Isolated Together Ch. 02

"It's in your price range," Shannon swiped back on his browser.

"I'd like something I don't have to do a lot of work on. If it needs twenty thousand dollars worth of work on the bathroom and kitchen, it's over budget. What about this one?"

The afternoon passed lazily as they hunted for houses on the internet, comparing notes and making fun of the bad houses.

"What if we're going about this the wrong way?" Shannon asked over the pizza they ordered for dinner.

"What do you mean?"

"You said you wanted to be able to buy this house on your own . . . what if we bought it together?" he paused for a second. "I can get a loan through the VA at a better rate than you can get with your debt to income ratio."

"But . . ." her voice trailed off.

"Here are all my cards, Harriett Rovnak: I'm a GS-12 federal employee, which doesn't mean anything to you, but I make about ninety thousand dollars a year at my job, and I get about fourteen thousand dollars a year for my VA disability. I have no credit card debt, the GI Bill paid for my college, and I have a year left on the lease on the GTI. All of my other expenses are rent and utilities. I pay into Social Security, my government annuity and the government's retirement plan."

He paused for a minute. They had talked vaguely about their individual financial situations, but never in any specificity. Although they had been a couple for the last several months, each still thought of themselves as an individual who happened to be in a relationship. Until that moment.

Hank took a deep breath.

"I make about a hundred and fifty a year before overtime. I have just over fifty thousand dollars in student loans from nurse anesthetist school and another twenty from nursing school that I put in deferment and am still paying on. I owe eight thousand dollars on my car, but I don't have any credit cards. My rent and utilities are the same as yours. I have a 401(k) through the hospital and pay some into a separate Roth IRA."

"So between the two of us, we're not poor."

"I've got a shitload of debt," Hank frowned. "Like a nice BMW worth of debt."

"I know, but you're paying it down--"

"Slowly."

"That's better than some other people," he pointed out. "You could probably call up the Air Force; they'd give you a commission as an officer and pay off your student loans if you'd commit to a few years."

"You'd let me go to the Air Force?" Hank asked incredulously.

"They have the best housing and the best food. And you could probably get some cushy duty station that would be fun to visit . . . Japan would be nice. Or maybe Hawaii . . ."

She punched him in the shoulder once for good measure. "I'll make you salute me."

"I'm serious," he said. "About the house . . . not the Chair Force. I'm a civilian anyway; I don't salute anyone anymore. We could go in fifty-fifty. That would basically double the budget and expand the pool of places to look for on Zillow."

Hank chewed on her lip for a moment. He knew what she was thinking. The same thoughts had been running through his mind, too.

"What happens if we break up?" she asked softly.

"Then one of us buys the other out or we have to sell and divvy up the profit . . . or the loss," Shannon didn't mince any words. "Are you going to break up with me?"

"I'm not planning on it," Hank replied. "But we've been living in this little socially-distant bubble . . . you may get tired of me and my teeth grinding once we go back to 'normal'."

"More like your nymphomania is going to kill me before I turn forty," he joked.

Hank snorted softly. "A mortgage is going to tie us together for the next thirty years. I don't know that I'm ready for that. Not right now."

"I get it," he said gently. "But here's the deal: housing prices have been skyrocketing for the past few years, and they don't usually go down. They've been pretty steady lately, but I've read some people saying that the housing market is about to get expensive again. We're both in good financial positions, even though we're renting. If you view a house as an investment, chances are good that we're going to make money, even if you get tired of my snoring."

"I can drown out your snoring with the white noise machine. It's you hogging the covers that's going to break us up," her deadpan expression made Shannon scoff.

"You've always wanted to be financially independent," he acknowledged. "But let's face it: we have stable jobs. You can't be outsourced to China or replaced by a robot, and there is basically no way the federal government is going to fire me unless I walk into the office and shoot someone . . . and even then, I'm a service-connected veteran and they'll have to work for it."

She started out the window towards the ocean, lost in thought.

"I've also been socking money away for when I got tired of renting." Shannon paused for a second. "I've got fifty thousand dollars in the bank earmarked as a down payment on a house."

