‘I don’t know,’ I sighed, chewing reflexively on my bottom lip. ‘I just… don’t know.’
‘What’s holding you back?’ Mandy asked me, pen perched at the corner of her mouth, clipboard tucked under her arm.
‘I just think it’s a… bold choice.’
‘What is?’
‘The carpeting.’
‘Oh, but the colours are gorgeous,’ she smiled, nodding at me with wide eyes.
‘It’s a bathroom, Mandy.’
‘Got it, got it,’ she kept nodding, scratching something onto her clipboard. ‘No bold colours in the bathroom.’
‘Nope,’ I shook my head. ‘Not the issue.’
‘I’ll get in touch with the best bathroom designers near the Melbourne CBD and come up with a few alternate colour schemes,’ she frowned at her pad, pulling out her phone and tapping away at something. ‘See what they can come up with.’
‘I actually quite liked the colours—’
‘Jacob!’ she threw her hands up in frustration, and I blinked in surprise. ‘You’re killing me here! Do you like the colours or not?!’
I cowed slightly, in the face of the full attention of Mandy.
‘I-I like them,’ I stammered.
‘Then that settles it, doesn’t it!’ she rolled her eyes. ‘Honestly, trust me to do my job.’
A call came over her phone and she answered it before the first ring had rung out.
‘Go for it,’ she said, then paused, frowning. ‘Yeah, Jacob’s just being difficult. Can’t decide what colour he wants his bathroom carpeting to be. Sure, I’ve got time.’
‘No, wait, I just—’ I called out futilely as Mandy swanned out of the room. ‘How much will my bathroom renovation cost?!’
She was long gone.
With a sigh, I sat down on the edge of what would eventually be my built-in bathtub. My feet stretched out reflexively and touched down onto the floor. My mind couldn’t help but picture carpeting… thick, luxurious strands of—
‘Nope!’ I scolded myself, getting to my feet. ‘Stupid idea. Not doing it. No way.’
Unless…
‘No!’