The Merry, Merry Month of May: Part VIII
Mike was just about to head down into the subway at Penn Station, heading for home after an enjoyable few hours with Tina, when his phone started to buzz. He pulled it out, half expecting a little love note from her, but instead he saw that he had a text from Nick - 'Mike, meet me and Jeff at the address below now. It's urgent!' He immediately assumed that there had to be an emergency of some kind, even though in the back of his mind a faint alarm bell was ringing, and the words 'Practical Joke' were running through his thoughts. He dismissed them, and checked where he was to head on Google Maps…
He managed to arrive at the address in the West Village in just over twenty minutes, having been lucky enough to board a '1' Train almost the moment that he had stepped onto the subway platform. He looked up in slight awe at the building in front of him, so reminiscent of the place that Cooper had in Murray Hill. He began to wonder who it was that owned this house, how they could afford it, and what their connection was to Nick and Jeff. He assumed that it had to be connected in some way to Jeff's recent success in the art world, and that it perhaps belonged to some wealthy patron; that did not explain why he was needed though. He climbed up the steps with those questions still running through his mind, and was about to push the old fashioned bell when the door was swung open to reveal a smiling Jeff.
"Hey, Mike, thanks for getting here so quickly! Come in, there's something that we needed to show you!" Mike looked at Jeff curiously, as if hoping for some sort of explanation, but none was forthcoming. He followed his roommate up the grand staircase to the first floor, admiring the details around him as he did so. Halfway up, as they reached a landing and turned, he saw that Nick was coming up behind them, and that Grace was now standing at the front door, having just closed it. He wondered again what was going on, as Jeff lead him across the landing, and ushered him through a double door into a large room with a polished wooden floor
Jeff motioned to him to walk across it, and with a shrug, Mike did so, and immediately he realised what it was, and paused in his steps. "This is a sprung floor. They have floors like this at Julliard - I am guessing that this room must have been a ballroom once upon a time."
Nick was now standing by Jeff at the open door, and the latter spoke next. "So, a floor like this would make it the perfect room for you to practice in?"
"Well, yes! It would be a dream room for that. Whoever lives in this house is very fortunate."
"You think?" said Jeff, as Nick smiled at his side. "Well, that is a good thing, Mike, because you see, one of the people that will be living here, hopefully, is you. You see, as of now, this place is mine and Nick's, and by implication, yours too…"
Mike could only stare at the smiling young men in front of him for a few moments, and then he blurted out "No, that isn't possible; this is another prank, isn't it? I mean, I know that the two of you are better off financially than me and Tina, but even then there is no way in the world that the two of you could afford a house like this; heck, even if it was in an uncertified, rundown part of the city, with a crack house next door, you couldn't afford a place like this! Plus, if you could, you wouldn't have been looking at apartments in Pelham. No, this is just a prank again!"
"I know it looks like that, Mike, and up until a few hours ago, I would have been in agreement," said Nick.
"As Grace will however reassure you if you go and ask her - and you know she would never agree to be in on a prank - this place is ours, as are four of the other houses on either side of us," said Jeff.
The look of sincerity on his face as he uttered those words, and the enormity of the statement make Mike struggle for breath, as his eyes widened in shock. "How on earth…!?"
"Let us just summarise it like this," said Nick. "My husband's mother inherited a nice chunk of money from her parents; her douchebag husband appropriated it, and spent it without her knowledge. He then died, but did so having made a fatal mistake; he left a will with a critical ambiguity. He left a will in which he gave it all to his son…"
Jeff nodded, then continued for his now grinning husband. "He meant Hunter, of course, but given that he is already dead, and that after his death my natural father forgot to change his will, the whole estate, after a quiet court battle, come to his other son - little old me!"
Mike took a deep breath, and then smiled as broadly as the other two. "So, your father was a man of evil intent, but with a talent for property speculation?"
"Not exactly," said Jeff. "You see, he bought these beautiful, historic houses for the land that they occupy. He wanted to knock them down, and put up some featureless, horrible condos. What he didn't bank on was the fact that he also had to take on the occupiers of the properties, a ferocious group of old women. They managed to keep him at bay, and one of them outlived him, thwarting his plans in the process. If I am being honest, until I saw this house, I was going to give every cent of my unwanted inheritance away. Then I fell in love with this place, and now I am going to keep a large chunk of it. You see, there are a number of our friends that are looking for a new home right now, and by taking these properties, I can address that. The new arrivals from Dalton this year, along with my cousin, can share the house next door. The others are divided up, so there is a bit I can offer to Elliott, so that he, Beats and Josh can finally live together as they all want; there's a part for Flint to move into with Ethan; there's an accessible apartment, that would be ideal for Artie, if he can persuaded to accept it. And one day, when you and Tina are ready to move in together, there is a nice duplex at the end of the row, in the corner house, that will have your name on it."