Her eyebrow shot up. "Why haven't you used it?"

"I'm an inertial guy," Shannon shrugged. "I don't mind renting; someone else takes care of the lawn, I don't have to fix anything that breaks, and since it's just me, I can live comfortably in a two-bedroom apartment. And besides, if I had a house, I never would have met my very pretty neighbour."

"I still only rate 'very pretty'?" Hank shot him a mock glare.

"For now," he winked. A flippant reply nearly escaped his filter, but Shannon only smiled.

She sighed, already going through scenarios in her head, both about the house and their relationship. Hank snuggled up to Shannon, who put his arm around her. "I'll think about it."

****************

"I swear to God, if we visit one more house that is covered in shiplap, I'm driving to Texas to slap the shit out of Joanna Gaines," Hank muttered as the door on her CR-V closed with a thunk!

Shannon laughed. After a month of house hunting, they were starting to see patterns. They had a realtor who worked with them on their days off to show houses in a socially distant way.

"So which ones did you like today?" he asked, reaching for the hand sanitizer in the door pocket. After wiping down their hands and the door handles, they took their masks off and set them in the center console.

"That first house was nice; I'm a big fan of single floor plans. The yard's going to need work, though," she whipped out her phone and cycled through pictures to remind herself of the houses they had visited throughout the day. "The second one is a hard no; the price is low because it's backs right up to the freeway bypass and there was water damage in the basement."

"What about this one?"

"It seems like a nice neighbourhood with no HOA. Kitchen, master bedroom, bathroom and laundry all on the main level."

"What about the steps?"

"Guests can go up and down the steps to get to the bedrooms. It has the bonus room over the garage you could use as your home office and for music."

"I like it," Shannon agreed and pulled out of the driveway, waving good-bye to their realtor. "The appliances are outdated, but useable for a couple more years. It has the stand-by generator that ties into the gas line in case the power goes out."

"The price is right," she pointed out.

"The price is right," he echoed.

They drove down the street in silence, holding hands.

"Do you want to grab a bite to eat?" he asked, knowing Hank would probably want to stop by her apartment to take a quick nap before going to work that night.

"Where do you want to go?"

"I can all ahead to that Italian place up the road, or we could run by a drive-through."

"Italian is fine," she yawned, tilted her seat back and curled up in the passenger seat.

When he was in the Navy, Shannon learned the value of sleep. He could nap pretty much anywhere if he didn't need to do anything, even if he was standing up. Hank had the same talent; working midnights made her sleep schedule irregular, especially if she had to run errands or do anything during the day.

He called ahead and when he pulled up to the curb, their food was delivered right to the car after he dialed the restaurant again.

They returned to his apartment. She only picked at her eggplant parmesan while he ate; she'd take the leftovers to work as her dinner.

"I don't want to rush into anything," she said softly.

"Then we won't rush into anything."

"But I really like that last house. It's near the beach, too," she smiled sheepishly.

Shannon got out his notepad and amortization calculator app on his phone. "They're asking two eighty-five, but it's been on the market for a while and no one is living there right now. If we get them to move a little on the price or pay closing costs . . . and then we put fifty thousand dollars down . . . maybe a little more . . . let's say we finance $225,000 for thirty years . . . that's nine hundred and ninety dollars a month before escrowing property taxes and homeowners insurance . . . about thirteen hundred a month if we financed for twenty years. We're paying fourteen fifty a month--each--to rent here . . . so if nothing is wrong with the house, we're saving almost two grand monthly."

"We could finance for thirty years and then make payments as if we were paying for twenty," Hank completed that line of thinking. "Or fifteen for that matter."

He nodded and let Hank crunch the numbers in her head. The house was three bedrooms, two and a half baths, plus the bonus room, on a fairly large lot and within walking distance of the beach. It was a little bit further to work for both of them, but with Shannon still working from home, the extra commute wasn't too much for either.

Prices were starting to creep up. They were intentional about not rushing to buying a house, but they were also aware that houses weren't staying on the market as long as they had at the beginning of the pandemic, and both sensed that they needed to make a decision soon.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" she asked. "And I don't just mean about the house . . . Are you sure you want to move it in me? Are you sure you want to buy property with me? It will make breaking up a lot harder."

