The Continuing Adventures of Alexa & Jenny: #5 Expiring Lease

“You are such a liar!” I told my wife as we entered her family’s large estate on Lake Minnetonka.

“I am not a liar!” Jenny said, slightly annoyed by the argument we were having.

“The honeymoon over already?” Jenny’s father asked with an amused laugh as we entered the great room. I walked over to my father-in-law and gave him a kiss on the cheek as a greeting.

“Hi Marty. No, the honeymoon is still active, its just that your daughter is a traffic menace.” I said turning back towards my wife who was moving to greet her father in a similar way.

“Hi, daddy. No, we are just having an ongoing disagreement about my driving.” Jenny said as she sat down on one of the couches. I dropped my bag next to the couch and cuddled in next to my wife, proving to Marty that not all was lost.

“I was teasing Jenny that she has never stopped at that four-way up at Highcroft. She just rolls right on through.” I state.

“You are so full of it, missy. I stop every time. You are just too busy playing on your phone like a teenager ALY to know what is going on.” We give each other a raspberry and cuddle into each other once again. Marty’s laughter gets even heavier.

“You two are amazing. Even when fighting you still can’t stop loving one another can you?”

We had come out to the lake for the weekend to spend a little quality time with Marty. If the Vikings were on the road, we would usually come out on Saturday night and then hang out and watch the game. But since there wasn’t a lot going on around campus and Katie and Danny were sneaking off for a romantic weekend we thought we would head out a day early. And while coming out was a good idea, it was a spur of the moment thing. That had also caused a bit of an argument back at the apartment, since I work about 5 miles from the house.

“Daddy will be happy to see us” Jenny explained when she presented the idea. When I asked her why she didn’t come up with the idea about 3 hours ago, she got quiet and looked for a million excuses. Finally, she admitted she didn’t want to drive out alone. “Its always better with you” she said as she cuddled up to me. I was done, and I knew it. So here I was, back in Wayzata a few hours after I had left.

We sat and enjoyed a drink with Marty and heard the tales of his trip to Washington, where he had met with members of the Senate over the most recent tariffs on U.S. agriculture products by foreign countries. “The man is taking us down the crapper” Marty said emphatically. Jenny and I giggled at each other over Marty’s views on our current president. And in more proof the two of us thought the same way, we both said ‘Drink’ at the same time and broke out in laughter. “What’s so funny?” Marty asked.

It took us a moment to get ourselves under control. “Do you remember our friend Paige?” Jenny asked.

“The Scottish girl?” Marty asked.

“That’s her.” I said “Well she loves everything about America, except for our President. As a matter of fact, she hates him. She will go on and on about him unless you stop her. So, Jessica and their friends have come up with a punishment. If she starts going off on the Orange Fart, as they call him, Paige must finish off her drink.” Marty looked at us for a moment and then finished off the bourbon in his hand. “That was pretty good. I may have to talk about the wall next.”

This was how the night went. The three of us continued to sit around and just talk. It was amazing how far Marty had come in the almost two years since I had met him. Before he was standoffish, now he was willing to tease me just like he would Jenny. Tonight, it was my shoe shopping. “I saw an UPS truck when I was driving home this afternoon. Was today a regular Friday delivery?” I gave him a fake laugh and made a face at him, which got him laughing. But I could see something else in his smile. Pride and it got to me a bit. Jenny must have noticed it and hugged me a bit closer.

Marty stood, and announced he was hungry. “Well Daddy, you sent Martha home already, and the other cook for you has had a few too many.” Jenny said giving me playful tickle in the side “Should we just get a pizza?” Marty thought that sounded good and went to make the order.

When he came back, he found the two of us going through the mail that we had avoided the last few days. I noticed an envelope from the management company of our apartment. As I read the letter, I let out a sigh. I had forgotten that we never renewed our lease last spring! We had just let it roll over for another six months. Now they wanted to raise our rent by 15%! “I am not paying $1500 a month for that place!” Jenny said. “We need to start looking. Maybe one of those new apartments on Washington, by Debbie’s office” she offered up. I nodded and mentioned that maybe we should look for our own house.