"It has your name on it because, according to Grace, it also has a sprung floor in the sitting room, so it will be ideal for a dancer," continued Nick. "Of course, you might have had enough of living with the two of us and want to strike out on your own there right away, and if you do, that is fine, but the fact is, Jeff and I hope that you would like to continue living with us and Caleb just now…"
Mike stood there, in a daze. This had all happened so fast, and there was so much to process… "You really have a place here, in the West Village, marked out for me? That's great guys, but I doubt that I could afford the rent."
"Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot," said Jeff. "If it was up to me, I would give you it as a gift, but for tax reasons, I can't. So, we would have to rent it out to you, and in line with my sentiments, the rent we would be asking for would be in the region of $10 a month."
"Ten bucks a month! It's worth much, much more than that!"
"It is, true enough," said Nick, placing a hand on Mike's arm, "but Jeff thinks, and I agree with him 100%, that we would rather have the unofficial fifth musketeer three doors down than a stranger. You see, and please don't ever tell Sebastian this, you're our best friend in this city, not just our roommate. We love having you around, and this way, we get to keep you close."
"I love you guys too," said Mike, blinking back tears, "and you're kind of my best friends in New York too…"
"Just don't tell Sam or Artie, right," said Jeff with a wink. Mike sniffed, then started to chuckle, before he held out his arms. The other two knew exactly what to do, and stepped forward, to allow Mike to pull them into a hug.
With matters settled for the moment, they embarked on a full tour of the house for Mike, starting at the top with Jeff's studio space, which Mike had to admit was fantastic. They moved a floor down, where first they showed him the master suite, with its working fireplaces in both bed and bathrooms, before guiding him across the landing to the room they had tentatively earmarked for him; a room more than twice the size of his current one in the loft, which also had an en-suite bathroom and the same working fireplaces. He accepted it at once, without even being shown the two guest bedrooms on the floor below, opposite the drawing room with its sprung floor. On the entrance level there was a cosy sitting room, and a formal dining room with built in cupboards in a style that was approximate to that of the Rennie Mackintosh dining chairs that Nick had got as a wedding gift from Jeff. It also had French windows opening out onto a raised deck, with steps to the main garden. Finally on that level there was a small, book lined study that would be ideal for Nick to do his course work in peace.
In the basement Mike stood in awe as he surveyed the large kitchen diner that had bowled Nick over. He knew as the other two had done that this would be the room they spent most time in, as there was room for a couch and armchairs alongside the dining table. Doors lead to the garden again; it was compact, but had a handful of fruit trees and a vegetable patch. The final room was on the street side - it would be ideal as a storage space for all those things they didn't need quite so often. "This house is perfect," Mike said at the end of the tour. "Living here will be a dream come true."
Nick nodded in agreement, and turned his eyes to Jeff.
"Yes, I think it will be," said Jeff. "However, there is still one of our little group that hasn't seen it, and they might not approve. I mean, we still have to canvas the opinion of Caleb…"
"I'm pretty certain he will be as happy as we all are with this place," said Nick with a grin. "He'll have a garden to look at, and even explore with supervision in time. After all, he isn't used to being outside. He'll have to get used to there being stairs inside the house though, although I am sure at first there will be a lot of looks and plaintive maiowing going on - and it will be important that we all agree that we don't get into the habit of carrying him up and down all the time!" Nick looked pointedly at Jeff as he said those words, and his husband rolled his eyes. "In any case, the stairs will be good for him. It will help him burn off a little bit of excess weight that he has as a result of his ability to con extra food out of all of us…"
"Caleb is not fat, Nicky!" exclaimed Jeff. He looked into the questioning eyes of both Nick and Mike, then with a giggle said, "He's just a little bit plump."
"Well he can be a little less plump with the exercise. It is no bad thing to have to run up and down the stairs," said Mike in a conciliatory tone.
"Of course, we could always slide down them ourselves. I mean, that last banister down into the front hall from upstairs does look very tempting…" said Nick.
Mike spun round to look at him in shock, and shook his head; then burst out laughing as he saw that Jeff was nodding in agreement with his husband. "Well, all I can say is that if you intend to do that, then we will need a thick, heavy mat at the foot of the stairs - and a first aid kit. It really isn't the best of ideas, guys…"
"But just once, Mike, it could be fun. When we move in, we can get the movers to leave a mattress there, and land on that," suggested Jeff.
