#Bonus 2: House Hunting
Nina
The whisper of the wind and the distant hum of the campus came as a backdrop to our conversation. Enzo and I were sitting on the steps of our university dorm, a stack of housing catalogs spread out around us, dog- eared and underlined with no luck.
Enzo ran a hand through his hair, frustration clear in his furrowed brows. “Nina, none of these places feel right. They’re not…us.”
I looked at the houses in the brochures, all perfectly manicured lawns and cookie-cutter designs, and I had to agree with him. There was nothing that I hated more than a white picket fence and a perfectly mowed back lawn. For the past couple of weeks, we had been house hunting almost nonstop.
Neither of us wanted to continue living in our campus dorms once we were married. We craved the true privacy of a home, and we planned on staying in Mountainview for a long time, so we figured that now was as good a time as any to officially settle down and buy a home.
But the movies and TV shows made house hunting appear to be much easier than it really was. I always thought that it would just take a few houses and a good real estate agent before we would find the house of our dreams, but that wasn’t the case.
Everything that we looked at felt too cramped between other houses, too bland, and nothing had enough character to suit our unique lifestyle.
We both wanted space to run in our wolf forms, trees outside our windows, and the feeling of the ocean breeze on our skin; but it seemed that all of the houses that were available in the area were the exact opposite of that.At this point, we were left with no choice but to either stay in the dorms or get an apartment downtown, and neither of us wanted that, either.
There was one more option, though; it was something that I had been hesitant to bring up because I knew that it was a soft spot for Enzo, but now, it seemed as though it finally needed to be talked about.
“Enzo,” I started, my voice almost tentative, “have you thought about your father’s house?” I saw him stiffen at my words, and I could almost feel the pain radiating from him. His father had passed away hardly more than a month ago, leaving Enzo his oceanside house.
We hadn’t been back since, not after finding it ransacked and destroyed by Lewis and his followers.Now, it was just sitting all alone up there on the cliff, dark and empty. It was like a coffin. Even just thinking about it made me shudder.
“Nina, you know how the house looked last time,” Enzo replied, a hint of despair in his voice. “I haven’t had the strength to fix it up. Plus, I don’t love the design of it.”
“Maybe we can change it, make it our own,” I suggested, meeting his brown- eyed gaze. I was convinced we could breathe life back into the house, turn it into a home.
But Enzo just shook his head, causing a stray brown curl to fall into his eyes. No, Nina,” he replied, his voice soft and low. “I’m sorry, but… The wedding is so close, you know? We won’t have any time to get anything done before then.”
Enzo seemed uncertain, but I reached out to hold his hand. His thick, calloused fingers felt warm and comforting laced between mine. “Let’s go look at it, just once. Maybe it’s not as bad as we remember.”
Reluctantly, he agreed, and the next day found us standing in front of the towering beach house. With its gray and square exterior and massive windows, it looked dark and almost frightening. But when I looked at it, I saw potential. I saw our future.
Holding Enzo’s hand tightly, I led him around the property, describing my vision for each room, how we could play with the natural light, the open spaces, and the amazing view of the ocean. I explained my ideas for renovations, for turning the old- fashioned architecture into a blend of rustic and modern design.
“Picture this,” I said, pausing in the large archway to the kitchen. We can paint it a bright color. Something rustic and cozy. We can replace all of these metal cabinets with nice wooden ones, and we’ll put in a large counter island with lots of stools for people to sit at when we have dinner parties.”
Enzo said nothing just yet, but I continued, and led him over to the dining room next.
“Here, we can get rid of this cracked glass table, and put in a big farmhouse table. With benches, maybe, instead of chairs… And over here, in the living room, we can get rid of all of this awful gray furniture and replace it with warm, soft, cozy sofas and armchairs.”
I didn’t say it out loud, but there was a tiny voice in the back of my head that wanted me to picture this place filled with a family, too. Kids… Lots of them. A whole little pack of pups. The thought of it made me blush, but I decided to keep it to myself for the time being and went on with my visions.
Next, I led Enzo upstairs. “We can change out the bed in the master bedroom,” I said, walking into the massive room. “Imagine it with a little table and some armchairs in that big window… We could sit here in the mornings and have our coffee while we watch the ocean…”
While I rambled on about color schemes and furniture, I watched as Enzo’s initial hesitation gradually gave way to quiet contemplation, his gaze becoming more introspective. I could see him painting mental images, transforming the broken down rooms in his mind, just as I was.
Finally, when we stood on the porch, looking out at the sprawling ocean, I turned to him, silently urging him to see what I saw. The sun was setting, and the play of oranges and purples in the sky added to the raw beauty of the scene.
“Well?” I asked, my voice hardly audible above the sound of the crashing waves below. “What do you think, Enzo? Want to make this place our home?”
“Nina…” he began, and his voice was low and hard to read. I felt my heart sink a bit as I expected him to deny it again, to tell me that he would sell this place and we would have to live on campus until we could find a house.
But he didn’t. Instead, with a small smile playing on his lips, he said, “I like your vision, Nina. I think we can do this. We can clean it up, renovate it… make it ours.”
My heart soared at his words, at the acceptance and resolve in his voice. The excitement bubbled up within me, and without thinking, I jumped into his arms, peppering his face with kisses. He laughed, his arms coming around me to hold me tight, his eyes sparkling with a joy that mirrored my own.
“We’ll make it beautiful, Nina,” he whispered against my hair. “And we’ll get to wake up to this view every day.”
In that moment, wrapped in Enzo’s arms and looking out at the ocean, I felt a sense of home that no picture-perfect house in any brochure could ever offer.
We were taking something broken and making it whole, just as we had done with each other. It wasn’t going to be easy, but together, we were ready to build our future, one brick at a time.
