Chapter 5 The Beginning of the End

Kristoff and Serenity both worked through the afternoon with little interaction. Both of them thrived at working independently and both of them were working on projects that used skills that they excelled at. Kristoff blared music while he worked while Serenity spent her time talking herself through her projects. In between her conversations with herself, she would either sing along to whatever played on Kristoff's radio, if she liked it, or she would sing little snippets from holiday or children's song, often changing the words to fit her current task.

The afternoon quickly flew by. Around 7 PM, Serenity was just putting the finishing paint touches on the third wall in the mud room. She put her brush down and went to give Kristoff a heads up on how late it was getting. They should start finding a stopping point and cleaning up so that they had enough time to eat dinner and rest for a little while before going to bed.

Serenity found Kristoff at the top of the ladder at the third pole, putting the cover back on the light fixture. She yelled up at him that it was 7:00 and that they should wrap it up for the night.

Kristoff yelled down, "10 minutes and I will be done up here. I'll put my tools away and be in after that."

Serenity headed back to the house to clean up her brushes and get everything put away. She knew that she wouldn't be able to finish painting the last wall this weekend, so she made sure everything was sealed up for a later date.

As she finished up, Kristoff was coming in the side door. She told him to go look through their supplies and decide what he would like to eat and she would be right in.

Serenity walked into the kitchen a few minutes later and found Kristoff standing above the cooler with a few pre-made hamburger patties and a package of hot dogs in his hand.

"How about I get the table top grill out and get some charcoal going? If we cooked all of these, we could have food ready for tomorrow, too."

Serenity agreed happily, glad that Kristoff would share in the chore of cooking. She dug through the cooler to find her bag of veggies she had prepared in advance for grilling. Half an hour and they should be ready to eat.

Serenity started setting up chairs outside the side door so that she and Kristoff could enjoy their little feast outside. The sun was starting to get lower in the sky and she was hoping that they would get to watch a beautiful sunset as they ate dinner and relaxed.

They spent a few hours outside together finishing their meal and happily chatting about their progress made today and how they would spend their morning before they headed back to their separate homes the next day. Serenity felt as if, overall, the day had been a pleasant success.

When the two of them climbed onto their air mattress to sleep that night, Kristoff gave her a quick peck and quietly told her, "I love you, good night."

Serenity smiled in satisfaction and responded to him, "I love you, too. I really appreciate all the hard work you did today. Sweet dreams."

The next morning was surprisingly routine for the two of them, despite their new surroundings. They both got up, enjoyed a little coffee, ate a light breakfast and got to work on their projects as soon as the sun lit the landscape outside.

Kristoff immediately went to work on his last light pole. Once he had all four of them powered and working, he hoped to install a sensor so the lights would automatically turn on at dusk.

Serenity began packing the few items they would be carrying back home with them such as dirty clothing and their coolers. She wanted to get everything loaded up so that they wouldn't have to carry everything through the house and out the front door due to her staining the side porch. The lawn had not been cared for in some time and she didn't want to try to lug coolers through the overgrown front yard later.

A few hours later, Kristoff had finished getting all four exterior lights to work in addition to installing the sensor that would control them. He gave Serenity a warning that he would be finished with changing the other bulbs out within the hour and that he would be ready to get heading returning back to their homes before it got too late so they could prepare to go back to work the following day.

Serenity quickly tried to finish up her work on the side porch so that they could get the last of their belongings in the truck and get started on the long drive. The trip back to Middleton would take over 8 hours, guessing based on the trip there and she wanted to get back as soon as possible so she could get some good rest in her bed that night.

Right as she was about to finish the last section of the porch floor, Kristoff slung the screen door open and knocked over her half full can of stain. Serenity rushed to grab it before all of her stain dumped through the cracks and onto the ground underneath the porch. Kristoff huffed and blurted out, "Why did you leave that sitting behind the door!?"

Serenity was immediately irritated. She caught herself before she could fire words back at him, but she was pretty upset that he made it seem as though she was in the wrong for having her materials sitting where she was working. She thought to herself, 'Why didn't he go out the front door!? He knew I was still here working!' As she tried to clean up the mess that had been made while finishing the last section of the floor, she was steaming on the inside. She wanted to say something back to him. She wanted to point out that he was rude to her when he had made a mistake and then he had casually wandered off and left her to clean up the mess he had made. Even though she wanted to speak up for herself, she knew that she had to sit in a truck with him for over 8 hours and she didn't want to instigate a whole argument over the situation.

After Serenity finished and cleaned all of her tools and materials up, they both grabbed the last of their belongings that they needed to take back and got into the truck. They also had prepared themselves some of last nights leftovers for lunch that they would eat in the car as they drove. Serenity was relieved that they should make it back before the sun had completely set and she should have a few hours to relax before going to bed and starting her work week again.