"Now that is a plan for moving day! We could maybe even tempt Mike to join us if there was that level of safety precaution in place for the landing zone…" replied Nick. "Now, we really should get back up to Grace. Time is getting on…" He rose from his seat, and headed for the stairs, the other two following him. As they headed back up, he glanced at Mike, as did Jeff, and both smiled as they realised that now they had offered to up the safety equipment, Mike looked as if he was considering the idea of the banister seriously.
Back in the hall, Nick was the first to speak to his sister, who had been waiting patiently for some time. "So what happens now Grace? What needs to be done, and how long will it all take?"
"The good news is that all Jeff has to do is sign a few pieces of paper; Elspeth had a copy of Jeff's original birth certificate, and of the adoption papers from the orphanage that man dumped him in, with the official change of his surname to Sterling. All the publicity surrounding what happened with Hunter would have made it difficult for them to deny who he was in any case, and the fact that he is also the eldest son helped the case enormously. Once they have been signed, I take them to the probate office; they will file them, and that is it. Everything in the estate is transferred over to you, Jeff, or in the case of the investments and shares, over to your financial or legal advisor for you to deal with as you wish. You will have to commit your plans to paper though. I'm sorry about that, but the court requires that it be witnessed by an unrelated, independent witness, so that rules me out."
"We could get Mike to do that though, couldn't we? That's if he doesn't mind?" asked Nick. Grace nodded, and all eyes turned to Mike.
"It won't be a problem. So, I take it that Jeff has been left more than these houses then?" Jeff proceeded to let Mike know more or less the full extent of what Gordon's will had contained, and what he planned to do with all of it; Mike was stunned by the total value, and wholeheartedly agreed with everything that Jeff had planned. He did agree with Grace though that it would be wise to hold some money back for a repair fund, given the age of the houses they were standing in, and the likely cost of insurance on such a property.
"I have to agree that you both have a point, and so we will do that," replied Jeff. "The bigger question though is this - when can we move in?"
Grace laughed, remembering that only a few hours ago, Jeff had wanted nothing to do with the place. "If you had a van ready and your belongings loaded up, right this minute as far as the law is concerned - but I'm sure that next week will be soon enough for you all…"
Jeff looked at his husband and roommate, and the two of them nodded in agreement. "So we could be in before we have to head back to Ohio for the wedding… That is so cool! Right, so we need to make serious plans for the move, and more importantly, for breaking the news to people. I'm going to suggest that we say nothing about this until we can get all of our friends gathered together, even if it is just watching us on a camera through Skype."
"Well you will have an ideal opportunity next week at the Spotlight partner's meeting," Grace responded.
"Until then we all say nothing, but we can start to pack up the loft in a discreet way. And I'm afraid that saying nothing will have to include Tina," said Nick pointedly.
"Don't worry about that. I learnt my lesson last month," said Mike. "I know that she is no good whatsoever at keeping a secret. I will miss living in Bushwick, but this place… I am getting good vibes from this house."
"We'll miss Bushwick too," said Jeff, looking right at Nick. "It was our first marital home after all. It was the last place Wes called home before he died. It was where Klaine lived together as a couple. It holds so many memories for all of us, good and bad…"
"And some downright funny," said Nick. "Oversprung toasters, drunken nights…" He lowered his voice so that Grace wouldn't hear and whispered, "Naked Warblers…"
Jeff giggled, and Mike smiled as Grace looked oblivious to what her brother had just said. "The thing is, we will make new memories here, Nicky. I mean, unless life forces us to leave the city, then I see this as our forever home. Where we will grow old and grey; where we will raise our child… Sure we might have fights here, for real, but I think that this place will end up being filled with so much love and hope. I can even picture this hallway with a big Christmas tree sitting round about here. This is home, Nick. As Mike said, the vibes here are good. The fact that is making all of us feel happy makes the fact of who bought it immaterial. This place isn't his any more; it is ours…."
Having seen all of their new home, Grace had given them the keys to the remaining properties, and they had set off to explore. Whilst Nick and Jeff had wandered from room to room in the house immediately next door, that they had earmarked for Luke, Duncan and the Dalton boys, Mike had gone with Grace to look at the house that was intended for his in the long term. They had all met up again in the adapted basement flat, where Mike's first action had been to pull Jeff into a tight hug; his action spoke volumes, indicating to them both that they had been correct in their choice of place for Mike. As they all then strolled round the accessible flat, they all remarked on how ideal the place would be for Artie; everything was adapted for someone in his position, but the place still looked as if everything in it was original. "I think that we should maybe consider showing this to Artie early; both he and Kitty can be trusted to keep a secret, and that way he could look around without everyone else being around and getting in the way," said Nick as they prepared to leave.
