Last time:
Lois
Clark broke down another box. "That's all of my stuff except for one box for the desk. Do you want to go get something to eat?"
I pondered that for a minute. "Yeah. My stomach feels okay right now." I avoided looking at the bed. "Let's hit CostMart and pick up some stuff there. We can eat at their café."
He raised his eyebrow at me. "The CostMart café? Seriously?"
I nodded. "They have the best pizza."
"Really?"
"Don't knock till you've tried it. We used to eat there every Sunday."
He shook his head. "If you say so."
I grabbed my jacket and purse. "Let's go."
I headed out the door and heard it creak as Clark shut and locked it behind us.
*~*29*~*
~~~~~
Clark
~~~~~
Lois was right.
They had good pizza.
I'd been skeptical when she said CostMart had good pizza but it did. She'd decided to go with a chicken wrap thing instead, but a big slice of Supreme called my name. Before long, though, we were done and it was time to do some... household shopping.
We grabbed a cart and headed into the store.
"You know how much I cook," she told me. "So I'll trust you on the food end. As long as we have chocolate, I'm good. And peppermints."
I nodded. "Okay. So where do we start?"
She sighed. "Bedding, I guess. We have to have something to sleep on."
"Well, you do anyway. I'll get an air mattress. It'll slide under the bed during the day but there's enough room for it over by the door at night. I can use the sheets and stuff I already have for that."
"If anyone's going to sleep on an air mattress, it's me. I'm not letting you do that."
She had to know I wouldn't let her do that and I told her so.
She sighed. "Well, then. I guess we'll share the bed."
I grudgingly agreed. "Okay then. Bedding it is."
She pushed the cart towards that part of the store. "Any color preferences?"
"Nothing girly froo froo."
"You should know me better than that by now, Paige."
"Paige?"
"Did you never watch Trading Spaces when it was still good?"
I shook my head. "What's Trading Spaces?"
"Never mind. Colors?"
"Let's see what they have," I suggested. I made myself put my last shopping trip for sheets and stuff out of my mind. Lana and I had gone to Wal-mart in Hutchinson and she'd picked out pink froo froo stuff and I'd picked the dark green, but we'd looked at stuff we both liked – for 'someday'.
I was glad that it didn't seem they had many of the same choices here.
"What color do you want?" I asked as we headed into the aisle.
"Why don't you pick," she said. "If I don't *hate* it, get whatever you want."
I didn't really have much of a preference as long as it wasn't girly. I looked at all the choices before finally pointing to one. I'd been glancing at the prices, too, and there was another one I thought I'd like better, but it was more expensive, too. And I still wasn't sure how we were paying for all this. I smiled to myself. "How about that one?" I pointed to a comforter with flowers all over it.
She glared at me. "Try again."
I laughed and pointed to a different one. "How about that one?"
She pulled it off the shelf and set it on the top of the cart before unzipping it. The comforter had stripes of chocolate and a slightly lighter brown. She pulled it partway out. "It feels pretty thick and somehow I doubt the heater in that place works very well."
"Probably not."
"It's fine with me," she said, zipping it back up before turning back to the shelf to get matching sheets and pillowcases. "Did you look to see if there's any dishes and stuff there?"
"There's not," I told her.
She sighed. "I guess we need some of those, too, then."
It wasn't long before there was a set of dishes and glasses in the cart, too, along with some silverware, cups, a pot and skillet. They were plain but functional, which was the most important thing. We grabbed a trash can and a new curtain for the closet 'door' – the beads had to go. There was a silverware tray and an iron and ironing board – something that had been provided for us at the dorm. We got some trash bags and a couple new notebooks for her for the semester. Lois also grabbed some kitchen towels and let me pick out the utensils – spatulas, measuring cups and spoons, mixing bowl, whisk, mixing spoons – because she knew she had no clue what we needed. She picked out a vacuum cleaner. That hadn't even occurred to me to get.
Lois had insisted on a couple of TV trays and a bookcase/media shelf thing. There was enough room on the door side of the dresser for it, but barely. She also decided that she wanted a popcorn maker because real popcorn was better than microwaved. I agreed with her there but it was more fun popping it with my eyes in midair. I couldn’t tell her that though. I pushed thoughts of my... uniqueness aside as we headed toward the food side of the store, but not before I picked up a crock pot. Lois had no clue what we'd do with it, but I knew I could toss some stuff in first thing in the morning and have a late lunch or dinner ready when we were.
I had to grab a second cart before we picked out a little bit of food to take back with us, too. A gallon of milk and some cereal for breakfast, some Ramen noodles, string cheese and some chicken soup for Lois. And popcorn stuff. We did grab a couple of frozen meals – the freezer had seemed better than the fridge – and I picked up barbecue sauce and some beef to make in the pressure cooker the next day since the cafeteria wasn't open yet. I got some spices and bread and cheese to go with it. Her dad had said he'd keep sending some meals from his meal service so we really didn't need too much. We didn't trust the big refrigerator just yet. And crackers for Lois. We got a bunch of them. She also thought to get carpet cleaner and some stuff to spray on the bed. There was Febreeze and we agreed on a couple of scents for candles and air freshener.
