Page 98 of Love and Other Brain Experiments
I look down at the artwork Lewis has given me, and when he hands me the hammer and I spot the nail he has taped to the handle, I finally understand.
“Are you asking to move in with me?” My voice is hoarse with emotion.
“If you’ll have me.”
My eyebrows draw together. “What about your place?”
“This place is nicer. Farther away from work, which is probably only good. You have a bigger kitchen and I like that third step that is a bit creaky,” he reasons. “And, well. The loft.”
He’s right. Nestled under a gabled roof, the loft may be my favorite part of this whole place. It reminds me of the bedroom in Lewis’s friend’s cabin in upstate New York. And in times like these, when rain cloud after rain cloud moves over Amsterdam, thepitter-patteron the roof makes it cozy and magical, like sleeping in a tent. Minus the damp clothes and back pain the next morning.
“I know things are moving quickly. That you only moved in a few months ago. But I’m living here half of the week anyway, and wish I was here for the other half. There’s more than enough space for the two of us, and with the extra money—”
“Lewis,” I stop him and squeeze his hand. The bliss of this day is almost too much for me to handle. Not just one dreamcome true, but all of them. I hold on a little tighter to his thumb, to reassure myself that all of this is real. “There’s nothing you have to convince me of.”
“I don’t?”
“Unless you made plans to persuade me over a home-cooked dinner, in which case I’ll gladly have you convince me.”
He ruffles my hair and kisses my temple. When he draws back, his eyes are dazzling, the crinkles around them full of delight. I take his hand, grab my present, and pull him to the bottom of the stairs leading up to the loft. There’s a little nook in the wall that I’d planned on placing a vase of flowers in, but it’s tall enough to fit the picture frame. Something more permanent.
When I’ve hammered the nail into the wall, Lewis hands me the frame, and he closes his arms around me as I hang up the fine copper wire.
“Welcome home,” he says.
