The Cleaning

Zoey and Camilla got the urge to clean the apartment thoroughly. They ate a good breakfast and rolled up their sleeves, looking forward to spending time and working together.

Admittedly, I couldn't help much, but I was ready to sacrifice myself and make myself a pillow if one of them fell from the chair while washing the windows. They cleaned the common areas, kitchen, bathroom, and living room first, then moved on to Zoey's bedroom.

Sometimes I had the impression that they forgot about my presence and made it a girl's day. They even planned to order pizza for the evening and talked about what drinks would be best since they deserved it after all the hard work.

"Ask Zoey, how was her last date with Thomas?" I asked Camilla, hoping this would bring me into the conversation a bit.

They both looked in my direction and started giggling uncontrollably, and I didn't say anything funny. Zoey blushed even more and shook her head as if she wasn't going to answer my question. I furrowed my brows and made a disgusted face.

"There are certain things that only women discuss," Camilla replied jokingly and got up to kiss me and appease me a bit.

I still pretended to be offended, though, and my mood lifted slightly as the girls started going through Camilla's wardrobe while doing a little fashion show. They had already collected some of Zoey's things to give back and were going to do the same with my girlfriend's collection. They listened carefully to my opinion, even though they often disagreed with it. When I said something was too tight or provocative, they said Cami looked good in it, when I liked something, half the time they rejected it as unfashionable.

The whole wardrobe was finally sorted out and I breathed a tired, relieved breath. I think I was beginning to understand why in the movies I watched guys almost fainted at the thought of shopping with their girlfriends. Suddenly, Camilla pulled a cardboard box from the bottom and handed it to her friend, who threw all its contents on the floor. The three of us bent over it, though I didn't really know what I was looking at.

"I didn't even know I had it," Camilla muttered as she picked up more items.

"Look, these are friendship bracelets we made for each other back in school!" Zoey exclaimed cheerfully, holding up the jewelry that looked as if it was about to fall apart without having stood the test of time. "And here are the photos from the trip to the museum!" She picked up a slightly faded photograph and placed it under Camilla's eyes.

"You were cute," I said, smiling at the sight. "But Cami, you look terribly dissatisfied."

"I remember you were feeling really bad at the time," Zoey recalled.

"Yes." Camilla winced a bit. “Ghosts in museums are especially troublesome and had too strong an aura for me at the time, at least in the amount they were sitting there."

They took more things in their hands and reminisced about their history. Their mutual portraits from the first art lessons, where Zoey did not resemble herself at all, and her own talent was already perfectly visible. More photos from different moments of their history together, notes they passed on during lessons. Letters with descriptions of their ideals, joint plans, and names for future children. The things they've done together, which weren't necessarily pretty. I looked at it all with a smile, but at the same time with some sadness.

"What it is?" Cami asked, seeing my sad face.

"I'm sorry that I can't create such memories with us," I replied. "You won't have any mementos of us like these."

"We can still store and cherish memories in our heads." She kissed me on the forehead. "And we can still work on the rest, right Zoey?"

"Sure!"

I smiled and pretended to wipe away tears of emotion, I was damn lucky.