My Wedding Dress In The Garage His Widow In My Home Chapter 15
It was while I was shopping for furniture that I realized I had gone almost a month without thinking about Owen.
The last time he’d crossed my mind was when I saw a loveseat.
It was gray-blue, a lot like the one we’d once picked out for the new house.
I sat on the showroom sample for a few seconds, then got up, walked to the other side of the store, and bought an armchair that suited me much better.
I wasn’t sad.
I wasn’t avoiding anything on purpose, either.
I just didn’t need to keep leaving room for someone else anymore.
After my probationary period ended, I rented an apartment in Milwaukee with a dedicated study.
The movers asked if I wanted full service, but I only had them bring up the boxes from storage and the large bookcase.
The bookcase came in pieces.
After my study had been turned into Sadie’s bedroom, it had lain under a dust cover in a storage unit. Now, I spread out the instructions, tightened the screws, and assembled it myself, shelf by shelf.
By the time I tightened the last screw, the evening sun was falling across the empty shelves.
I opened the boxes and arranged my design books by category, then added my portfolio, my certificates, and the first trophy I’d ever won in college.
On the middle shelf, I didn’t place a single photograph.
Just a new potted plant.
I stepped back and looked at the bookcase standing solidly in the center of my study. The armchair sat by the window. The lamp on the desk was one I had chosen myself. And only I knew the code to the front door.
No one was going to shove my things into a garage.
And no one was ever going to decide for me who this room belonged to.
I ran a hand along the smooth edge of the bookshelf and, for the first time, felt that home was no longer a promise that depended on someone else.
Every inch of this space was mine.Â