Privacy

While Rebecca and Anthony were heading to Anthony's home, Noah and Laila had arrived at Steve's home. Laila's eyes grew wide from the moment they reached the building. She was looking around and taking it all in as she became impressed with where Steve had chosen to live. Although it didn't seem that extraordinary to the untrained eye, but Laila wasn't just any other person. She was a person who has a deep interest in all types of design, among which the designing of clothes but also interior and architectural design. So, to her all the small details popped out and she was noticing more and more as they got out of the car and walked closer. From the material the building was made of, to all the unique ways the architect had ensured a maximum flow of light into the building. The odd mix of modern versus warm classic designs. Using the soft colours of the building to make the vibrant colours of the plants and art pieces in the outer gardens pop even more.

The finishing touch laid in the several murals that had been painted on the outer walls. Apparently, someone in the team had been inspired by the famous painter Escher, as the murals were all paintings that created some type of an illusion and caused confusion if you did not focus. Stairs seemed to be in places where they weren't, parts of the building had disappeared into the background, and many more like that.

Laila loved the paintings and the small details. She would point each and everyone of them out to Noah with lots of excitement and told him all about them as they were walking to the entrance. Noah enjoyed listening to Laila talk about things like this and loved her visible excitement. He could listen to her talk about paint drying and would still enjoy it because of the enamoured way she was speaking about the topic. He quietly smiled and made some sounds of agreement or a let out a simple, "Is that so? I didn't know that.", while he pulled along Maria's suitcases behind him. Laila was only given her own purse to carry as Noah of course didn't want her to lift a finger as long as he was around. Preferably even when he wasn't. But they both knew that wasn't feasible when taking Laila's personality into account.

By the time they had reached Steve's front door, passing through the outer gate and the outer door that served as an entrance into the building with Noah's personal code, Laila was far from finished with telling Noah all that there was to know about the things she had seen. She was still busy gushing when Noah started typing in his combination into the padlock by Steve's front door. After Noah had used his code to unlock the door and reached to open it, Laila stopped him by holding back his hand as she said, "What are you doing?". Noah turned around with a confused look on his face and said, "What do you mean 'What am I doing?'? I am opening the door. Don't you want to get inside? Or do you plan on just dropping the bags and turning around?" He then shrugged his shoulders as he said, "I am fine either way. Just let me know what it is going to be".

Laila shook her head and said, "No, not that. I was talking about the entering his home like that. Don't you think we should knock or something first? Who knows what they are doing? We should give them some privacy. After all, they are an official couple now." Noah scoffed and said, "It's not like they have given much of that courtesy to us over the years, but very well. If you are afraid we will disturb something by walking in without announcing ourselves to a surprisingly shy Maria and a highly injured Steve, who can barely walk, much less do anything else, I will let them know we are here. Then they will have time to hide any signs of that barely budding, newly formed romance of theirs." Laila chuckled at Noah's exaggerated response and gave him a playful nudge while he did as he said and rang the doorbell.

From a distance they could hear Maria and Steve talking before Maria made her way to the front door. Since the door was in fact open, they were able to hear what was being said. Something that wouldn't be possible if the door had still been closed because of the great insulation of the building. So, the two of them stood there quietly, listening to the audio of the free entertainment that they had been provided with, while Laila held back a quiet chuckle from anticipation. Though Steve and Maria didn't have much to say before heading over to open the door, what they did say, gave Laila a 'waiting till you can yell 'surprise'' or a hide-and-seek kind of feeling, which was amusing to her all on its own.