momma". Except Marlene wasn't little anymore, she was becoming a young woman. In fact, she had outgrown Tifa and finally grown in to her body. She was dedicated in her training to become the athlete that Tifa had always been. When Marlene wasn't training, Tifa spend time teaching her the ropes of business.
Cloud and Tifa had bought the 7th Heaven bar and the building in which it was located . The building itself was prime real estate. The delivery business was booming. In fact, it had merged and become Midgar Interior Express. Cloud oversaw the whole operation from a computer. It was amazing that the near demise of Midgar had turned his tiny, day-to-day business into a corporation.
They had indeed come a long way, complete dysfunction to solid ground all in the course of six years. And the driving force behind it all, had just walked in.
"Hey." Tifa acknowledged Marlene. "Hi, I'm Tifa, sorry I'm late. Did you get my text?" Tifa asked Marlene.
"Yeah, but Cloud is out in the garage with Denzel so I didn't tell him you were on your way. Did you see the pool!? Did you!? Did you see upstairs!? I could have like...a huge room." Marlene insisted with sparkling eyes.
"I know you could." Tifa said gazing out the windows over the pool. This had been the third time Cloud and Tifa looked at this house. A house in Midgar. It was a dream for many but only a few could actually afford it. The city taxes were outrageous…but knowing Cloud, he would figure out a way to write them off.
"Hey, you're here." Cloud said returning from the garage with Denzel.
"So, this is the chief, huh?" The realtor asked. Cloud smiled.
"This is her. She's been successfully running my life for years now. It works out well."
"We really like the house, of course I guess you know that since we've been here three times." Tifa told the realtor.
"What concerns do you have?" She asked.
"It's big." Cloud said, as he had remarked earlier. "What are we going to do with all this space?"
"Uh, breathe!" Both Tifa and Marlene said in near unison.
"We don't even own enough furniture to fill this place. I'm standing here looking at a pool and we own zero outdoor furniture. Our bedroom furniture and Marlene and Denzel's stuff would look horrible in here."
"It's only a three bedroom, which is what your apartment is now. The footage, however, is nearly triple your current. And may I suggest, since you have the money in your budget, I know of some names of good interior designers you could hire to help you out. You could make some minor changes and this home could reflect the four of you." The realtor explained.
Tifa looked at Cloud as he thought a moment. He shook his head. "I always knew having a wife would leave me consistently broke." He said. Tifa laughed and rolled her eyes.
"Imagine what an interior designer could do for you and Denzel's work space in the garage." She reminded him.
"I also hate it when she's right." Cloud told the realtor. Cloud looked at Tifa again, then to Marlene and Denzel. "Would you two be happy in a house like this?" Cloud asked of Marlene and Denzel.
"Dad, seriously, I would have my very own closet here! Not that stupid thing in the hallway at home!" Marlene insisted as her phone vibrated at her. Marlene had never referred to Cloud as dad until she could see it in his eyes that it was okay to do so. It wasn't until a year and a half previously, that she had done so. Even Denzel had done the same. It had transformed Cloud into a different man when they started doing so. Sure he had been a parent to them...but when that started he had a real good idea as to how fathers felt.
"There's a yard and everything." Denzel answered. "It's really peaceful on this street." Cloud shook his head. He looked at Tifa again who raised her eyebrows at him and shrugged her shoulders. Cloud knew this was her way of saying 'you know what I think so it's all on you now'. He shook his head again.
"Okay...let's make an offer." Cloud looked over to the realtor.
"Oh thank goodness!" Marlene said, leaning over on Tifa.
"Great! Why don't we go back to my office and we can draw up the necessary paperwork." The realtor assured them. "Oh, and may I ask do you have the name of a home inspector to complete an inspection report should the current owners accept your offer."
"Yeah, we have one in mind. But uh...will you be walking through the inspection with him?" Tifa asked a bit concerned.
"No, I'll only receive a completed report of his findings." The realtor said. "Would you prefer I be with him?"
"Not unless you're part sailor." Cloud said as the four of them walked back out to the driveway. A driveway…who would have ever thought that they would have some place aside from the back alley to park their cars and the bikes. The realtor had a peculiar look on her face.
