I told her to get whatever she wanted for her office, and she stuck to pretty much the same theme for her office. Her desk was black and her desk chair was cushy leather. We picked out matching lamps, a neutral leather couch, some comfortable chairs, and a bed for one of the spare rooms. When that was done, we bought a bedding set in green and bath sets in both green and blue. Finally satisfied, we arranged for delivery the next day.

After that, we went to the sporting goods store and I went a little nuts buying fitness equipment for the gym off the bedroom. It was a decent sized room, so I got a nice treadmill and elliptical machine, a set of free weights, a few machines for different muscle groups and even a punching bag. Alice just watched me and smiled when I asked for delivery and setup the next day. As we walked out of the store, she hugged me in silence for a minute.

While Alice went off to do her show, I went home and called a moving company to come and pack all our stuff up and deliver it to the house the next day. Normally I’d have just done it myself with my friends’ help, but I was still feeling the effects of taking on too much in New York. That, and I wanted to surprise Alice a little. I know she’d been planning to make it a big group project, but I was just too tired.

When she got home that night, I expected her to be a little upset. She wasn’t, though. Instead, she just hugged me. “That’s fine, baby. I know you’re tired, and to be perfectly honest I don’t really feel like packing and unpacking everything anyway, even with everybody’s help. We can always have a housewarming party later on or something.” She stopped talking and kissed me. “Really, Dana, it’s okay.”

And it was. The furniture got there the next day, and we spent the majority of the afternoon unpacking and arranging. By the time nightfall rolled around, the movers had brought over the rest of our stuff.

“What do you want to do about the furniture? I know we were gonna keep the bed, but since we got the set we should find someplace nice for it. It’s a good bed, it shouldn’t go to waste. What do you think?” I asked Alice. Some of the furniture was a little dated, but it was still functional. She shrugged.