"Yes, yes, and yes," he reached out and took her hand reassuringly. "I don't have any plans on breaking up with you but remember: I've done this once before. Unless kids come into the picture, splitting a single property is pretty easy. We're keeping the rest of our finances separate."

"I don't just want to be making a business decision, Shannon." The look in her eyes was very serious. "I know we've only been together for a few months, but if this corona thing has taught me anything, it's that I work too much and have been putting off enjoying my life for too long."

She stopped to gather her thoughts.

"You reminded me that there's life outside of the hospital. I don't know that I'm ready for a family or anything like that, but I want more than getting up, going to work, coming home and going to bed."

"And you got me out of my hermit-like life," Shannon replied with a wink. "Some days I wonder why you're slumming with me."

"I'm not slumming with you," Hank rolled her eyes, but she couldn't help but add, ". . . old man."

Shannon almost jumped across the table. She tried to slip out of his grasp, but didn't put any real effort into it. They didn't make it to the bedroom.

And left a spot on the carpet the landlord had to have cleaned when they moved out.

****************

"Fuck me!" Hank wailed. "Fuck . . . fuck . . . I'm cumming!"

Shannon leaned forward, his weight on her shoulders as he drove each stroke into her from behind. Her face and breasts were pressed into the carpet.

"Cummingcummingcumming!"

Without altering his pace or intensity, Shannon fucked Hank through the orgasm, before she collapsed onto the floor, her butt turned up just enough to keep him inside her.

Their house was a mess of boxes and unpacked furniture. They barely had enough space on the floor of their bedroom to break in the new house.

But it was enough.

Shannon withdrew from her dripping-wet pussy just long enough to flip Hank over on her back. She automatically spread her legs and he filled her up once again.

Leaning in, he kissed her deeply. She managed the strength to throw her arms around him.

He pulled back to look into her eyes before reaching for her legs. He hooked his elbows into her knees, nearly folding her in half.

"Fuck me," she whispered in his ear. "Fuck the shit out of me."

Still recovering from her first orgasm, she limply absorbed each thrust.

Letting out a feral grunt every time he bottomed out, Shannon pounded his cock into his lover, as if trying to drive her through the floor into the crawlspace below.

Her nails dug into his shoulder when she orgasmed again.

"Cum in me!" she cried out.

Shannon tried to hold off as long as he could, but when he felt her pussy contract and flood with warmth, he exploded inside her.

"I'm cumming!" he moaned through clenched teeth.

"Oh, Shannon!" she gasped hoarsely before her entire body went slack.

The room started to spin and Shannon fell into Hank's arms, but she was gone, her eyes rolled back and vacant before he, too, succumbed.

When he came to, Hank was gently running her hands up and down his back, her fingertips leaving a trail of featherlight touches.

He was drooling on her shoulder.

"Don't move," she whispered in his ear. "Stay right there."

They lay on the plush carpet for a long time, the soft light of the moon and streetlights streaming in from behind the blinds the previous owners had left.

A short while later, they wordlessly got up and threw on the first comfortable clothes they could find.

Clearing a spot on the couch, the pair curled up in one another's arms in their new home, spending the night as close as they possibly could.

****************

31 October 2020

Shannon and Hank stood behind a folding table at the end of their driveway.

She was dressed up in a slinky black mermaid dress. The wig of straight, jet-black hair hung down to her waist.

He wore a dark blue pinstripe suit with a white dress shirt and red bow tie. His hair was slicked back.

Both wore black contoured face masks which covered them from nose to chin they had bought off Etsy. The masks had metal wires in the nose bridges which conformed to their faces and pockets for removeable KN95 filters.

There were a fair number of trick-or-treaters, although some of the other neighbours told them the crowd was lower than normal because of COVID. Shannon and Hank had made up about a hundred treat bags, each filled with a handful of candy, and set them in big bowls on their table next to the hand sanitizer.

