It took her another week and a half to decide she was ready to move more of her clothes into Tristan’s house and change her habit of riding the bus to her mom’s after school. Like me, she didn’t own that much besides clothes, but her shoe collection was enough to make me jealous. I had needed that week to prepare for her arrival. I’d only been around Claire for two weekends. They had been good ones, but living permanently with a teenaged girl in the house was something to work myself up to. Moving in with Tristan had changed my routine already. I was no longer living alone, and I was also not living with my controlling, albeit well-intended, mother. I was living with another man and sharing his bed, his space, and his time. When Claire moved in, it meant sharing even more of my space, with someone who potentially wouldn’t like it. With Tristan, we’d fallen into sync quite easily. I got up with him, adjusting to an earlier schedule without difficulty. Tristan even set his alarm thirty minutes before his previous routine to allow for morning sex, which I was not complaining about.