"Our inspector has quite the mouth." Tifa clarified.
"I see. What's the name of the potential inspector?" she asked.
"Cid Highwind." Cloud answered.
Later that night, back at their apartment over 7th Heaven; it was discussed what should happen if the owners accepted the offer Cloud and Tifa had made.
"I hope those people accept. I can't wait to get out of here!" Marlene said.
"You'll miss this place if we move." Cloud told her.
"Um, no I won't. I hate sharing a bathroom with Denzel and our hallway is six inches wide!" Marlene said exaggerating.
"I'm going to have to kind of agree with her on that." Denzel said getting something to drink from the refrigerator and joining them around the couch.
"How much is an interior designer going to cost?" Cloud asked.
"Is that someone who you tell what you like and they like…decorate your house?" Denzel asked.
"That's exactly it and the cheapest one on this list the realtor gave us is 1500 gil. Apparently, they work by the job." Tifa said. Cloud clicked a pen above his head repeatedly as he thought.
"Not to mention the pieces we need to buy. Seriously, Marlene and Denzel have had the same bed since they were…what? Nine? We can't take this couch, it's way too small to fill up that main room." Cloud said.
"You put it in another room." Denzel observantly said.
"He's right." Tifa said.
"Okay…unless that interior decorating thinks our taste in furniture is a hot mess." Cloud said. "Hey, you two do realize if we buy this house we gotta be out of here in thirty days." Cloud said pointing his pen to Marlene and Denzel.
"I can have my stuff packed in thirty minutes." Marlene said not looking up from her tablet as she laid in the floor. "But if we move, I'm going to the mall to get a bikini for the pool."
"Oh, oh, oh…no. There is a very strict no bikini rule. Just because we are offering on a house with a pool does not mean there will be any of this two piece swimwear garbage. Sweat pants. You may wear sweat pants in the pool." Cloud warned her.
"You better think your rules through a little more carefully." Tifa said looking over all the particulars of the house on a printed out sheet. Cloud thought for a moment.
"Okay wait…no revealing swimwear for anyone under twenty-one." Cloud said amending his rule.
"Marlene, you have like 4 swimsuits." Denzel reminded her.
"Yeah, but they aren't cute." Marlene told him. Denzel just shook his head and continued searching Cloud's phone for a part they had been looking for to go onto Denzel's bike.
"Alright, we'll deal with all of Cloud's made up rules as he thinks of them." Tifa said sitting the print out aside and picking up a note pad.
"Hey, you just wait until you hear my list of rules for you." Cloud warned Tifa, clicking his pen in her face.
"And I am prepared to break every one of them." She answered not looking up from her notepad.
"That right there…is my kind of woman. She know she bad!" Cloud said before Tifa snatched his pen away.
"Here, I found it. 86 gil on this website." Denzel said handing Cloud's phone over to him.
"Seriously? You found it?" he said looking at the website Denzel had located. "That's not a bad price on that pipe head. Go get the credit card and order it. It says it could take up to eight weeks so if we buy this house we'll need to make sure mail forwarding is in place." Cloud told Denzel as Denzel walked over to the kitchen counter to get Cloud's wallet.
"Okay, we need to think. Are we going to try and sell this apartment or rent it?" Tifa asked.
"Well, the way I see it. If we rent it, we need to have the right renters. It could be a hassle. If we put it up for sale, I think our chances of selling out are extremely high. It's private from the bar. The noise doesn't trickle up here. There's no odor from the kitchen downstairs and above all, your head bartender is looking for a place." Cloud said.
"That's true." Tifa said. "Good points."
"Alright. Denzel are you ready to hit the gym?" Cloud asked him.
"Yeah, let me go get my shorts and stuff." Denzel said pulling himself up from the floor. Cloud followed him to get his own things together. Tifa watched him leave the room and diverted her attention to Marlene.
"Hey Marlene…" she began softly. "…we have some things to discuss." Marlene shook her head excitedly.
"Oh yeah we do…Cloud's 30th birthday!" she said just as softly.
"Go get the phone, we'll call Yuffie as soon as they leave." Tifa lipped to her, pointing to the phone.
Yes, the other major event was still a month away. This was the year Cloud would turn 30.