Page 54 of Structure of Love

“I kinda agree with you, to be honest. It’s not quite right. Almost too dark for this space.”

Yeah, that had bothered me. “The lighting in here is very mellow to begin with, not many windows, so a dark color would just make this feel like a cave.”

“Hmm, yeah,” he agreed almost absently, still flipping through swatches. “It’s why I like to walk the space before ordering anything. I’ve got to get a feel for lighting and such. Too dark, too dark, not the right tone for this wood…Ooh what about this one?”

“Now that I like.” It was a pretty green. I didn’t know colors or names, but I liked it.

Asher’s eyes were on me like he was still waiting for a judgment. “I’m looking for a love, here.”

“I don’t know if I can say I love it, but I do like it.”

“Then it’s not the right one. Okay, take three.”

“You normally have to do multiple takes?”

“Eh, depends. Some people have specific colors in mind when they start a project, some people don’t care and leave it up to me, others—like you—want to weigh in on things. I don’t mind going through paint colors. It’s one of my favorite things to do, actually. And I’d rather flip through paint swatches for an hour and get this right than for you to hate the color a year later and want to repaint.”

“Fair enough.”

Asher kept flipping. “Hmm, I do love that hunter green, but it’s a little too dark.”

I pointed to the swatch two down from it. “What about this light olive green?”

Asher wenthuh, held the swatch against the bar, then immediately shifted to place it against the wall, before he dropped down to all fours and put it against the floor.

Was this reaction a good or bad sign in the land of Asher? I couldn’t tell.

“Logan, I really like this one. It’s masculine, it’s not too dark, it’s matching well against your wood tones—what do you think?”

“I love it, personally. My first Jeep was very close to that color.” I’d stupidly rolled the vehicle by taking a curb too fast, which I still kicked myself over. I’d fucking loved that Jeep.

“Then I’d say we’re sold, for now. I do want to come back in and paint samples here and there, so we can see how the color looks in different lighting.”

“I’m good with that.”

“You still want a dark stain on the floors?”

“Yup. Dark stain hides stains, if you get my drift.”

“That I do. We’ll need to get all this flooring and the walls taken out so I can actually see the hardwoods, do some test staining on them, see what they take best. Wood’s finicky sometimes.” Asher lifted a cautionary finger. “If they are too thin, say they’ve been sanded before, we’ll have to either lay something down over them or tear them up and lay down new hardwood. I have budgeted for that, just in case.”

“We can talk solutions when we get to that point, if we do.”

“All right by me. Let’s walk the second story next.”

“Sure.”

I followed him up, watching as he poked his head into the different rooms. Trying to get some feel for space again, I guessed.

“Same color up here?” he asked as he poked his head into another room.

“Yes and no. From about”—I walked four steps forward before spreading my arms to either side like I was a giant, temporary wall—“here onward, I want these rooms to be my office and storage rooms. All the space behind me will be a large party room.”

“Ah-ha, you did mention you wanted an office up here, but I wasn’t sure where you wanted to put it. Back of the building makes the most sense to me.”

Asher pulled out his tape measure and quickly marked out the space. It was nice, honestly, working companionably with him. I knew he was fun to play games with, but I hadn’t expected we’d work well together, too. I knew he could be silly, but serious Asher was a pretty cool guy.

“Walk me through what your office should look like. Do you want shelving in there, built-in desk, what? Should the storage area have cabinets and closets built in?”