Kids were offered a bag off the table, and their parents were offered a drink out of the cooler which had bottled water, cans of pop, or single-serving sized bottles of beer or wine.

They had gotten to know a few of their neighbours, although from a distance. The latest research showed the chance of COVID transmission outdoors was virtually zero when properly spaced out, and Hank and Shannon were as cautious as they could be, given that she worked in a health care setting.

Hank was tested at the hospital weekly, and Shannon went to the health department every other week for a free COVID test. Somehow all of his tests so far had come back negative.

He was still working from home, even though the office had re-opened to employees who elected to return. The federal building was closed to the public, but Shannon only returned to the office one day to swap his laptop and docking station as part of an agency-wide equipment standardisation.

As much as he thought he'd despise work at home, after seven months, he was kind of used to it. The fact that his live-in girlfriend was there pretty much all day helped, although she mostly left him alone in the home office during work hours.

Except for the odd blowie here and there. Lunchtime quickies were taken in the bedroom or at the kitchen table.

Over the last few weeks, they settled into a familiar domestic routine. Halloween was their first major holiday together.

Both were quick to complement the costumes of everyone who stopped by, and were pleasantly surprised that many of the kids knew Gomez and Morticia.

"So where are we going next week?" she asked, not quite out of the blue.

"It's a surprise," he replied cryptically.

With the end of the calendar year approaching, both had gobs of vacation to cash in. Shannon was in use-or-lose and had a bunch of three-day weekends scheduled through New Year's. Hank had some of her PTO which rolled over, but still had several days which she had to use.

So they both agreed to take the first week of November off for their first road trip with one another. It was unspoken that this was the next big step in their relationship. They had already bought a house together, shopped for furniture as a couple, and for all intents and purposes had been living together since late May.

Cruise lines were shut down and international travel was mostly off the table due to the various (and onerous) COVID protocols in place at any destination they wanted to visit.

"Do you trust me?" he asked her one day.

"That depends on how much it's going to cost me," she shot him a wry smile.

"Six nights, seven days; leave Monday, come back the next Sunday. I will pay for the hotel and for the activities on the trip. You pay for food while we're there. And we'll be driving; less than a day each way. But I'm not going to tell you where we're going. I promise you'll like it."

"Deal."

And that was that.

The remainder of their Halloween night passed uneventfully. When the flow of kids slowed to a trickle, they ventured around their cul de sac to visit the other houses in the circle.

"We should all just set up in our driveway next year," Hank told their neighours as she passed out the remainder of the wine in the cooler. "Kids won't have to come all the way down, and we can hang out. I've got tons of ideas to set up."

"More than the giant inflatables in your yard?" Mr. Henderson asked. He was older, but funny. He liked Hank, probably due to her penchant for wearing yoga pants when doing yard work or jogging around the neighbourhood.

Mrs. Henderson also liked Hank, because she was a retired nurse herself, and she recognised that Hank could hold her own against her husband's lecherous-but-generally-harmless remarks.

"You have no idea," she winked. "Now that we've got a house, next year, we're going all out. I'm going to hit up all the Halloween stores tomorrow when everything is half off."

"Tell them what you're going to do with a fog machine and a cauldron," Shannon winked.

Hank only grinned mischievously. "And I'm already plotting our Christmas decorations."

The neighbours retired for the night when it was clear no more kids were coming down the street.

Shannon folded up the portable table and Hank brought the candy bowls inside.

"Leave it," she said with a sly smile as Shannon started to clean up.

Turning, Hank went back towards their bedroom, adding an exaggerated sway to her hips.

He eagerly followed, his eyes never leaving her shapely backside.

As soon as he entered their bedroom, Hank pressed her body against him. The soft light from battery powered candles on the dresser and nightstands bathed them in an ethereal light.

He reached for her dress, but she took his hands in hers. She kicked her shoes into one corner of the room.

Shannon could have overpowered her, but she clearly wanted to take control.

They kissed hungrily, but without rush or desperation.

Maneuvering him towards the bed, she slipped his jacket off and lay it on the floor. She didn't move to unbutton his shirt, but instead brushed her hand along the inseam of his dress pants.