lol I just realized I forgot to write a message here so
Enjoy, lovelies!
xoxo
Don
One thing I really adored about this man, was that when he said something, he absolutely meant it.
He had promised me one stress free morning, and he had delivered on just that.
I took a quick shower first once I finally freed myself from both Carson and this bed, then left the bathroom to him and Dylan as they each showered, and Carson got all Dylan's school stuff together. I hadn't packed things with the kiddo the previous night because we had honestly both had too long a day for it, but both boys were ready and at the kitchen table just in time for me to finish making breakfast smoothies with vanilla whey protein, greens that had surprisingly not wilted yet during our trip, and some frozen fruit.
Carson and I finished those quickly since we were running a bit late, with Dylan taking his to go in a travel cup. Then we all headed down the building to the underground parking with Carson's luggage in tow and loaded both it and us into my vehicle.
I drove Dylan to school first, telling Carson to wait in the car a moment once we finally arrived and pulled into the drop off lane, so I could walk Dylan in. I gave this tiny human a quick yet tight hug, wishing him a good day before I headed towards the administrations office.
Emelie was there already, preparing for the school day herself, and I was grateful I could speak with her quick, personally, about making sure all the staff understood that I, and only I, would be the one to pick up Dylan. And I would meet him at the administrations office every day once school let out, instead of him coming out to my vehicle like he usually did.
Emelie didn't ask any questions... but I knew she understood that something had changed, and she treated the request with the level of seriousness and clarity it deserved.
I kept that meeting brief, sensing the woman probably had a lot to get back to after our vacation, and I still had a man waiting patiently outside in my car.
Once I returned to it, Carson didn't ask any questions about my reasoning for walking Dylan in either. I got more than just a feeling that he understood why as well.
He kept his hand placed comfortably on my thigh as he gave me directions to his home. I knew the general location, but we had only been there once before, so I used him to fill in the details once we got off the main roads.
And when I finally pulled into the familiar back alley, before finding my my way to his garage, we were still doing okay for time. It was now a little past half past seven. He and I then got out and unloaded his luggage from the boot, but as I gave the man a brief kiss goodbye and went to pull away, he held my body against his, keeping me there firmly by my waist.
"Carson," I warned him, "I-... I have to get going. I've got to clock in."
It was his next request however, that caught me off guard completely. "Come inside," he insisted.
I looked at him like he had to be fucking kidding. I had shit, very important shit that I needed to do before John started throwing things my way today...
And yet my eyes betrayed me a moment as they shifted past him to his house. It was a large brick standalone home... a place I hadn't gotten to see the inside of yet... but then I slowly shook my head as I tried to clear those quickly tempting thoughts. "I'll be late to clocking in," I tried to explain. I wanted to jump on before John did, to also see what workload awaited me for the new week. I was too focused on Brad's request yesterday afternoon that I didn't even think of checking emails.
"Bring your work bag," he continued, further tempting me. "Just work for a bit here, then you can leave for the office after."
"Carson," I tried, attempting to insist yet again that I really should go...
... and yet my gaze shifted towards that house once more.
"Please," Carson added, "just for a little while. I just-... I don't want to say goodbye to you just yet..."
I rolled my eyes at him, however my words contradicted that action. "I... I don't necessarily want to either, but-"
"Pleaseeeee?" He practically whined. My child was definitely starting to rub off on this fucking idiot. "Plus as you said, John's not in New York. And I already checked your schedule on my phone this morning, all your meetings are online."
Oh so this plot had been brewing all morning, huh. "And if John decides to video call me?" I asked him.
"He's never been here before. The only person from work who has, is Mike. And now you."
... goddamn it.
This man used to be so fucking easy to say no to. In fact, I used to do so with such blissful glee in my heart.
But now...
Carson's hold tightened further around my waist, bringing me even closer. "Pleaaa-"
"Fine," I grumbled, cutting him clean off. "But only just for a little while. I already took a whole week of working from home and you took PTO. Let's not test our luck."
