A New Life
The Wozny/Glover Humble Abode on Farmer Valley Road, Riverview
After ten years, more or less of Holden Wozny and Gwen Glover being best friends, the two had combined their graduation gifts from their families (A whole lot of money!) together to buy a home to share while they tried to make it on their own. Of course, it wasn’t quite as scarey as it was for some graduates, because Holden and Gwen, homebodies at heart, bought a home in Riverview, where they had many fond memories, old haunts, and family still living close by.
Holden and Gwen move in!
They would split the costs and household duties 50/50.
Holden Wozny had graduated with a Masters in English Literature, and a Minor in Communications. Unfortunatley, he was still unemployed, but that was okay for now. He was going to use the down time to work hard on becoming a respected and prolific author, his lifetime goal. He was an excellent writer, and Gwen was always the one to read his manuscripts and give him constructive critisicim. Even if she hadn’t been his best friend, she would still recognize his enormous talent.
Holden Writing at his computer.
Gwen proof-reading one of Holden's manuscripts.
Gwen had a degree in Advertising, but her real passion was art. She combined her degree and her talent to be a free-lance artist, doing graphic design, party planning, and promoting for hire. In being her own boss, She still had plenty of time to practice music and perfom.
Gwen's musical talents include playing guitar, writing lyrics, and singing.
The home was really lovely, even before they furnished it. First, it had a huge yerd, wher Holden and Gwen could entertain guests, keep a vegetable garden, and just generally enjoy the natural beauty of Riverview. The backyard even had a pond. The frontyard had a patio, and they installed bikeracks alongside it for their bicycles; they didn’t want to spend their remaining money on a car.
The inside was spacious, almost two much room for two people so closely tied to one another! Gwen had joked with Holden:
“You and I could have lived in a hovel and been fine for another ten years! This house makes me feel like we are the fancy-schmancy Landgraab’s of Riverview!”
"Welcome Home!"
“Welcome Home!” Holden greeted Gwen as she walked through the front door. Of course, they had both spent time here before, decorating and moving in all of their stuff, but this was their first official day as roomies.
” Hey Holdy! Its amazing, isn’t it? I still can’t believe how lucky we are that we were able to afford this!” Gwen mused.
“Its Riverview, Gwen, we could have bought the entire town square with what we had, but we shortchanged ourselves and bought this shack!.”
Gwen laughed. It was true, things weren’t that pricey in sleepy, scenic Riverview.
Gwen looked at Holden. It was funny how much they had grown, and yet still stayed the same. Gwen thought that she looked closer to how she had when she was little, but Holden had definitely morphed into a manly version of what he once was. He was bigger, had some style to speak of. Gwen liked that his hair was still the same, though.
Holden is hunky, no longer homely!
Holden had always considered himself the luckiest guy alive, at least, the luckiest guy in a platonic relationship with a beautiful, smart, amazing woman. It had taken him a long time to realize that you can’t feel the way about a friend the way that he felt about Gwen, and not have it eat away at you.
Sometime during college, he had come to terms with the situation he was in: He was madly in love with Gwen, and probably had been since the moment she snuck her way into his yard, and his life, the summer before fourth grade.
Maybe it was wrong that he had agreed to live with Gwen now, after acknowledging to himself how he felt about her. Maybe it was a bit sneaky. But maybe, just maybe, sharing space, playing house, and using the same bathtub would somehow bring them closer together. And, if that didn’t work, at least he could drive away any men she brought back to the house!
How could he not love her?
What Holden was unaware of is, all the time, memories, and the bond between these two had not been lost on Gwen. She hadn’t developed feelings for Holden as early as he had for her, but later, in highschool, she would have mini-epiphanies about her love for Holden. But, for whatever reason, she never allowed herself to do anything with those realizations.
Now that they were going to be living together, she wasn’t going to pretend anymore. Besides, she had an inkling that Holden felt romantically about her as well.
The first day in their new home, Gwen and Holden christened their property “It Takes Two”. Most homes in Riverview had names, since it had once been entirely a farming community, and every family had “farm this”, and “homestead that”. Holden studied up on his handiness, so if the opportunity presented itself, he could impress Gwen by fixing an appliance or two!
Holden prepares for manual labor-if need be!
Holden also broke in the couch, reading a new book, “The Warlock of Palladia”, and watching the History Channel. Gwen had become quite the cook at college, and she wanted to improve her skills to impress Holden with her delicious dishes. unfortunately, the fridge was poorly stocked, so she made do with what was available, and served an Autumn Salad for dinner. Holden thought it was great, even though Gwen kept apologizing for such an uneventful first meal!
“You’ll have plenty of time to make it up to me, Gwen!” Holden laughed. Secretly, both hoped that “plenty of time” meant a lifetime.
By the time it reached the evening, the fine line between friends and lovers was already quite blurred. Both Holden and Gwen had been dropping hints all day, but neither could bring themselves to be direct about their feelings, and just fess up. Holden and Gwen each had their own bedrooms. There were three in the house, so to be fair, they each took a small room, leaving the master bedroom empty. There was only going to be one wall between them while they slept.
Holden left his green and grey, scholarly bedroom, knocked on Gwen’s door. ” Oh, who could that be?” Gwen mocked from inside her room.
“You don’t have to knock, Holden, its only me!” she laughed. “Come on in”
Holden took a deep breath and came into Gwen’s, vibrant, pop-art style room to stay goodnight.
"You don't have to knock, Holden, its only me!"
Holden had meant to be suave, maybe even studly, but he reverted to his comfort zone, and cracked a joke.
“I feel like I should be wearing sunglasses in here, Gwen! Its like I landed in the center of the sun!”
She giggled. Yellow was her favorite color, and maybe she had gone a bit overboard!
It was then that Holden noticed that her pj’s were merely a nightshirt, which draped over her in such a way that Holden felt like he needed to leave the room immediately.
Gwen's nightgown leaves little to Holden's imagination.
But before he could mutter a quick “goodnight!” and retreat to his room, Gwen said, “Im so glad we’re still friends, Holdy. I don’t talk to anybody else we used to go to school with; we’ve all lost touch. I guess I couldn’t bare to loose you!” she confessed. “Arn’t you glad its me and you here, and not some stranger that we recruited as a roomate from the paper ads?”
Holden saw that what Gwen was saying was giving him a way to be a little more honest with her, a little more forward.
The space between starts to shrink...
“Gwen, I can’t tell you how glad I am that its you, too! Your smart, you get my weird humor, and we can have fun just sitting on the couch and watching infomercials. Oh, and, everyone is going to be jealous of me for living with such a beautiful girl.” Oops, maybe he had said to much! He had never done anything like this before, and everything had just bubbled up inside him, and come out at once!
“Beautiful?” Gwen asked with a waver in her voice. She knew all the other things Holden had said to be true, and he had always complimented her, and she him, but he had never called her anything more than “cute” aloud.
"Yes, beautiful" said Holden.
“Yes, beautiful.” said Holden, feeling relieved. Maybe he wasn’t as bad at this as he thought! ”Now don’t make me have to say it again. I only came in here to say goodnight!” He laughed.
She smiled, he smiled, and he left. For once in his life, Holden felt he had the upper hand.
Sweet Dreams are made of this...
And for once in her life, Gwen felt like maybe the guy she was interested in was actually the right guy for her afterall.
