“Of course, but this doesn’t even look like the same house. It’s so beautiful! Look how bright this room is!”
This was, in a lot of ways, part of a script. Nolan gave a brief rundown of the changes they’d made and his reasoning for the finishes he chose.
“These counters….” Carol shook her head, though she was smiling. “I never thought I was the sort of person who would say, ‘these counters and cabinets are beautiful,’ but they really are! I always thought I could just operate in any kitchen I had, but this is so much better than the old kitchen.”
“The sink at the island faces the living room,” said Grayson, “so one of you can be in here prepping and still interact with whoever else is around. Getting rid of the walls made the flow much better and let in a lot more natural light.”
“It’s really spectacular.”
They continued into the den and one of the first-floor bathrooms. In each room, Carol and George seemed to genuinely love everything Nolan and Grayson had done. When they reconvened in the living room, things got a little dicey, though.
“You know, I was worried,” said Carol. “This was my dad’s house, and after he died, part of me wanted to keep everything as-is, in his honor. But I really think changing it to make this house work better is what he would have wanted. I don’t want to hold on to the past. And by making this home work for us, for making it our forever home, I think that… that would have made Dad happy.”
George blinked a few times and put an arm around his wife. Carol’s voice was watery, and she dabbed under her eyes with her finger. Grayson pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket and dabbed at his own eyes.
“I’m so happy we could do this for you,” said Grayson.
And Nolan felt… nothing. Well, notnothing, because he was glad his clients were happy and he felt some pride in a job well done. But it was like his body just had no more capacity for grief. He looked on this tableau of mostly happy tears and couldn’t bring forth much emotion at all.
Or maybe he was just… drained. Angela had decided that she wanted him to have the baby, so it looked very much like he was going to have a daughter in about two months. On the one hand, he was thrilled, but on the other… he was terrified. He’d called his mother with the news right after he’d gotten off the phone with Angela, and she’d cried so effusively with joy he could hear it through the phone, which had made his own eyes sting. So he’d already experienced every possible emotion this week and just had no more capacity for anything else.
“Sorry,” said Grayson to the Robertses. “I really tried not to cry.” He fanned his face with his hand.
They all exchanged hugs; then they split a bottle of cheap champagne in the new kitchen before they wrapped filming. George and Carol seemed genuinely thrilled with how their house had turned out. Further negotiations about what they’d keep and return would happen directly with Helena and the production staff. Helena wanted them to send in some video after they’d been in the house about a month, so they could talk about the difference the renovations had made in their lives at the end of the episode. But that was out of Nolan and Grayson’s hands. On to the next house!
“You good to drive?” Grayson asked as they walked out to the car.
“I had, like, three sips of champagne. I’m fine.”
“Okay. Just checking.” Grayson climbed into the car.
“You weren’t wrong about crying.”
Grayson laughed. “I know, I know.”
Helena ran over to the car as Nolan was about to start it. “Can I just say,” she said, “that was an excellent reveal. A little schmoopy, but exactly the kind of thing our viewers will eat up.”
Nolan took that to mean viewers would eat up Grayson getting emotional. “So you thought it went okay?” he asked, although he knew it had.
“It went spectacularly. Great job, guys. See you tomorrow.”
Nolan took a long breath as he watched Helena walk over to her car. Grayson reached over and patted Nolan’s arm where it rested on the console.
“We’re gonna be TV stars, aren’t we?” said Grayson.
“Afraid so,” Nolan said, putting the car in gear.
Chapter Fifteen
ON THEride home that night, Grayson finally gathered the courage to ask, “Okay. So what aren’t you telling me?”
“Gray.”
“I’ve been patient all week because I wanted to make sure everything with this reveal went okay, but I think that the fact that we’ve been fighting on camera is less about our design differences and possibly about something else. You’ve been acting very weird ever since you got back from LA. I think something happened that you’re not telling me, and I want to know what it is….”
“I can promise you, it’s not whatever you’re thinking.”
“You don’t know what I’m thinking.” Although of course Grayson was thinking Nolan had hooked up with some old flame in LA. Nolan felt guilty and that was why he was tiptoeing around Grayson. Part of him recognized how absurd that was, and he found it unlikely that Nolan had slept with anyone else, but he couldn’t imagine what else would make Nolan act so out of character.
