“What?” Kelly perked up. “No! No, we don’t have to hold off.”
Will and I laughed.
“All right, well…” I gestured at the basement staircase. “It’s downstairs.”
Kelly grinned. “Ooh, did you guys put in a home dungeon?” He rubbed his hands together. “This could be fun.”
I chuckled. “Go find out.”
Still grinning, he switched on the light for the stairs and headed down. Will and I exchanged smiles, then followed him.
At the bottom, Kelly flipped on the basement light, and he froze. I thought for sure I felt his heart skip.
Jaw slack, he looked around, not even breathing as he took in his surroundings.
He’d been helping us finish the basement over the last couple of months—installing insulation and putting up drywall, mostly. I’d worried about doing a home renovation together instead of leaving it to professionals, mostly because of the horror stories from Tom’s clients, but it had been a relatively easy project. The three of us were pretty laidback, so it hadn’t been anything dramatic.
When the basement was finished, Will and I had quietly worked on it whenever Kelly was at the coffee shop, and during his closing shift last night, we’d scrambled to get all the finishing touches into place.
And now it was done.
Since the basement didn’t have much in the way of windows, especially after we’d used the biggest two for the new ventilation system, we’d put in several large lamps with bulbs that mimicked natural light. Beneath those were shelves—the ones we’d quietly taken out of his storage unit along with his other studio furniture—waiting to be filled with brushes, paints, reference books, and anything else he needed. Will had made room for Kelly’s easel beside a table that had the boxes marked Art Stuff, which had come from the storage unit. Beside that were some varying sizes of canvases still wrapped in cellophane. There was also a brand new airbrush, still in its box, sitting on top of the new air compressor.
The basement had been equipped with a utility sink when we’d moved in, and this week we’d scrubbed it clean and replaced the shitty old fittings. Now there was a place to clean paintbrushes or hands or whatever else he needed to do.
Kelly touched his chest and turned to us. “This is… You guys really…”
“You said you wanted space to work on your art, and we didn’t want you to lose that when you sold the house.” Will gestured around the room. “So this is all yours. If there’s anything you still need, let me know. Sometimes I can get surplus stuff out of storage on campus, but I also know where to order a lot of it without paying a premium.”
“Are you…” Kelly blinked. “Are you guys serious? This is…”
His eyes were starting to well up, and I wrapped my arms around his shoulders and kissed his temple. “You okay?”
“Yeah. Yeah.” He sniffed sharply and wiped his eyes as he leaned into me. “It’s just… This is amazing. You guys are amazing.”
“We want you to be happy,” Will said.
“I don’t think you understand.” Kelly swiped at his eyes again. “No one has ever given me space to do my art before.”
“But the room in your house?” Will asked. “That was—”
“That was a room in my house.” Kelly swallowed. “The thing is, that was the only place where I lived alone. I’ve always lived with other people, and I’ve always had to carve out tiny little spaces so I could paint without bothering anyone more than I had to. I annoyed the shit out of my dad, my roommates, my ex—” He laughed quietly, shaking his head. “No one likes their kitchen table being used for painting. Then I had my own place where I could have my own space, but…” He looked at us, eyes welling up. “No one has ever said to me, ‘we’re putting aside this space for you to do your art.’ So this…” He waved a hand around the room. “This is seriously amazing. It’s even better than having a room in my own house, and—”
“Kelly.” Will put a hand on Kelly’s waist and kissed him softly. “This is your house too. You’re not a houseguest. We’re not your landlords.” He ran his fingers through Kelly’s hair. “So you better believe we’re going to make some space that’s all yours.”
“You guys are amazing,” Kelly whispered.
“No,” I said. “We just want you to be as happy with us as we are with you.”