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He picked at the metal plates of his hand, bouncing his leg lightly. The clock had never ticked so slowly. Six thirty-five, it read. Thirty-six. Thirty-seven. He’d been sitting here for an eternity. He tilted his head back against the couch. The ceiling… was very white. James heaved a long-suffering sigh, managing to steady his leg for a moment. He focused on the paint, noticing a long crack that he followed down to where it branched off into smaller cracks.
The ‘ding’ of the elevator at the end of the hallway had him snapping his head back up, and he pushed himself up off the couch as familiar footsteps grew steadily louder. Keys jingled and wiggled in the lock. “Fucking piece of shit, I swear-” James chuckled to himself, reaching for the door, but the lock finally gave way and the door swung open as she breezed in. “Babes! You won’t believe this,” she started, grinning at him sheepishly, “But I went to Walmart after work, you know, to get the new lemon squeezer, and…” He took her purse, freeing her hand to rummage around in the shopping bag. “Look!” She displayed her purchase to him proudly.
It was a hedgehog mug, complete with a little pointy nose and a handle made to look like a flower, and she cradled it like it was a living, breathing animal. Its little black eyes stared at him playfully. James met her gaze and felt himself smiling so wide his cheeks almost ached at the expression of childlike excitement on her face. “It’s adorable,” he told her genuinely, leaning down to press a kiss to her cheek. “I know,” she gave a tiny squeal, placing the mug gently on the table. “I know we were just talking about how there’s absolutely no more space for any more mugs, but I just couldn’t help myself.” She bounced over to the closet to hang her coat, and placed her shoes neatly onto the shoe rack, humming a light, random melody, then finally turned to him. James held out his arms and she stepped into the hug like a puzzle piece falling into place, energy draining away, rested her head against his chest, and let out a small, satisfied sigh. “Hi.”
“Hi,” he said, pressing a kiss to her hair. “How was work?”
“Work was work-y. Sorry I’m so late – Sara caught me as I was leaving. She and Gary had their weekly ‘disagreement’.”
“Hm.”
“I know. I’d tell her to find a new guy, but I just don’t want to involve myself that much, it’s really not my business.” She tilted her face up, standing on her tiptoes to peck him on the lips. “How was your day off?”
“Boring without you, doll.” James leaned down for a longer kiss, reveling in the little breath she released once he pulled away, the way she bit down lightly on her lower lip, leaving her eyes closed just a moment longer every time, as though she was filing it away in her favorite memories. “I wanna show you something, but you gotta close your eyes.” She let him lead her into the living room. “Okay, you can look.”
He’d spent the better part of the day making it – ‘it’ was a display shelf, with little sections for each individual mug, some custom fit to accommodate for the interesting shapes – an extra tall one for the minion mug, extra wide for the flower she bought when they went on that road trip to upstate New York, a tiny space for the tiny ghost mug she bought at Target the week it became available in September – and quite a few empty spaces so that she could continue the collection. James watched her face closely. Her lips parted in surprise, then she sucked them in, bringing her hands to her mouth as she took it in. Her eyes darted over the mugs, accounting for every one.
“Was this a bad idea?” He asked finally after a few seconds of silence. She turned towards him, and his stomach plummeted through the floor as he realized her eyes were gleaming with tears. “Shit, you hate it-”
“Thank you.” She wrapped her arms around his waist, squeezing tight.
He blinked. “…Are you okay?”
She pulled away with a sniff, impatiently rubbing her hands over her face. “I’m sorry, you know I get stupidly emotional. This… it’s honestly the nicest thing anyone’s ever done for me. Like, usually, people find out I collect mugs and it’s like, okay, that’s a weird little quirk. I don’t know, it just… this means a lot to me. I can’t believe you did all this. Thank you.” She let him pull her close again.
“Well, you said you were running out of space the other day. I just didn’t want you to have to stop.”
She let out a slightly wet laugh, looking up at him. “You are my favorite person. I know I tell you all the time, but seriously, you’re the best human being ever. You’re like a mind-reader or something, I didn’t even know I needed this but here we are.”
“Yeah, mind-reading is my superpower,” he agreed teasingly.
“What am I thinking right now?” She wiggled her eyebrows at him.
He pretended to think seriously for a moment. “Hmm… I’m sensing… that you want to put the hedgehog on the shelf and start dinner.”
“I knew it!” She laughed, practically skipping over to grab the hedgehog mug and deposit it into its new home. “Also,” she grinned at him, “Guess where I managed to run to during my lunch break?” She reached into the shopping bag and revealed a small parcel wrapped with red string.
“Yess!” he went to grab the bakery box from her, but she anticipated it and spun away.
“No! You gotta wait for dinner!” She pulled a plate out of the cupboard and opened the box, arranging the assorted cookies into a neat pyramid, then turned away to pull the dinner ingredients out of the fridge and onto the countertop. She turned the stove on to let the frying pan warm up, rolling her eyes in amusement as he came to hug her from behind, accompanied by the badly hidden sound of a cookie being chewed. “I gotta call Richie tomorrow to schedule my haircut, I’ve been trying and forgetting for a week," she mused. "And I need to reschedule the appointment with the dentist – you need to come too… Oh! And remind me to call the super about the lock, I swear I almost broke my key today.”
James hummed in agreement, doing his best to make a mental note to remind her to phone someone at some point tomorrow.
He fixed the lock before she came home the next day.