After that, just when I thought we were done, she headed back to the paper goods to get paper towels and toilet paper and napkins before getting dish and laundry soap, dryer sheets and color safe bleach. She crossed back to the bathroom part of the store and picked up a couple of soap dispensers to go with the hand soap she'd also gotten. She also grabbed a toothbrush holder before heading to the rugs and stuff. She grabbed a floor rug that matched the bedding and some stuff to cover the toilet, too. She picked up body towels – including a couple of really big ones, bath sheets I thought she said – and a couple of hand towels and wash clothes.
By then both carts were overflowing and I was starting to blanch a bit at what was sure to be a large total. I still didn't know how we were paying for all of this, but that probably wasn't something Lois had ever really had to worry about. She went a couple aisles over and together we picked out a few area rugs, before heading back to bedding and getting a couple of extra blankets and new pillows – something we both needed – as well as an egg crate and mattress cover. She grabbed a dish drainer and I got some contact paper before we headed towards the front of the store.
I was surprised at how she knew what to get. Somehow, I hadn't figured that she'd know the kinds of little things we'd need. I knew I would have forgotten half – or more – of them.
We got to the checkout line and I wondered again how to broach the subject of how we were paying for all this. Lois answered that question before I asked.
"Dad said to get whatever we need and put it on his credit card."
"That was nice of him."
She shrugged. "He said it was the rest of our wedding present. He knew we'd need some stuff."
Before long we'd loaded it all in the truck and headed back to campus. "We need to pick up your Jeep at some point. Do you want to go do that now?" I asked.
She hesitated then nodded, reaching into her purse to pull out her cell phone. "I'll call Dad and let him know we're on our way."
~~~~~
Lois
~~~~~
I was glad I got to drive back to campus by myself. I'd only seen Dad for a minute and the girlfriend was nowhere to be seen. That was good news. He'd actually met us halfway so we didn't have to drive all the way to Pittsdale. That was good news, too.
Shopping with Clark hadn't been bad, but not exactly fun and I kept remembering things we'd need. I wasn't looking forward to the rest of the evening. I thought about going straight to bed, but I figured we'd want to toss the sheets in the washer first. At least I would. And that meant it would be at least two more hours before I could get some sleep. Besides that, we'd need to get all of the purchases put away.
I glanced in the rearview mirror. Clark was still right behind me and he looked about as serious as I felt. This couldn’t be easy for him and I still didn't understand why he'd insisted on doing it, why he'd insisted on staying married, but he had.
I'd told him to be discrete if he was going to keep seeing Lana and I meant it. I was okay with it if he still saw her on the side, as long as he was careful that no one else knew. If Linda knew though... That would be bad. I'd have to mention that to him.
The tour group would be back in two days. I'd have to talk to Joe, but even worse, Clark was going to have to talk to Lana. Breaking up with Joe, officially, wasn't going to be easy, but Clark and Lana...
It wouldn't surprise me if they broke their 'wait till the wedding night' vow; if they made love in the next couple days, I would have no place to complain, regardless of what our wedding vows had said. It wasn't like this was a real marriage.
I stopped at the stop light leading onto campus and fiddled with the wedding band on my finger, staring at it.
I was a married woman.
And I was contemplating whether or not I should tell my husband it was actually okay for him to cheat on me.
I sighed as the light turned green and I headed towards the parking lot nearest to my new home. Clark loaded everything on a cart and brought it inside while I started a load of laundry – sheets along with some of my clothes that I'd brought back with me from Europe.
He looked up from the bed where he was sitting with pieces of the new shelving unit. I noted the Febreeze sitting out. "The cold stuff is put up. Want to put this together?"
I shook my head. "Not if we want it to actually work when it's done. Aren't you a farmboy? Shouldn't you know how to make stuff?"
He laughed. "Fences? Sure, no problem. Prefab furniture? That's a whole different ball game." He handed me the instructions. "You read. I'll try to figure this out."
We laughed as we tried to figure it out and when the time came to switch the laundry, it was done. There was very little room to walk in the area near the door, but I squeezed through and headed to the laundry room at the other end of the hall. By the time I got back, Clark was moving my DVDs and CDs to the new shelf where they joined the ones he'd taken out of his box of desk stuff.
He leaned back against the bed, staring at the furniture along the wall. "Could we rearrange any of this you think?"
I sat on the loveseat and immediately regretted it. I wouldn't be sitting there often. "I don't know," I said, looking around. "I'm not sure how we would rearrange it, but we probably want to before we get the rugs out and stuff."
