A few weeks later...

I look around the house and the boxes stacked up in every single room. I groan as Ryder continues to bring in more boxes and crap.

"This is not going to all fit," I say from the couch. I will not help him unpack all this shit until he gets rid of some of it. I put my feet up on the coffee table just to show how serious I am about not helping.

Gabe and Carley come in each carrying a box, "where should we put these?"

"Outside?" I say.

Carley laughs and sets the box down. She joins me on the couch as we watch the guys bring in box after box. They're sweating from the humidity and heat. But I still won't help.

"I can't believe he's actually moving in," Carley says.

"He won't be moving in if he DOESN'T GET RID OF SOME SHIT," I yell and hear Ryder's deep chuckle from behind us.

"You're still not freaking out about this. Why aren't you freaking out?" Carley asks.

I honestly don't know. I haven't felt freaked out the whole time we were deciding living arrangements.

"I love him," I say and Carley squeals.

Once they finish bringing the boxes in they sit down on the couch with us, "what the hell do you think you're doing?" I ask.

"Wanna order pizza?" Ryder asks grabbing his phone.

"Yeah. Sure. Carley, Gabe, and I would love some pizza. You are not eating until this is cleaned up!"

Gabe shakes his head, "can I tell her?"

"Don't," Ryder warns.

"Tell me. Now. If you don't tell me I'm taking my best friend back. You'll never see Carley again, Gabe."

"Ryder never unpacked these boxes. They've been stacked in his apartment since he moved in," Gabe says seriously. "He's lived there for a year."

Ryder looks scared as I jump up from the couch start tearing open boxes.

"What the fuck? Ryder, you have a box full of FINISHED word puzzles? Garbage. They are going in the garbage." I am fuming. How many boxes are useless crap?

The house looks like a bomb went off. The living room is barricaded with boxes, there are two stacks of boxes in the kitchen and the hallway is lined with more. Poor Boomer can't find a nice place to sit because of all this shit.

"He has like five boxes of finished puzzles," Gabe says. "I helped him move the first time," he explains.

"If you didn't need it for over a year you don't need it now. All these boxes are leaving!" I am on a mission now. Tearing through boxes and throwing things out.

"You aren't throwing those out," Ryder says standing over me while I look through a box of old video games.

"Do you even have the console?" I ask.

He shakes his head.

"Then they are useless!" I basically scream, "fuck, if I knew you were a hoarder I would have never agreed to this."

Ryder rolls his eyes, "I'm not a hoarder. I just like stuff."

"Shit. This is all shit not stuff." I argue.

"Alright! I'm ordering pizza and I already have wine out," Carley says from the living room. I can barely hear her through the mountains of cardboard.

"I'm going to need that wine. Right now. Before I kill you," I say trying not to scream again.

"I'll get you wine, honeybuns," Ryder says chuckling at the stupid name he decided to call me.

He comes back with a regular cup filled to the top with wine, "I figured you'd need more than a wine glass amount," he shrugs and hands me the cup.

"You're probably right," I say and rip open another box. Inside is a bunch of papers and pictures and random items.

"What's all of this?" I ask leaning against the wall with my wine.

"Stuff of my Dad's. Letters I wrote to him and never sent, pictures of us, stuff he left behind. We can get rid of this," he says moving to sit next to me.

"You don't have to get rid of this. We'll put it all somewhere else." I lean my head against his shoulder and we drink in silence.

"Do you think we'll work?" I ask.

"Yeah," he says simply still looking at the box of stuff. And I like that he doesn't feel the need to explain it. It's just a fact. "Do you want to go to my mom's for dinner tomorrow night? My step-dad and half-brother will be there too."

"Sounds like I'll make a huge fool of myself. Again. Can't wait," I say.

"Again?" He asks.

"Oh yeah, I guess you were sort of out of it. We met at the hospital. But she met me as your wife. Now I'll have to meet her as your girlfriend. Just another chance to embarrass myself and you."

"Hmm. Yeah I'm sure she will be impressed with you now that you're only my girlfriend. But I'm hoping for some good entertainment. I figured we'd start off by saying I was your fake boyfriend for a wedding and got you to run around the hallways naked," he laughs.

"You mean you don't want to start from the beginning? When we met a bar and had drunk one-night-stand sex?"

"Hmm, you're right. My mom and little brother will love to hear that story," he says kissing my cheek.

We look through a few more boxes and throw out a ton. He refuses to get rid of his comic book collection and I can't get him to budge on his DVD collection either.

"I had no idea you're such a fucking nerd!" I say laughing as I look through his signed first edition comic books that are packaged and sealed.

"It's my biggest secret," he says taking the books away from me and carefully putting them back in the boxes.

"Pizza's here," Gabe says and notices what we are looking at. He crouches down and grabs one of the books, "dude, can I have this one?"

"Fuck no," Ryder says, "it's worth thousands of dollars."

"What? It is?" I ask.

Gabe and Ryder look at me like I'm an idiot, "Addy, some of these can sell for 10,000 dollars. Some possibly more."

"Then why aren't we selling them?!" I ask looking through the box again.

"Because I love them," Ryder shrugs.

"You've loved every single thing. The video games, DVDs, an old spatula," I roll my eyes.

"I love you the most," he says licking my cheek.

"Ew! Ryder! What the fuck," I scream jumping up and wiping my cheek.

He is still sitting on the floor, "you let Boomer do it."

"Don't ever do that again," I say trying not to laugh. We all head into the kitchen for pizza and more wine and hopefully we'll finish unpacking in the next year.

For the first time in forever I'm not nervous about the future. I'm excited.