Chapter 26

Monday Evening

Lee opened the door to his apartment to allow Amanda to enter first. He locked the door behind them, and followed Amanda into the kitchen. He placed the bags of Chinese food onto the table and went to gather plates and silverware for their meal. He turned to find Amanda emptying the bags and organizing the boxes of food. Lee set the plates on the table and headed back for two glasses of water. They both sat at the table and began to scoop the food from the boxes onto their plates. Lee handed Amanda a fork while he took a pair of chopsticks out of their pouch.

The silence was getting to both of them, but neither one wanted to surrender. In their minds, each of them was right and couldn't understand why the other was being so stubborn. It was so quiet, Amanda's fork's scraping against her ceramic plate was like fingers on a chalkboard to Lee. While Amanda was about to explode because of the way Lee was tapping his chopsticks on his plate like he was playing the drum. By the time they both had finished their meal, Lee couldn't take it anymore.

"Amanda, please explain to me why you are so against buying this house? It meets everyone's needs and wants."

"Lee, I have told you. It doesn't matter if it meets everyone's needs. There is no way we can afford that house. It doesn't make sense to continue to argue about it. You just need to move on."

Lee dropped his chopsticks in anger. "Move on? How can I move on when you won't even let me discuss what I found out today when I talked to the Credit Union and the realtor? If you would just give me a chance, we may be able to move on." Lee stood, threw down his napkin, stomped over to the window, placed his hand on the wall halfway up, and glared out. He knew he needed to get his anger under control, or this evening would not end well. He took a few deep breaths to calm himself when he felt Amanda's arms wrap around him from behind. She laid her head against his back and lightly squeezed him. With his hand still on the wall, his free hand moved to cover Amanda's hands at his waist. They both just held each other for a while until Amanda apologized.

"Lee, I'm sorry. Please don't be angry at me anymore. Just sit on the couch with me, and I'll try to explain why I'm being so stubborn. I don't want to fight anymore."

Lee patted her hand, turned to face her, wrapped his arms around her, and kissed her temple. "I don't want to fight either. Let's go sit down."

They strolled to the couch hand in hand and sat down. Amanda pulled one leg up under her knee and faced Lee. She grasped and stared at his hands while she sorted out her thoughts in her mind. When she was ready, she lifted her head and began, "Lee, the reason I'm so against this house is because I absolutely love this house." Lee's expression turned to one of confusion as she continued. "I know what I just said doesn't make any sense, but let me try to explain it to you. I think it is kind of a defense mechanism. If I told myself there was no way we could afford this house, then I wouldn't be disappointed when we figured out we couldn't afford it. I just didn't want to get my hopes up. Does this make sense to you?"

Lee lovingly nodded and answered, "Yes, it does make sense. But why didn't you just tell me? All those same doubts went through my mind as well, but I know we can afford this house. I just needed to find a way to get you to believe it. I hardly slept last night because I was trying to figure out how to show you we could do this."

"How can you be so certain that we can afford this house? I didn't sleep last night, either. However, my reasons were completely different than yours."

"Well, I came up with a plan, and when I had free time today, I put that plan in motion. I first went down to the real estate office. I spoke with John Holmes. I explained to him I wanted his opinion on a house that has been on the market for a while and what he thought was a fair and reasonable price. I gave him the address and left so he could research it and get back to me. While I was waiting for John, I went to the Credit Union. I asked them what the process was for applying for a home mortgage loan, the current rate, and what I needed to do to figure out what monthly payments I could afford. They gave me a lot of documents to fill out and some to read. I made an appointment with them later this week to actually discuss our options."

Amanda shook her head in disbelief. "You did all of this today? Sweetheart, you know I would have helped you with that. I mean, I know we couldn't have done it together, but we could have gone the divide and conquer route. What did you find out?"

"After lunch, John called me back down to his office. When I got there, he had a huge smirk on his face. I sat down, and he asked me how serious I was about this house. He said it was an awfully big house for a single guy."

Amanda's eyes shot open with shock, "Oh my gosh, Lee! What did you say?"

"I told him that I was thinking of starting a brothel house, and this house would be perfect."

"Lee! Please tell me you didn't tell him that?"

"Actually, I did. Then I quickly explained the real reason for my inquiry."

"Which was what?"

"I told him that you asked me to look into it for you. That you and your fiance were looking at it and were wondering if I could help since you aren't technically an agent yet."

"That was very clever, Lee. None of that was a lie. What did he say after that?"

Lee triumphantly grinned, "He told me that the house has been on the market for almost a year, and it is overpriced."

"Is the price the only reason why it's been on the market for almost a year? I mean, there isn't any other reason, like termites or ants, is there?"

"No, he looked into that, and there have been several inspections already done on the house, and they all came back clean. There is nothing wrong with the house. It's just overpriced."

"Well, that's good news! How overpriced is it?"

"He said that if he were putting an offer in on that house, he would go at least thirty thousand lower and start from there. He will also contact the realtor and let them know that a government employee is looking at it and is very interested. He wants to see if that will help with putting in an offer for you. Plus, he is offering to be your realtor. It seems you've made quite the impression with a few people here, and he is willing to help you with whatever you need."

"That sounds promising. Did you do anything with the papers the Credit Union gave you?"

"No, I wasn't able to look at those yet. I figured it was something we can do right now, together."

"That sounds like a plan. I just want to get into some comfy clothes before we start. I have a feeling this may take a while,"

"I could help you get out of those clothes if you'd like!" Lee waggled his eyebrows along with his teasing grin.

Amanda pointed a finger at Lee and declared, "No, you won't! We need to concentrate on this because Mother and the boys will grill us on this the next time we see them, and we need to get this done. Now, behave yourself."

Lee lowered his head in a dejected manner and responded, "Fine, you're right. We need to get this figured out in case we want to move forward with this house. You change first. I don't know if I can behave myself being in the same room while you're undressing."

Two hours later, Lee sat on the couch, while Amanda sat on the floor in front of the coffee table, exhausted. Amanda set her pencil down and glanced over to Lee. "Yes, we can handle those payments if we can get the loan amount down. But, I still don't know how we are going to get that much of a deposit."

Lee's eyes lit up with excitement. "So, are you telling me that you're okay with us putting an offer in on this house if we can get enough of a deposit to get the payments to this amount?" He pointed to the paper on the table with all of their figures written on it.

"Yes, that is what I am saying, but as I explained, I don't—"

Lee smiled brightly and stood, interrupting her, "Don't move. I have something to show you." Lee jogged over to his desk. He pulled out the second drawer on the left, reached in and pulled out an envelope, and quickly made his way back to Amanda. He held out the letter to her and remarked, "Before you look at this, I want you to know the reason I'm just showing this to you now. I wanted to make sure that you were completely on board with this house and the finances. Please don't be upset!"

Amanda gazed up at him with uncertainty in her eyes as she took the envelope from him. She peered down at the return address, Washington Trust Bank. Her eyes shot back up to Lee with wonder. "Lee, what exactly is this?"

Lee beamed down to her and answered, "Our new home!"