“We can afford it; besides I saw a cute little bungalow over by The Witch’s Hat the other day” I said. As we were debating our options, I could see Marty was mulling something over. I continued to pass ideas back and forth with Jenny over our future living situation, but never took my eye off Marty. After a few minutes, I saw a resolve come over my father-in-law’s face. He spoke up.

“I have an idea.” Jenny and I turned towards him. “What if you moved back here?” Jenny and I were in shock. This had never even crossed our minds. We asked him why. “Well it is crazy for you guys to go out and spend all that money. You are here almost every weekend and I am sure next summer you will be out here, if you aren’t in London.” Jenny and I blushed over that. but we weren’t the only ones to blush, Marty was about to as well. “Besides I miss you two.”

Nothing was said between Jenny and me. We shared a smile and moved off to hug the man who was always there for us. It had been decided. As Marty was hugging me he whispered into my ear “Welcome home Alexa”

Saturday Jenny dragged me around looking at all the rooms the house. I could see she was up to something but kept my mouth shut. When we sat down to dinner that night, I could see that Jenny had a plan. Why else would she have decided that we should make the O’Hara fried chicken recipe? I let Jenny take control of the meal, and only gave her some back up, but she did a great job. The meal however did put her father on alert. “What are you two up to?” He asked as we sat down. I shook my head because I truthfully had no clue, my better half did.

“Well Daddy if we are going to move in here, there are a few things that need to be changed.” Jenny informed her father. He plopped some mash potatoes on his plate and urged his daughter to go on. “Well first thing, we need to do something with all of mom’s clothes and I think we need to fix up a lot of the rooms. It’s time that we modernize a few things around here.” Just as she was saying this, the true ‘owner’ of the house came in to join us for dinner.

“Sorry I am late, but what is this talk about modernizing things around here?” Mary asked as she gave both Jenny and I hugs and took her seat and reached for the corn.

“We got notification that our landlords want to raise our rent and it is way too much for that place. When we mentioned this, Marty thought we should move in here.” I said. I could see a smile come to my grandmother-in-law’s face and a comment that it was about time he said that he was lonely. Marty blushed a bit as his mother looked at him.

“You know it is true Martin. And if the girls are going to move in, they are going to want to put their stamp on this house.” She said as she addressed her son. She then turned to us. “But you two know that there are somethings that must remain. There will be no additions or alterations to the exterior.” We nodded in understanding. “Now what do you two have planned?” Marry asked. Jenny went on about some of the changes that needed to be made.

I knew that Jenny was anxious to begin on the renovations, but I had no idea how excited. Sure, we had spent more of the weekend discussing some ideas of what we could change, but that was it. The big clue that she wanted to move forward was when I got a text Thursday afternoon at work from Jenny telling me to come to the house as soon as I could get out. I really didn’t have much going on, so I checked with Bridget before I headed over to the house to meet up with Jenny. “Why are we meeting here?” I asked.

“I have a contractor coming to go over the changes we want to make.” Jenny told me. When I asked why she was pushing it so much if we weren’t moving in until after Christmas, she responded “I want everything done before we move in.” Just then Marty walked through the door. His protests were the same as my questions about the urgency of having a contractor come.

“I don’t mind getting a jump on things, but you two need to use a little control and I hope this contractor understands that I have the last say in all of this.” Jenny just nodded at her father, which was a clear sign that she was blowing him off. That point was driven home even further as Martha led the contractor into the house.

“Hey Marty, nut jobs. What so urgent I needed to get up here right away?” Danny asked. Marty threw up his hands and walked out of the room muttering that he gives up while his daughter stood there proud as a peacock. I just shook my head as my wife took my brother by the arm and began leading him upstairs.

“Well Danny, there are a few changes we want to make”