Absolutely Unforgivable(8)

Before he could finish that sentence I jumped on his lap and pushed him down on the couch. I kissed him passionately. He sat up with me still on his lap, wrapping his arms around my back to hold me in place as I wrapped my legs around his waist.

“I take it that’s a yes then?”

Seriously? He even had to wonder if I would say yes. Jeromy and I have been together for more than a year now. I’ve dreamed about our future together and now we get to actually start living that dream. I would have followed him anywhere but getting to be with him back in his hometown was all the better. I finally get to see all of the places he’s been telling me about. I would get to meet his childhood friends and visit his childhood home.

“When will we be leaving?” I asked him. I still couldn't believe he wanted me to go with him. I wanted to just scream out in excitement. It took everything I had to contain myself.

“We’ll need to head out in about two weeks. Do you think that is enough time? Can you be ready by then?”

“Jeromy, I love you. I could leave tomorrow if we had to. Sure, I would rather have more time to prepare but if we really had to go right away, I would make it happen. I love you and I just want to be with you. You are all that matters. Anything else is trivial and together we can work it out. Isn’t that what you always tell me?”

He gave me a cute little half smile and I leaned in to kiss him. I pulled back and asked him if we would be living in a hotel in Houston too. I didn’t know why that thought had suddenly crossed my mind but now that it had I really wanted to know. I wasn’t sure how all of that worked still. Did he have to live in a hotel or would they let him live in a normal apartment or maybe we could rent a house?

Since this job would last at least three years, it would be nice to get a place that was a little bigger. Don’t get me wrong, I loved our little love nest but it was still a hotel and I wanted to play house with him. Just the thought of that brought butterflies to my stomach.

He paused for just a moment before answering me. “We could but, I had another idea. You remember my friend Billy I told you about?”

“The one in the band?”

“Yeah, Billy Snow. We’ve been best friends since childhood, and he has this big house in The Woodlands that is only about a twenty minute drive from where I’ll be working. I thought since you’ll be living in a new city maybe we could stay with him, and when I’m not around he could be there for you to help you find your way.”

I hadn’t really had a chance to think about that. Houston, Texas was a far cry from Tulsa, Oklahoma. Tulsa may have been a big city to me, but in comparison to a place like Houston it was a mere speck of dust. There were millions of people who lived in Houston.

I began to panic just a bit. I could feel my heart speed up and my face begin to flush. I looked down at my hands as they started to tremble and I knew I had to get myself together. I took several long deep breaths. I knew I wanted to be with Jeromy but suddenly the thought of moving to this new place scared me to death. Jeromy however didn’t seem the slightest bit concerned.

“His place his huge so it won’t even be like we would be seeing him all of the time. We would have our own little corner of paradise, completely private, just for us. And, well, what do you think?”

Part of me wondered how some guy only five years older than me could afford a big fancy house while another part of me worried this was a bad idea. Roommate situations somehow always had a way of ending badly. You hear about it all of the time. I don’t know that I’ve ever heard of a roommate story that didn’t end badly. The thoughts of the crazy girl I lived with my freshman year in college still haunt me. But it was hard to say no to Jeromy, especially since he had such an adorably excited look on his face.

The Woodlands was a short drive to where Jeromy would be working just outside of Pinehurst. It was a suburb located north of the city of Houston. From everything I could read about it on the Internet, The Woodlands seemed like a nice place to live. And very out of character for someone like Billy. From everything Jeromy had told me about him, it just didn’t seem like he would be at home in a sprawling suburban neighborhood with tree lined roads and lush green golf courses. But then again, I had wrongly judged Jeromy when I first met him, so I decided to withhold judgment of Billy until I met him face to face.

Since Billy was going to be my new roommate I thought I better get to know more about him. I knew he was in a band called Jessie’s Girl but that was about it. What I didn’t know is that the band was somewhat of a local legend with a devoted fan base; its own website; and YouTube page with videos of some of their past performances.