Jeff agreed it might well be wise, and Mike suggested that they tell him that they had found the perfect filming venue for him for his short based on the story of Sebastian's Vegas wedding; ask him to come and see it, with the promise of lunch afterwards. Mike knew that his friend would be as overcome as he was with Jeff's good fortune and the generosity that he was now showing towards others, to ensure they all benefited. He quite liked the idea of having Artie living close by in the future, and he knew that Tina would too; they had always been close, and he accepted that. As for Kitty, she would just be overwhelmed that her fiancé had a suitable home in such an excellent location after all the time they had spent searching themselves.
That evening, back in the loft, Nick made Fettuccini Alfredo for dinner, with a tiramisu for afters. As Mike was working, he and Jeff were eating alone, with only the occasional miaow from a contented Caleb disturbing their companionable silence. Both had come home and immediately started to go through the stuff that they owned but did not use frequently. They had stopped off at the corner store on the way home to enquire if they had any cardboard boxes that they did not need, and then had brought them up the stairs surreptitiously, as they did not want their neighbours in the other loft to know what was going on quite yet. It was still all sinking in for the two of them in any case.
As they ate their dessert, Nick having been careful to be quite sparing with the coffee liqueur, they finally found time to flick through the photographs of the beach house that Grace had given them just before they parted company that afternoon. From the first exterior picture, both of them were sold on the place; Jeff on the sense of space it had around it and the beauty of both the setting and the grounds; Nick with the very 1920s architectural style and design features of the place. Jeff had told Nick that Wes had come to speak to him before he made his decision, and now they could both see why he had said that Kurt and Blaine thought Jay Gatsby would have been quite at home there. Every room that they saw was perfect in its period detail, right down to the furnishings; even the kitchen had had its up to the minute appliances carefully housed to make it appear the room was a period piece. Neither of them said a word, just sat and smiled, until they clicked open one which showed a swimming pool, and that made them both gasp.
"Okay, Nicky, pinch me! That has to be a stock photo from the library of some design magazine! Something that perfect just can't be ours…." whispered Jeff.
"I very much think that it is ours, my love, as is what very much looks like a hot tub in that corner," replied Nick. "We are going to be able to throw the best Warbler party ever…"
"We will never get rid of them once they see it, Nicky," responded Jeff. He clicked again and brought up the next image. His eyes went wide, and the smile on his face grew even wider.
"I am guessing that would be our private beach…" Nick whispered in awe of the stretch of sand, enclosed by two headlands. "It would not surprise me if any moment now I wake up, and find myself lying in bed next to you, and it is still Sunday morning. All of this is just a total dream, Jeffie. Now, I know I have asked before, but you are really ok with all of this, my love? Because if you have even the tiniest bit of doubt…."
"I'm sure, Nicky, but the fact that you keep asking me just reminds me why I love you so very much. I know that if I said to Mike that I'd changed my mind, he would understand too. But no, I can see that hallway fully decorated, with a big Christmas tree, and a little child that looks like you running down the stairs, face full of joy, I can see us in that dining room, celebrating all the big special days, before we head up to dance together on that wonderful floor in the drawing room. I can see you in that kitchen, baking up a storm. And as for that bathtub in our bedroom, it looks plenty big for the two of us to share…"
"It did, didn't it… We should have got in it, just to check it out," Nick replied with a smile.
At that moment, Caleb decided it was time to get the attention he deserved, and jumped up onto Jeff's lap. He made himself comfortable, and began to purr. He could sense that something was going on with his humans; there were boxes, which had been tempting to explore, but he had been quickly taken out again as they were moving things and placing them in them. He nuzzled himself into Jeff's stomach, as the blond man began to stroke his fur lovingly.
"Well, Caleb my little friend, we are taking you back to live in Manhattan. We have found a new house for you to explore - new smells and new spaces. I hope that you will like it as much as we do; there is even a garden for you to check out, though I am not sure how you will take to that. Never mind, there is a nice sunny spot for you to come and bask in in my new studio. I am sure that you will be fine with it all."
In his lap, Caleb did not have a single clue what he was going on about, but if whatever it was made him happy, then he would be happy.
As for Nick, he was sure that as long as they kept him warm and fed, Caleb would follow them anywhere. He got up, gently kissed his husband on the cheek, then set about clearing the table. He had woken up that morning thinking the day would be a nightmare; instead, it had morphed into one of those magical ones, where all of their dreams had come true. He hoped they would have many more days like it in the future…