Serenity stared out the passenger window and watched the scenery pass her by for what seemed like hours. She had mulled over some thoughts on things they needed to do at the new house. She had pulled out her notebooks and jotted down a few more materials they would need to buy. Eventually she ran out of things related to the new house that she could work on and started going over how their first weekend had went in her mind.

Serenity was slightly bothered with some of the things that had occurred with Kristoff over the weekend. She didn't need to be coddled but she could also appreciate a little kindness and affection on occasion. She wondered if she had made a mistake when she had talked to Kristoff and they decided to make plans together to find a home and start their life totally together.

She thought about all of the reasons that she had never wanted to completely separate from Kristoff. The things they enjoyed doing together that normal couples didn't necessarily do. Each of them planting a garden, harvesting the crop. Freezing and canning parts of their crop and turning other parts into finished goods to preserve such as making their jams and their pizza and pasta sauce. Climbing into the boat at 6 AM to tackle a day of fishing on the lake. Bundling up in their bulky ice fishing gear to trudge out on the lakes at zero degrees to try to catch a few fish. The list was so long that it was hard for her to believe that they had so many issues sometimes.

But then were the many times when she felt as if Kristoff gave absolute no consideration to her existence. When she would get up in the wee hours to prepare him to go out in the cold and then he would become irritated if she forgot something or wasn't as quick as he wanted to leave. When he would take off to spend some time with his brother working on a project during the day and tell her he would be home when she got home from work and he would leave her waiting until dinner time without a call or text to update her. When he would have a day home from work and do nothing and still wait on her to come home and prepare dinner or he would leave the dishwasher full of clean dishes and fill the sink full of dirty dishes after she had cleaned up and ran the dishwasher at his house. It wasn't that he was lazy. But sometimes it was as if he knew eventually she would if he didn't feel like it. She didn't mind that as much as the fact that when she didn't feel like it or when she was under the weather, he didn't pick up the slack.

Serenity knew that Kristoff loved her and she loved him, too. But this weekend was just new reinforcement of the fact that some things will never change. As they got closer to completing the return trip, Serenity hoped that turning their lives upside down, uprooting and starting over would push change and bring a stronger bond in their relationship. She drifted off fantasizing about how things would be once they had renovated the house and got settled.

Two hours later, Kristoff pulled up in front of his house and woke Serenity up. "Hey Serenity, we're here. You want to help me carry my stuff inside before you load your stuff up in your car?"

Serenity agreed and started carrying coolers and bags into his house. As they finished getting all of his gear into his house, he started putting things away. Serenity told him, "I'm going to go start loading up my car so that I can get over to my house and get ready for bed." He gave her a simple 'okay' and kept unpacking the cooler.

As Serenity finished unloading the rest of the truck into her car, she kept expecting Kristoff to come out and help her. When she finished and he was still inside she started feeling a little miffed that he had asked her to help him but then didn't come out to return the favor. She decided she was just a little sleepy from the drive yet and that had her a bit cranky, so she decided to go in and tell him good night.

Serenity wrapped her arms around him as he continued unpacking. He turned around and she stretched up and tiptoes, gave him a quick peck and told him, "Good night, I love you."

Kristoff gave her a quick squeeze and said, "I would go over and help you unload your car but I have to get this stuff put away."

Serenity's face immediately started turning red as she turned around and walked out the door. She wasn't even going to ask him to drive up the road and around the corner to her house to help her, but he felt he needed to reject that idea out loud without having been asked. And because HE needed to put HIS stuff away, HIS stuff that I HELPED HIM UNLOAD?!?!

He had been almost finished and Serenity's stuff was still in her car. Serenity was angry because she knew his nonchalance over the trivial matter just reaffirmed that he always put himself first. Serenity thought to herself, 'Wouldn't most men have stopped by my house first to help me unload and then go back to his place so we could both unload and then I would drive my car home and we could both unpack our own stuff?' She wondered if she was crazy or if she was correct in her assessment of 'most men'.

As Serenity started unpacking and starting a load of laundry, she wondered if they were making a mistake. Maybe she had given him one too many chances and had forgiven him one too many times. Maybe her giving him so much credit for the changes that he had made were overshadowed by the basic rules of respecting and taking care of your partner that he lacked.

Serenity's head swam with these thoughts and questions as she tried to fall asleep that night. She knew she wanted to give him the full benefit of the doubt and a clean chance without the weight of the past while they were making all of these changes. But she couldn't help but fall asleep feeling as though there was more to come as things became more stressful during this transition.