‘Hey, so I’ve been thinking,’ Laura said, carefully plying the sentence with innocence as she climbed into bed next to me.
‘Yeah?’ I asked, closing my book suspiciously.
‘What was that?’ she frowned.
‘What was what?’
‘The way you closed your book? It was suspicious.’
‘What were you thinking?’ I asked, narrowing my eyes.
‘I want to redo the bathroom,’ she said. ‘I know, I know, we—’
‘Sure,’ I interrupted her before she could spiral. ‘That sounds good to me.’
‘I know,’ she said, rolling her eyes, ‘but we can find the budget if we just do a couple of things—wait, what?’
‘I think it’s a good idea,’ I shrugged, opening my book.
‘You don’t want to hear my pitch about affordable bathroom renovations and how we can save money while getting a premium return on the quality of our bathroom?’ she frowned.
‘Not particularly,’ I shook my head.
‘But… but I made cue cards and everything,’ she said, showing me where she’d hidden them under the pillow.
I laughed and took one out of her hand.
‘I also may have memorised some of it,’ she said, defensively.
I chuckled and handed her back the card.
‘You’re adorable.’
‘Correct,’ she nodded, slipping it back into the pile and under her pillow. ‘If you’re so on board, want to come with me tomorrow?’
‘What’s tomorrow?’
‘I’m having a look at a company that specialises in bathroom design ideas. Melbourne day trip?’
‘I have that big client meeting in the afternoon,’ I said sadly, secretly sending out a secret thank you to the cosmos that I didn’t have to come up with a fake appointment. ‘It’s a real shame.’
‘Oh well,’ she said, bright and bubbly, clearly not where she expected to be at the end of the conversation. ‘I’ll just have to pick out the chandelier by myself then!’
‘Yeah, yeah,’ I laughed, as she rolled over and closed her eyes. ‘Wait, you’re joking, right? Laura? Laura?’