unending

I shoved everything I could into my car, a green focus station wagon. Anything that didn’t fit was sold, given to charity, or put in the trash. I brought all the books I had, clothes, a TV, my laptop, and my DVDs. Other than that, I didn’t have much that I cared about. I’d found a very, very small house just off Route 40. The person whose home I was living in was apparently just about never home. I basically had the place to myself. It was an older, well off woman who had inherited the home from a parent that died when she was 20. Since then she’d been staying with family, renting the home cheap to offset some of the utilities and taxes. It already came furnished except for the nightstand which I picked up from Taylor’s Antique Mall.

I got a job at the Barnes & Noble in town, I knew enough about books and making coffee to last me a lifetime in the retail industry. I would make just enough to pay my bills and maybe buy a book or two with my discount. Oh, and some food too. Everything was set, and after I had arrived, I felt like I was going to throw up each time I glanced around at the unfamiliar territory. All I had unloaded from my car was my TV and some toiletries. The books were too heavy to unload by myself and in Florida, my roommate and her boyfriend had helped me put them into the car. I hadn’t stopped to think that I wouldn’t have someone to help me outside of the state.

I sat on the back bumper of my car, the trunk door opened, protecting me from the light rain that was coming down. I suddenly had the overwhelming sense of buyer’s remorse. Or, mover’s remorse. There weren’t many houses in this area, my house was definitely isolated by trees on all sides, the back of the house even had a small forest. In Florida, that seemed amazing. In winter I would finally be able to see snow blanketing trees. Now it just seemed that it was another way to isolate me from outside life, which my personality already kind of did.

The house, a one story house with a wraparound porch, had been built in 1928, as I stated earlier, by the old woman’s (Floris) parents. The key for the house had been sent to me while I was still 6 states away so that Floris didn’t need to leave whatever state she was in at the moment. The closest neighbor was about half a mile away. I didn’t start my new job for another week so I could “settle in”, so I didn’t even have any work friends to call.

I didn’t even realize I started to cry until I felt the drops on my hands. I was falling apart, me, the strong one. I didn’t even have family around to help me out. This was a first for me. I felt incredibly lame, and overwhelmed.

“Um, hello?” The words startled me, I jumped up and in my rush to figure out who was speaking me to me, hit my head on the corner of the trunk door.

“Ouch.” I put my hand to my head, already able to feel the pounding of the blood throughout the area.

There was a person by my side in an instant. “Oh no, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you, are you ok?” They were speaking in a rush, unsure. It was a man, and it took a moment before my head stopped swimming so that I could actually look at him.

He was much taller than I was. His dark hair was cut close to his head, but it looked incredibly soft and luxurious to me; although I chalked that particular observation up to the head trauma. His skin was a nice color, not very tan, but it looked -well- warm. His mouth was wide, it looked made for smiles at the time, and he had deep brown eyes. His entire face looked as though it would be very inviting under normal circumstances, but at the moment, his forehead was scrunched up in worry for my head injury. “It’s fine, I’m sorry, I’m usually much less apt to bang my head against things.”

The worry eased from his face and he broke into a smile that left my knees a bit wobbly. “Well, now that I’ve officially put you in pain, I’m William Brendt, or you can call me Will.”

He stuck out his hand to shake hello, and I returned the action automatically. “Hi, I’m Ellie, or Elle Moloch. It’s great to meet you.”

His smile morphed into a grin. “As in the world famous supermodel?”

“Actually it’s more like Isabelle Aurora. My mother had a thing for Italians and Sleeping Beauty. She was…one of a kind.”

“Well, the name definitely fits you, it’s quite beautiful.” He looked away, embarrassed, and after a quick moment turned back to me, flashing another amazing smile. ”So, you’re taking over this place, huh? Do you need some help with all that?”

His smile was catching it seemed, “That’d be great! The rest of these are all of my books, they’re pretty heavy.”

He moved confidently to the trunk, easily grabbing two boxes and walking inside. Will had a catching enthusiastic attitude, making me a bit more optimistic to be here. I grabbed a smaller box, following him inside.

By the time all of the boxes had been brought inside, it was already dark outside. “I feel so bad, I’d invite you to stay for some dinner, but I haven’t really had the chance to actually go to the store and buy food yet.” I felt guilty taking advantage of his muscles. Which were incredibly nice, but I wasn’t going to let that fact slip out.

“I have a better idea, how about you stay here and I’ll bring some food over and make you dinner. It’ll be a ‘welcome to the neighborhood’ date. I mean dinner.” He blushed, looking away quickly, and I had to fight a giggle back. His confident yet shy attitude was incredibly adorable.

“I couldn’t let you to do that! That’s far too nice.”

“It will be my pleasure.” He winked at me and slipped out the door, heading back home.