And yet... the simple thought of not going into the office right away quickly eased some of my anxiety. Even though I kept to myself in my office for most of the work days, not being there at all felt a bit less stressful. I wanted Dylan to continue this week as if Sunday night never happened, but the fact of the matter was that I couldn't. I had anxiety about his school week. About Lisa and her boyfriend trying anything else before I could speak with Brad.
Hell, even about speaking with Brad, which was crazy in itself because I've never felt anxious about a conversation with him before.
Then Dylan and I were going to talk tonight about what he, himself wanted. About how he wanted me to protect him in all this. That was anxiety inducing too.
And so once Carson had released me from this arm jail he had locked me into, I found myself walking around my vehicle to pull my laptop bag out from the back seat, and locked my car up before following this man up his short driveway. It was a lie to say that I wasn't even the slightest bit curious to see what a whole house in New York City looked like.
And more importantly, I wanted to see exactly what made it Carson's.
As soon as we traveled up past his garage and made it towards what looked like the back entrance, Carson used a key on his set to open it up, then he led us inside. I could already notice the air quality difference in here as soon as we entered. His back door had brought us into a spacious kitchen that was honestly... far too nice for Carson not to try cooking more. The floors were a rich, deep brown hardwood through the open kitchen and into the home, however there was a lip in the floor once you looked past the kitchen and dining to where his spacious living room was, where the floor there changed from hardwood to a lush carpet, but only for that area.
All that, however, wasn't what drew my attention in. What had done it was practically the forest Carson's home literally was. From above the tall cabinets in the kitchen all the way across this man's living room, he had hanging plants with vines that grew almost across the entirety of what was visible of his home.
Then there were the large floor plants, plants about as tall as the walls themselves- hell, at this point one would call them trees. The rich green tones mixed in with his dark wood flooring and furniture... It was fucking beautiful.
"What the fuck," I simply whispered as I followed Carson, taking my shoes off near his door before walking further inside. Every wall in his home was exposed brick, only barely visible due to the plants and vines that covered the walls, even framed family photos took over more of the brick, photos he had up behind his his hung tv, and the wall adjacent to his couch, were the brick color somehow worked in contrast, to lighten this home past the natural light flooding in from the many windows it had.
There was no doubt that the natural lighting in here was top notch, and it probably had to be, considering just how many plants he did have. Now I understood why I felt such a strong shift between right outside that door where the air quality was a shit as they came- nothing new for New York City, I'd grown up and lived with it all my life- and what was in this home. I had never and I mean never seen a home like this in New York before.
"Do you like it?" Carson asked a bit nervously as he turned back to me. I was already slipping off my winter trench coat, to which this man reached out for me to hand it to him.
I quickly nodded, folding the material over my arm before he gladly took it, however he instead walked over to hang it in the closet near what looked like the main entrance to him home. "This is beautiful... and very, very unexpected. How the hell do you even find the time to keep all these plants alive?"
Carson chuckled at that as he closed the closet door. "Well I don't travel nearly as often as you do, so I'm home to care for them. And when I'm out, Em stops by to water them. I don't have any pets or anything which gives me even more time to make sure I'm keeping on schedule with each species." I took yet another look around. The furniture in the home was more industrial, but not like the shitty industrial decor you might find at some hipster bar in the inner city. This furniture looked both lived in, and practical.
This home was so different from mine, and yet I loved it. It made me question what the hell I was envisioning in my own home when I designed it and picked out the furniture. Everything from the large, see-through, glass bulb light fixtures overhead, to the antique gold framed portraits of his family, everything was so perfectly detailed and meshed together so incredibly.
"Come on," Carson smiled, "set your bag down on the couch there and let me give you a quick tour."
I noticed Carson had a short hallway with a door to the left, a door at the end, and one to the right. "This first door is the second bedroom but I converted it to a bit of a library." He explained as he reached for the door handle. I noticed that even the long gold metal handle of the dark wooden door looked personalized, and when he turned to open up a room with yet another four walls of exposed brick, I was taken aback by the large book shelf stretching across the entire wall directly across from this door. And the very first thing I noticed was how all the books that filled each and every shelf were flipped around with the paper edges facing outward.
