Chapter 2
Neal was exhausted at the day's end but all of Carolyn's stuff had been unloaded and placed in the locations she wanted. Neal was surprised though when Carolyn had come up to him and led him to the guest room and told him to decorate it like he liked.
"Why Cookie?" he had asked as he looked the room over. It was a nice room with a half bath and good size closet and the bed looked to be a longer than most full size beds.
"Because it is to be yours when you stay over; the bed was Peter's after he hit his growth spurt in high school," replied Cookie. "Look it even has room for an easel and you can put your art supplies in this small chest in the closet," she added as she showed him just how big the closet actually was.
Neal was touched and his facial expression showed it. "Are you sure you want me Cookie; I can be a handful at times," he joked as he hastily wiped the tears from his face.
"I'm sure…now you get busy planning on how you want your room to look while I get some bed sheets," Cookie said as she hurried out to find sheets and pillow cases to go on the pillows she would eventually find once all of the boxes were unpacked.
Neal wandered around in a daze until he finally understood that she wanted him and then he got his act together and started planning on what he wanted this room to look like. First the light colored paint would have to go and he wanted the bed to face in another direction and if it went like he wanted then he could also fit a desk and chair against the wall so he could use it for so many stuff the least of all drawing. He started to smile as he worked and was so caught up that he didn't even notice Peter standing in the doorway until he spoke.
"Do you need my help in moving anything?"
Neal turned around to see the grinning face of Peter. "Your Mom is something else. This is going to be my room for my use whenever I want to spend the night," explained Neal emotionally.
"I know; she told me and she also said that I was to help you move furniture…so what do you want to move first," replied Peter as he entered the room.
"The bed; I want it to be against this wall that way I can fit a desk and chair to go over in that corner and the chest of drawers over there," Neal said as he pointed out the changes to his friend.
"Well, let's get on with in and maybe if we finish on time you might be able to spend the night with her so she won't be alone on her first night," suggested Peter.
Neal nodded his agreement and the two got to work. Carolyn timed her return to occur after the bed had been moved and between her and El they got the bed changed and ready for use that night. They hadn't had any trouble finding the bed sheets or the pillows and blankets and when they had finished so had Peter and Neal. The desk and chair had also been Peter's for when he was in school.
"Are you going to change the color of the room, dear?" asked Carolyn.
"Yes, ma'am…I thought a rich chocolate color would be nice and it goes nicely with the color of the bedspread," remarked Neal as he noticed the green and chocolate design of the bedspread for the first time. "I can bring pictures to decorate the walls later."
"Or you can paint some of your own to go on the walls," suggested El as she gave Neal a quick peck on the cheek before moving on to Peter for a longer kiss. "You two did a great job in transforming this room. If you lose your day jobs at least you have something you can fall back on," she added with a laugh.