I ran to the bathroom, trying to determine what part of me to work on first. He wouldn’t be gone long enough for a shower, so I opted for changing and throwing on something to make me smell like something other than moving boxes. I ran a brush through my hair and went about making a list of things I’d need to buy from Wal-Mart, which was starting to get much too long. And it looked like it would make a rather large dent in my moving in fund that my dad had thrust into my car as I was leaving Florida.

A knock on the door interrupted my list making. Looking through the peephole, I saw that Will was on the other side, holding a pretty big box. I opened the door and stood aside to let him in. “Why grandma, what a big box you have!”

Will set the box down on the kitchen island as I shut and locked the door. “Why, all the better to feed you with my dear.” I giggled and bit down on my lip to stop. I was starting to like this place more and more. Very nice (looking) men who knew how to take a joke without assuming (I hoped) that you were trying to get them into bed.

I peeked inside the box. “What in the world are you making? There’s enough food in here for an army!” And there almost was: a glass jar of strawberry preserves (complete with a quaint piece of checkerboard fabric stretched across the top), a loaf of some specialty bread, some crunchy peanut butter, a Ziploc bag of muffins, some meat wrapped in white paper, a few small bottles of spices, a half gallon of milk, a large bottle of water, an assortment of condiments and canned vegetables, and a pint of some kind of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream.

Will started picking things out of the box, arranging some of the items on the island, putting some in the fridge, and then a few others in a cabinet near the sink. “Well, I’m making a steak with a side of corn and banana bread.” He started going through the lower cabinets, looking for some pans, which helped me establish that we actually had some. I crossed those off my list, thinking it would save me a nice amount to not have to get some. “The rest of this mountain is for you.”

I felt my mouth fall open. “You can’t give me food! That’s way, way too nice.”

He looked at me curiously, unwrapping the white paper from the steak as he spoke. “Well, actually, it’s a gift from Floris. She came by to clean the place up before she left for her son’s place in New Mexico. Thought you might be too tired to go shopping once you got all moved in.” He prepped the large pan on the stove, covering the steak in different spices and putting something into the pan. “She’s quite lively for someone her age. At least, when she lived here full time, she used to be.” All I was able to do was nod; I was really taken aback by this woman’s kindness. I had never met her, just sent her some money for the move in, and all of our business had been conducted through someone else. Yet here she had baked muffins and bread and gotten me fridge staples until I could get around to the grocery store.

I sat heavily into one of the chairs surrounding the small kitchen table. Will and Floris’ kindness was almost overwhelming. It was a complete 180 from my time in Florida and in a very good way. “That’s very kind of her, of both of you, to do this. I really appreciate it. You have no idea.” I mustered up a small smile and Will returned with his own bright one.

Dinner was ready after only 45 minutes and we sat down to eat. The steak was delicious, and I usually don’t eat red meat. The banana bread that Floris had made was absolutely wonderful. All in all, my first meal in Ellicott was great. And the company I had definitely made it a smidge better.

We sat in the living room afterwards, talking about the town and its inhabitants. Will told me about some of the ghost stories including St. Mary’s College (which had been torn down recently), seven hills road, and lastly, Lilburn Mansion. “It’s this huge gothic-style mansion on College Avenue. People bought it a while back, wanted to turn it into a bed & breakfast, but for some reason, it fell through. The grounds have a three story cottage, and the main house which has a tower attached to it that gives it the look of a small castle. They say that ever since some renovations started in around 1928 that the ghosts of some of the old owners made themselves known.”

“Is it open to the public now?”

Will’s normally happy face turned dark, his mouth turning into a frown. “No, it’s privately owned now. Edward Periculo.”

“I’m guessing you don’t like him.”

“Not at all.” His face was so dark that I was afraid to ask about why he didn’t like this Edward person. Hopefully I wouldn’t come across this guy in town. Of course, if he owned a mansion, I figured he wouldn’t be the kind to mix with the “townies” anyway.

Will left that night just as the clock hit 12 am. He had helped me rearrange the furniture in the bedroom and set up my tv as well as put a few books on the shelves in the living room. I had found a note taped to the fridge from Floris basically telling me to set up the house as my own since she wouldn’t be back in town for at least a few more months. I put the box that had held all the food under the sink, shut off the lights, and passed out as soon as my head hit the pillow.

**

The next day passed in a blur. I completely reorganised the kitchen, looked up some shops in the area where I could get the things I’d need to fill in the holes of what wasn’t provided already, and even invited Will to dinner that night. The few days I had before I started work would be dedicated to buying what I need in town and browsing the library. Hopefully it wouldn’t be a complete waste of time.

I had told Will to show up for dinner at 7 pm and he was -amazingly- right on time. He had brought over a can opener which he’d dressed up with a bright red bow. “My momma told me to never show up empty handed.” I’d told him on the phone that I’d been having trouble finding a can opener earlier today, which was a lot more annoying than it might seem. You try opening a can with a knife. It’s not fun, I promise.

“Thank you so much! I can actually finish dinner now! It’ll just be five minutes.” It was weird how comfortable I felt with Will already.