It was something I had simply never seen before. and those light tan pages brought even more light to the spacious, yet dark toned room.
There wasn't much furniture in here besides one large chestnut colored leather chair, essentially almost the size of a love seat, in the back right corner. The rest of the room had more hanging plants that spread across the perimeter close to the ceiling, much like his living room.
"This is incredible," I murmured to Carson who had already stepped aside to allow me to walk further in. The smile he sent my way pulled a smile of my own from my lips. "But... how do you know which book is which?"
"Well I've memorized the location of each one, but the last book flipped around at the very end is a catalogue I put together that has the title and a brief description of the book itself. Em and I made it a project to tackle together once I first moved in."
I didn't even know what to say to that. All I could think was that whatever price I paid to design the interior of my own home, was a complete scam compared to the elegance yet homeyness of this.
I was quickly falling in love with everything about it.
Behind the large chair and on the right wall adjacent to the bookshelf was even more windows pouring in even more natural light, however the same large glass ball fixtures were secured overhead as a cluster in the middle of the room for when the sun went down. "This is seriously so fucking beautiful."
"You haven't even seen the best room in the house," the man assured me which made me look over at him in clear shock and surprise. "Come on," Carson insisted, now very excited to show me what could possibly upstage this.
However I realized very quickly that I had thought that far too soon.
First Carson pointed to the bathroom, which was the room right at the end of the short corridor, explaining to me that while it wasn't anything as spacious as my bathroom, it still got the job done, but Carson didn't dwell on that space, and instead I followed him to the last room that was right across from this library. The room he was the most excited about.
And once he opened it up, I was stunned into complete and utter silence.
The door opened up to a room that simply floored me with how large it was. Especially given how much smaller I expected this overall home to be. It was like the architect who designed this placed utilized every damn square inch possible.
The entrance to the bedroom was on the right side of a large bed, the left side being yet another brick wall which I would soon realize where all the walls in here too, but what caught my immediate attention was both the wooden ceiling, and the white canopy style curtains that that were attached to the ceiling at all four points above the bed, drooping the material down at those corners of the bed itself. And with those fastened curtains, where more plants attached to the wooden beams of this wooden ceiling as well.
Carson's bed was covered in deep green linen sheets, and a linen duvet that made the deep rich brown of the wood floors, and the white canopy, all the more stunning.
This room looked like something out of a fairytale. It was absolutely captivating. I genuinely didn't even know where to begin to vocalize my thoughts.
"Holy fucking shit," I whispered as my feet carried me further in, surprised by the large amount of daylight spilling in, only to realize Carson's bed was facing a large set of windows, letting more natural light pass through.
This was... this was insane.
The window panels felt industrial, but coupled with every bit of this interior, it brought an elegant look to something already so almost ethereal.
Carson had a closet located on the same wall this door was connected to, but just a few feet away. He began rummaging through it while I walked around, unable to stop myself from feeling the linen of his bedsheets beneath my fingertips. As expected, it was the softest material. The bed was so extravagant, I didn't even notice the intricately carved wooden side tables on either corners.
"Here," Carson spoke after a moment. "Put these on."
I turned my head in his direction to see what he was holding, but I couldn't help but furrow my eyebrows slightly. "W-What?" I asked him.
"Put these on," he insisted, holding a bundle of clothes out to me.
"But I'm... I'm already dressed." I tried to explain, gesturing to the suit that I had spent time, quite a bit of fucking time, ironing this morning.
"I know, but I have a strict no work clothes rule in my home... which means that while you're in it, you're going to be comfortable... So put these on."
"Carson-"
"You can change back later," he insisted with a smile I was simply too fucking weak to say no to these days, and reasoning that was somewhat sound. Especially after seeing what exactly Carson called home. What he found himself leaving to stay at mine oh so fucking often...
And so, I stretched my hand out to him, accepted the insanely soft material between my fingers as I soon decided that just for a few hours, I'd allow it.
I'd dress the part.
••
Thought I'd include some inspiration for some of Carson's home, cause lord knows I was working overtime to describe it lol