AllFreeNovel
Share Us
But her mouth stayed shut. She didn’t dare piss him off now. Not when he was giving her a place to stay.
Besides, she didn’t even know Charlie’s family. Obviously, this home had history she could only imagine. When she was a kid, her mom had moved them around once a year. Until she moved out on her own, she had never stayed in one place long enough to grow roots.
Not like Charlie’s family obviously had.
Charlie gestured for her to follow him, and he opened his faded red door, revealing the most beautiful foyer she had ever seen. There were a grand set of steps going to the second floor, and beautiful oak trim lining the steps up to her waist. The house smelled old, but clean - not moldy like her apartment.
Charlie didn’t give her long to look around. He was moving to the left, and she scrambled to keep up with him.
“This is the dining room," Charlie said. A floral wallpaper pattern lined the walls from chair height up. Above her, a golden chandelier dangled over a red oak dining room table meant for at least ten people. “Yes, I know the table is scratched.”
Violet hadn’t even noticed. The table was beautiful anyways.
“Through here is the kitchen," Charlie said, walking through a beautifully detailed oak archway.
Violet silently followed him and saw a beautiful, original kitchen.
The cabinets were a mossy green, which shouldn’t have looked good, but it somehow worked. The floors were an intricate white and black tile. They showed age, sure, but only spoke to the history of the home.
Violet was entranced.
“Yes, the cabinets are metal. They’re original.”
Violet didn’t say anything. She was too busy imagining how the space could be used and lived in by a family.
It was a shame it was only Charlie living here.
“My room is on this floor. Don’t go in there," Charlie added, gesturing to the room leading from the kitchen. “Yes, it’s connected to the kitchen. It was an addition some time ago.”
He walked away again, and Violet followed him back into the beautiful hallway and up the huge set of stairs.
“The guest room is here," Charlie said, opening the door to a small room with a desk and a bed. “There is an extra bedroom furnished as an office right next to it. You can do whatever you need to there. The bathroom is the door across from the stairs, and the door next to the bathroom is for another bedroom, but it stays closed. Don’t go in there. As for everything else, you should be able to live mostly up here. No need to come down to the living room.”
Violet nodded. So, she needed to stay up here and out of sight. Seemed easy enough.
She knew she wouldn’t screw this up. She had been putting on a brave face earlier. Sleeping in her car would be the lowest of the low, especially in the winter. She wanted to avoid it if she could.
She turned to go into the bathroom to finally get the grit off her, but she froze when she saw the doorhandles.
They were the original iron doorhandles, with the original intricate design. They were so perfect and seeing the beauty of something so historical amid a shitty night made her unable to move.
“What?” Charlie asked, his voice hard. “Are you worried they don’t work or something?”
“N-no.”
“The house is old, but everything here is in working condition-“
“This house is beautiful,” Violet said. “I mean the original tile, the door handles. The archways! There’s so much detail in this house builders don’t do anymore. Wait… is the bathroom original? Is it only a clawfoot tub?”
“Uh, my great grandmother added a shower … but the tub is still in there, yeah.”
Unable to help herself, Violet ran to the door, opening it. “It’s amazing! I bet the paint could probably still give you lead poisoning.”
“We’ve repainted it since then.”
“Damn. A good poisoning sounds great right now. Can I use it?” Violet asked. She worried for a moment if he would shut her down and tell her to stay away from it. The Charlie in her head would.
The real Charlie, however, was looking at her with a confused expression. “You like it?”
