Page 2 of Love Legacy
“Sage. If you’re going to knock on the door, you don’t have to also text me. You’re so annoying.” She rolls her eyes, opening the door.
“You know you love me,” I say, giving her a quick hug as I enter her apartment. “I brought ice cream!”
Theia takes the bag from me, bringing it into the kitchen to open. “Did you get the—”
“Banana’s Foster Cashew Milk Ice Cream? Yes.”
She pulls the pint out of the bag, doing a little happy dance. “I freaking love you.” Theia puts the pint and my dulce de leche ice cream into the freezer.
“So what exactly do you need help with?”
Meow.
I turn toward the soft mewing sound to see Theia’s orange tabby, Basil, laying down on the top shelf of his cat tower.
“Basil! Hi, baby, how are you?” I coo, reaching out to lift him and snuggle him to my chest. Basil was a young cat, only about two years old.
Theia adopted him last year and we always joke that he’s basically my cat.
Since I’m over on a regular basis, he stays glued to my side anytime I step through the door.
Basil’s basically a dog trapped in a cat’s body.
He’s extremely playful and relatively high-energy for a cat.
He’s social as well and loves physical touch, which is why he’s snuggled into my chest right now, purring very loudly.
“Sage! You came over to help me, remember?”
“Sorry, but he’s such a precious baby,” I say, giving her an apologetic smile as I stroke my hand along the fur on his back.
“I unpacked the best as I can. The furniture store is supposed to be coming by in an hour or so to deliver some furniture. I have to clear space for them, assemble my bookshelves, and then unpack the rest of my things,” she explains, running down the list that she has sitting out on the counter.
Ever organized Theia; she has a list for everything.
“Why isn’t Aaron here helping you?” I ask, sitting in one of the folding chairs she has in the living room.
I notice her freeze in her tracks ever so slightly before continuing. “Aaron started his job at the law firm this week, so he’s a little busy. I figure between you and me, we could handle assembling the small furniture.”
I eye her carefully, feeling like there’s more to the story, but I don’t press. “It’s a shame Mom and Dad are in Austin. Otherwise, they’d probably insist on helping.”
Theia laughs. “Oh, definitely! You know Dad would make us stand back and ‘take notes on his techniques’ as he puts everything together for me.”
I put Basil down on the floor and he scurries off to hide in the bathroom.
Theia and I start working on assembling her small furniture pieces, only stopping when the furniture delivery men come to the door.
We move out of their way, hanging out in the kitchen as they bring in all the furniture in pieces and assemble them in the rooms Theia directed them to.
Once they left, we resumed our work, and after a few hours, she had a fully assembled apartment.
Sure, the walls were bare, and she could use some decorations, but functionally, her apartment was ready.
Seeing that it was later than we anticipated, Theia decided to order us some food from the Italian restaurant off campus to be delivered to her apartment.
She was still in the shower when the food was dropped off, so I unpacked everything, leaving the food on the kitchen counter.
Thankfully, we finished unpacking her moving boxes, so I pulled a couple reusable plates from the cabinet, rinsing them in the sink quickly before wiping them off.
I fixed myself a plate, grabbing some of the napkins and utensils they included in the bag, before sitting down on the couch.
Theia eventually emerges from the bathroom, holding a towel under her dripping hair. “Hey, Sage, are there any boxes we haven’t unpacked?”
I scan the main living space of the apartment before shaking my head. “No, I don’t think so, why?”
“And you haven’t come across my blow dryer?” she asks. I shake my head again.
“Shit. Ugh, that means one of my old roommates probably has it. I needed my diffuser, now I wasted all this product,” she groans, gently squeezing some of the water out of her hair with her towel.
“Can’t you just let it air dry?”
Theia laughs as she starts braiding up her hair.
“No, Sage, I can’t just ‘let it air dry.’ I mean, I could, but my curls would not come out right.
The safest bet right now is just to braid it back until I get my hands on a new diffuser.
I just wish I knew this before I got into the shower.
I would’ve just put in a leave-in and could’ve been done like thirty minutes ago. ”
I’ve always been envious of how Theia’s curls look, but when she tells me how labor-intensive it is to maintain them, I’m grateful I have short, wavy hair.
Theia’s biracial, her dad is black but her mom is white.
She takes after her dad mostly. She has his curl pattern but her mom’s light brown hair color.
She has her mom’s blue-green eyes but her dad’s features.
She’s lighter skinned, but I think most people would guess she’s black before they think she’s white. Theia’s absolutely stunning.
“Hey, just so you know, you need dish soap, a sponge, and some paper towels.” I take a bite of my pasta. “I left you a list of things I thought you might need in the kitchen.”
She circles the island, reading my note before fixing herself a plate.
“I’ll make a run to Target tomorrow, kill two birds with one stone.
” She takes a seat next to me, turning on the TV.
We spend the rest of the night watching Beaches & Bombshells , our favorite dating show, grabbing our pints of ice cream from the freezer to eat.
At some point, Basil wedges his way in between us on the couch, stretching out so that his head was in my lap and his back legs were in Theia’s.
I’m not sure how many more nights like this we’ll get when classes start back up, but for now, I’ll take any sister bonding time I can get.