grantmiddleton | Outside the Condo {OPEN}

Grant glanced up from his phone when he felt a shadow hang over him and found a giant, behemoth of a man who didn't speak much but grunted a lot at the other two movers. "Hmm? Oh, just put everything in the living room. I'll take care of it all later. Thanks."

He went back to his phone, typing rapidly as he replied to text after text from his mom. He grinned to himself. She was a worrier, always had been, always will be. And this was the first time her only child lived further than an hour away from her. So he was distracted when he heard a crash and looked up to see a hundred year old dresser on the ground.

"Hey! Careful! That dresser is worth ten times your pay today!" The movers all grunted, which Grant assumed was an apology. He swore under his breath, immediately tattling on the movers to his mom who was, unsurprisingly, pissed at the thought of any Middleton furniture being treated so carelessly. He shook his head. It was a shitty old dresser that belonged to his uncle and really not worth getting angry over. He hated the thing anyway - it was fifty shades of ugly. He hated most of the things coming out of the truck. But appearances are key, and if any of his family happened to come for a visit, they'd expect to see certain key pieces on proud display in his home. Even if the crap clashed horribly with his home.

He sighed and asked how much longer the move would take. When he got a "One more hour" out of the movers, he groaned. Moving sucked. Moving really sucked when you were slightly hung over and wanted a nap.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

“Well, I suppose house that big on your own may be a bit of a handful and might fall into disrepair. Can’t say I’d like to have to run it solo – but then I’m not a huge fan of keeping myself at home for extended periods of time.”

Following Grant back outside to the truck, he moved to pick up another item of furniture. “I totally get it, I barely had anything when I moved and it still felt like an effort unpacking it. Just wanna crawl into bed I bet.”

"Outdoors guy?"

"Exactly how I feel. I just wish I could open the door and have everything all placed and unpacked for me." He sighed dramatically. "But I'm an adult and all that now."

“Yeah, I’m not really one for being stuck indoors. Get kinda antsy.”

“If only. About now I wish I’d got an acceptance letter to Hogwarts. Just sort of zap everything into place, right?” Unaware of anything potentially uncomfortable about the statement, he rearranged his hold on the piece of furniture in his hands and started moving back towards the house.

"Siren Cove is a damn good place for you then. It's beautiful out here."

"If only things worked like Hogwarts, right?" He grinned, a little tense but still a grin. Be careful what you ask for. Grant picked up another piece and followed Alfie. "So you don't know any of the history about this place?"

"Yeah, definitely have to take a camera out there one day, but for now I'll just enjoy actually seeing it."

"Yeah, although hopefully without ghosts. I imagine they'd be kinda weird." Alfie didn't notice any change in Grant's attitude, too busy setting down the furniture he was carrying. "Not really, my boss told me there are a lot of historical myths around, but then he's the one telling guests to beware of bigfoot so..." Smiling, he gave a slight shrug.

Grant laughed, a little out of breath as he lifted a large piece. "I can promise you I've never seen a bigfoot out there, but if it keeps the guests rolling in, whatever floats his boat tben. But he's right about the other myths. There's a lot of history here. Bad blood between families." He smiled. "But they throw great parties."

Nodding, Alfie stated, "Believe me, they love that stuff. Probably the kids more than parents. But they've had a few bigfoot enthusiasts before apparently. Got some printings on the wall of articles written about it. Blurry picture of what I think is one of the cherry pickers, but is apparently the legend himself."

"Ah, one of those 'trying to out do each other' type things?" He asked, watching a pair of movers shuffling in the next room.

"You maaaay or may not have a picture of me in a bad suit hanging on a wall somewhere." Grant laughed. "Teens, you know."

"Oh yeah. Who can have the best charity event, who hires the more talented celloist, who has the nicer tableclothes. Sometimes the town wins, most of the time it doesn't." He shrugged, peeking inside a box because at this point he had no idea where anything was. "Lotta expectations around here."

There was a moments pause before Alfie burst into laughter. After a moment he took a deep breath before suggesting, "I would have liked to have seen that. But hey, maybe next time we've got some bigfoot fans in, you could do it again."

"Can say I have some experience with that. Not on a big scale, but my Mom and Mrs Jenkins back home were very competitive at the Church bake sales. The house would smell of cookies and brownies for a solid coupla days before and we weren't allowed any. Hard times."

"I'd love to help out. You know, for the kids," he winked.

Grant laughed at that. "Moms, man. I don't know why they get so competitive, but if it means more baked goods for me, I'm happy."

"Awesome, I am definitely holding you to that. For the kids."

"If only we got them afterwards. It was who could sell the most, so we'd usually get a cookie or brownie if there were any left over. Two if we were very lucky. Funny the things parents do."

"See that's just torture. For a good cause, I'm sure, if you were selling them, but I would've been very upset if I didn't get to eat my share of sugar." He grinned. "At least around here, it's more bragging rights so they ask everyone to sample everything and pick whose family recipe is better."

“Exactly, can’t begrudge a good cause but when you’re a kid you’re just upset that you’re missing out on a good sugar rush. Least I can buy all the brownies I want in the world now. Like the responsible adult I pretend to be.” Alfie added. He’d be the first to admit he had days where eating a whole bag of cookies was a thing that happened.

"Hey, I was only promised that adulthood means making your own decisions, even the tough ones. Like, do I eat this entire tub of ice cream or this whole cake? Or both?" Grant winked.

"That has most definitely happened before. If you ever see me in the store staring at ice-cream, I will no doubt end up with multiple tubs." It had definitely happened in the past. The greatest upside of having such an active lifestyle was that he could indulge himself in all his favourite foods when he probably shouldn't.

"If I see you in the ice cream aisle, I'll whisk over like an angel from above and whisper 'Get the strawberry' like the good fairy godmother I am." He smiled. "Or cookie dough. My answer will vary, gotta keep it interesting."

"My very own ice-cream fairy godmother - I don't think a man can ask for more in life." Alfie acknowledged with a grin, "I will let you know I have a dislike of bubblegum ice-cream though."

Grant made a disgusted face. "Ew. Who thought that was a good idea? Don't worry, I won't steer you wrong."

"I don't know, it's like that bubblegum kids toothpaste - who comes up with it." With a shoulder shrug he started moving back towards to door to head out to the truck, "Well, if you can't trust a cop, who can you?"

"Someone whose childhood was very hazy. I've yet to meet a kid that loves that stuff." Grant followed Alfie after a quick glare at the movers which said 'get moving what am I paying you for?' "A lot of people would disagree with the cop thing, but there's bad apples in every profession I guess."

"I'm gonna try it on my nephew when he gets older, see if he likes it or not." Stepping into the truck, he picked up a box, careful to get a grip on the underside so everything wouldn't fall out the bottom like on so many comedy shows. "Exactly, you don't let one bad chip ruin an entire meal. That'd mean you couldn't go anywhere or do anything."

Outside the Condo {OPEN}

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