He nodded. "What if we switched the desk and the table over there? Or put the bookcase where the desk is and the table on this side of the dresser and the desk over where the table is?"
I glanced next to me. "Well, the mini-fridge isn't going to work over here. The side table can move over here, but there's not enough room for the door to open."
"I noticed that earlier." He moved to sit on the bed, leaning against the wall so he could see the whole room a bit better. "The table's pretty useless right there. Neither one of us actually use a desk much so it wouldn’t matter if we couldn't get a chair in and out easily. What if we put the desk there, with the bookcase on top of it? It might not be pretty..."
"But it would be more functional that way. The mini-fridge can go on that side of the bed, but the drawers on that side of the desk..." I sighed. "That won't work."
"We could put the fridge by the closet and whoever's on this side of the bed could just use the desk as a night stand. We could even turn the desk this way instead if we're moving the nightstand." He gestured to the wall next to him. "Then we could use the chair still and put the bookcase on top of it in the corner so there's some space on this end for an alarm clock or something."
I nodded and pointed to the wall across from the bed. "So table, dresser, fridge against the closet. Desk against the same wall as the bed with the bookcase on top. What about this monstrosity?" I asked, patting the loveseat.
He sighed. "Unless we want to push the bed up against the wall so that one of us is up against it, I think this is probably the best place for the bed and loveseat."
I nodded my agreement. "Okay," I said, standing up. "Let's get moving."
He stood up then pointed to the bed. "Sit. You're not moving furniture."
I rolled my eyes but sat down. "Get the desk and bookcase moved first and I'll work on getting it set up a bit better."
Clark easily moved the nightstand and table, setting them on the bed out of the way before he effortlessly scooted the desk next to the bed. I moved all the stuff he'd already situated on the bookcase to the bed until he had it in place, snug against the corner. I moved the CDs and DVDs back onto the top shelves, stretching to reach that high. I grabbed the box with the rest of my school stuff in it and situated a bunch of books and notebooks and assorted other things on one of the shelves. "Want me to unpack your box?"
He'd shoved the loveseat out of his way so he could move the fridge, but stopped long enough to look at me. "I'd appreciate that. Thanks."
His things went on another shelf and into the other set of drawers. I didn't see his picture of him and Lana anywhere and I breathed a small sigh of relief at that. By the time I was done, so was he.
"Better?" he asked.
I sat in the desk chair. "As good as it's going to get, I think." I noticed that he wasn't breathing heavily and hadn't even broken a sweat. "Thanks."
He pushed the loveseat with his knee and nudged it over another couple of inches. "Ready to unload the rest of this stuff?"
I nodded. "Let's get it done."
He pointed to the bed again. "Sit and tell me where you want everything."
"I think we should probably wash the dishes and stuff before we use them, shouldn't we?"
He hesitated. "Probably. I'll move all the kitchen stuff onto the counters and we'll do everything else first."
He did so then grabbed the vacuum cleaner box. "This is probably the best place to start." He glanced at the floor. "We'll want to vacuum before we put rugs down." He opened the box. "Did you know you have to assemble this?"
"Seriously?" He nodded. "You do that and I'll start on the bathroom. How's that?"
I was working on getting the tank cover onto the pink toilet – what were they thinking when they installed those? – when I heard the vacuum cleaner start. I spread the chocolate rug on the floor and glanced at the shower. The inside of it couldn't be more than two, two and a half feet square at most. That was going to be fun. I hung the hooks for the robes over the door and stuck the hooks for more towels up as high as I could reach. A couple towels went over the rack and a couple more went above it on the hooks. I filled the soap dispensers and arranged the rest of the stuff. I was glad I'd remembered to send Clark back for a toilet brush and cleanser. I was even more glad that he'd informed me that he'd take care of it.
"All done," Clark called, as the vacuum shut off.
"Good." I handed him the ironing board hook and pointed to the wall behind the door. "There please." He stuck it to the wall as I set the ironing board next to it. "The iron will have to go under the sink in the bathroom, I guess." I grabbed the pillows and tossed them onto the loveseat so they wouldn't be in the way when we made the bed. "Where do we stick the laundry baskets?"
"The closet?"
"One maybe, but I don't think both will fit in there. Another over by the counter?" I sighed. "Maybe we should get a couple hampers. That'd work better I think."
"Probably." He grabbed the biggest of the rugs. "Where do you want this one?"
I gestured to the area between the bed and the dresser. "Right there," I told him before grabbing two of the smaller ones and putting one in front of the desk and one of the runners along the 'kitchen'. Clark put the other two runners between the bed and the loveseat, lifting each corner of the loveseat to slide it partially underneath, and the other coming straight out from the door. I sighed. "Well, at least most of that's covered up." I glanced at the alarm clock I'd put on the desk. "I'm going to go get the laundry. You mind to clean the rest of this up?" I asked gesturing to the bags and boxes lying around.
He nodded and I left the room.
*****
TBC
