Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Lance thought that it was a good idea that Georgie had to ask someone to have a look at some of the glassware that he'd gotten. A lot of it was something called hobnob, and he didn't like it. It would work in projects, but he doubted very much that anyone would want to use it for every day. It was heavy, and there were knobs, thus the name he figured all over it. But it was white, and once he crushed it down, he could see how it would look in the pieces that he wanted to work with. The man who had come to look at it was wandering around the two tables like he'd never seen glass before, but he let him be. This was Georgie's idea, not his.

"The hobnob is worth a little. I'd say that you could get about two grand for all the pieces that you have now. The blueware, very nice pieces, but they're worthless unless you find someone like you that wants to use it in other things." The man shuddered again, upset still about the fact that Lance told him that he was going to crush it for his work. "All right, these pieces here that I've set aside are McCoy pieces. They're worth a great deal of money again for the right buyer. The umbrella stand there is worth about five thousand, again, with the right buyer. The clear glass, most of it is just that, clear glass. However, you do have a lot of burgundy ware, too. If you hold it up to the light, you can see the flecks of gold in them, and that's what makes them collectible."

"What you're saying is that there is not much in the way of value unless I can find the right person for it. That sounds like a great deal of work, doesn't it? I mean, after I take pictures like you said, and put it on a site, I'm going to have to wrap it up and send it off to them, hoping that it doesn't get broken on the way there." The man smiled, he thought his name was Alfred something and that was it precisely. "No thanks. I'd rather just use it for what I bought it for, except maybe for the few McCoy pieces you mentioned, and I'd make a great deal more by using it in my work. No offense."

"Well, it's your money." He turned back to the table and then looked at him. "I'll purchase the McCoy pieces from you now so I don't have to think about them being crushed up to make a piece of glass that you make prettied up."

"Nah. I have some nieces and nephews that will enjoy having tea parties with them, so they'll get some use out of them." Alfred was still sputtering when Lance helped him none too gently out of the building. "Christ, that was too easy."

The rest of the afternoon he separated out the glass into colors. It was fun; he thought that he was going to have so many other colors, ones that he didn't have to mix to get right in his work, which he'd not thought of. Most of the pieces were going to be broken down to use in his window mural. However, for the most part, he was going to crush it to use like someone would glitter and have fun with it.

By the time he got them separated into different colors, he was ready to call it a day. Picking up the tea and hair brush set, he took them into the house. He thought that if Georgie didn't want to use them as décor on one of her jobs, then he would sell them. Lance was just having fun with Alfred and wouldn't break up valuable pieces like he'd said he would.

Georgie had been in her office when he left this morning. Since she was still there, he figured that she'd missed not just breakfast but lunch as well. Asking her if she was at a place she could stop, the two of them made plans to go out for dinner as it was their cook's night off. He wanted to get out of the house as much as she seemed to when he asked her.

As they were driving to Columbus, she wanted to do a little shopping for their own home, and she told him how she'd found this antique dealer that dipped furniture. It would likely cost more than doing it herself, but she didn't want to do it. He thought that was an excellent idea as any and asked her if Shawnie was paying for it.

"Yes. And so, you know, she's a good deal smarter than I'd thought. She's very savvy with her money and knows just what she wants and gets it. I met her son, I told you that before, he's really nice. I think that he's odd, though." Lance asked her what she meant. "I don't know. It's not like he's evil or anything, but I don't like being around him. He's never done anything to me or even said anything that would make me feel that way, but I do. I guess I'm too used to hanging around you guys all the time and find normal people to be odd. You guys are the greatest there is."

While they were waiting on their salads, he reached out to Finn to see what he could find out about him. He nearly laughed when he found out that the man was having trouble adjusting to the women of this time period. It was like, and more than likely true, he'd been raised with very much older parents and didn't know how to work the modern world yet. Like he didn't understand why women were out in the workforce instead of being at home with their families. He didn't think women should work at all other than to take care of him. He told Georgie what he'd found out.

"Well, that won't go over well with anyone born in this century." They both laughed, and he watched as she took the tomatoes off of his salad and gave him the croutons off hers. He actually loved tomatoes on a salad and the croutons, but it made her happy, so he was fine with that. "I have another job. I don't know that I'm going to take it, though. The couple, they're really strange in what they want in their home, and I can only do and see one of the rooms at a time. Also, they want gothic. I know what that means, but I'm not sure I could pull it off. I love color too much, and they want everything black and silver."

"That doesn't sound like something I could see you wanting to do either." He enjoyed watching her eat, and when she found a black olive, something that he didn't care for either, she shoved the plate away. Georgie called them black evils and wouldn't eat the rest of her salad because there had been one to taint her salad. He handed her his. She did the same with his meal, taking his extra butter and taking his sour cream. Lance didn't care for sour cream on his potato and was glad when she turned her nose up about the bacon bits. She was a joy to watch eat, he discovered.

They talked about the auction and how much fun it had been. He told her about the man who said his glass was worthless, and she laughed. While they were paying the check, she reminded him that they were going to pick up her brother tomorrow and asked him again if he had any problem with them staying with them.

"Not at all. I can't wait to meet them." She said that she'd not seen either of them in a while, so her judgment on them was old. "You don't like them?"

"I do. I love them very much, but I don't know that I'd want them to be around all the time. They have weird ideas about how to raise the kids. Like not spanking them—when we have kids, I'm going to beat their butts if they get smart with either of us. They like to have talks with them and not use violence. Philip had his butt whipped when he was a kid, so I'm not sure why he thinks that's violent. But whatever, they're not my kids." He would have to stick close to Georgie so she'd not beat their butts and piss off her brother and his partner. Perhaps he'd better keep a close eye on the brothers, too. She might well beat them, too, he thought with a smile.

As soon as they were in the outlet stores that sold linens, he realized that there was a great deal more to owning and filling out a house than he'd ever thought. He decided to let her have a full run of the household, and he would just stand back and watch her make them a beautiful home. He could do that easily.