When you walk into the front door down the hallway you will come to a closet, open it and you will see shelves and shelves of our high heels (Hers are the highest). To the right, enter the living room. there is a cabinet from my parents house, we painted it black in their back garden and inside you will find all of our cd’s. mixed up in four wallets. Our books are also mixed up, on the shelves in the bedroom, but we’ll go in there later…
When we unpacked our boxes, our first argument, possibly our first ever argument in years of being together, was about our books and cd’s. She did not want to mix my books with hers, my cd’s with hers. She wanted to keep her things separate. I was offended. She felt silly. So we arranged them together by type, by genre, by artist.
But where were we? Oh yes the living room. The sofa is black leather with white piping, a two seater. It was hand made in brighton by a small company that specialises in art deco remakes. We went down to the shop to go through leather swatches and styles before we ordered. Next to it is a swivelling glass and chrome table, by the white leather bibendum chair. (Not an original, but as stylish as it is comfortable. that company sent us two by accident, and we deliberated for ages as to whether we could get away with keeping the extra one. )
There is a cocktail cabinet,, where my collection of martini glasses are kept, and the matching flasks we got at work, when there was a jack daniels promotion at the bar. We found the dining table beside it in a tiny antiques stall in the south west of England. We took a train out for ages in the pouring rain, to get there.. The couple who sold it to us, advised us how to clean it, how to prevent the surface from scratching. When we agreed to buy it, we made a little toast, the four of us. They asked us about our new place, they liked us I think, they said they wouldn’t charge us, to deliver it over.
She organized everything in the kitchen, I can never find anything but the glasses. There are red wine and white wine glasses, champagne and shot glasses, brandy balloons, All the plates at her request, are large and white. There are heat resistant placemats we bought at john lewis, to protect the dining table from marks.
Walk out of the living room and down the hallway to our bedroom. There is a low dark wood double bed. We got so giggly trying out all those mattresses. The sheets white, white like the walls, the plates, the placemats. The duvet and pillows are filled with goose down feathers,. The two wardrobes and vanity, are a suite from the 40’s. We found them on ebay, amazed at their beauty, their craftsmanship, when they arrived. We liked the idea of putting on our make up sitting at that vanity, until she finally pointed out, in that corner, there was never enough light.
When it became clear it was over, for a few weeks we thought we could still live together until she found a new place, or at least we tried. And then I took a bag to a friends place, and then she took a bag to a friend’s place, and she emailed me, with a tone that was exceedingly polite, asking when would be convenient for her to collect her things, asking to arrange a time.
I stayed away on the day. On next morning, when I arrived, I walked through the flat, , convinced there would be something she’d forgotten, one thing she left behind. But the removal of all that was hers had been meticulous. Every cd, book, notepad, poster, card, photograph, dress, belt had evaporated from sight.
Thinking I’d catch her out, thinking I might stumble across something she had missed I looked under the beds, behind the desk, along bookshelves. But all she’d left behind was her absence, and all of the many things we had found together, chosen one by one.
