NEW HOME, NEW LIFE AND LABELS

Lauren fixed the neatly-written label on the last packing case and smiled. Her family had said her desire to build a dream home was mad. But she’d done it, she was moving in. A cash-aware, practical Taurus, Lauren knew it was the only way to get a luxury home.

At first Jimmy, a Taurus like her, had resisted. But she made him see sense as she called it. He agreed to demolish the small house with the large garden that his aunt left him to rebuild it as Lauren’s mansion.

She took nightclasses in plumbing and electrics, supervised Jimmy in the heavier building work. Decorated it as style magazines decreed. She thought of nothing else, sometimes it seemed to her like a living thing that soaked up everything she had, energy, hopes, even love.

She smiled, planning their first night in the new house. Love would be back on the agenda. Besides, she rather liked the way that she had refurbished him, sending him to an upmarket hairdressers, buying new suits.


The house, the husband, all designed as her passport to a smart new life.
Selling the old house had been easy. A cash buyer had appeared, a workmate of Jimmy’s

Lauren drove to the new house to supervise the unpacking. He watched her car go until it was out of sight. Before the removal van set off, he unloaded a few cartons labelled “His: Personal”.

The cash buyer of the house was Jimmy himself. He had not told Lauren about the money his aunt had left him. Just enough to buy the old house, buy his freedom.

At first, Lauren was lonely in her new mansion. But soon she was dating. They always meet at the old house – Jimmy insists on that. Home is where the heart is.