Late evening before both women had gone to sleep, Ian had sent a message to ask whether this Julian Vernont and himself could drop by on Thursday morning to get her signature on the divorce papers. Then this would be official by the time Celestine bought the apartment on Friday. Giselle had agreed to the meeting and stressed him to come rather earlier than later. Morning went by as usual. Annie left for her work and Giselle finished later, locked up and took the bus to work. When Mr Dean arrived in his usual lax mood, he pulled Giselle into the storage room in the back. "Remember that I said that I'd look into rental apartments for you? If you're still looking, I might have something. A friend of mine, more of an acquaintance really, she's renting out her old place. So, do you still need something?", he explained to her in his rusty voice. Giselle lit up like a candle, "Really? Yes I'm still looking! The market is a nightmare!". "Oh good, then I'll try to reach her later. I'll get back to you on Saturday, since you're off tomorrow and Friday, aren't you?". "Many many thanks, Mr Dean! Thanks for helping out!", Giselle almost hugged the man in response and bounced happily back into the store.

Unfortunately she couldn't tell her friend. An unusually high amount of customers occupied the store throughout most of the afternoon and both women tried to close the sales so they'd be able to lock up and go home. And while two customers bought an expensive suit, that took fifteen minutes longer than regular store opening times. Letting out a deep breath, they closed up and parted ways. "Good luck tomorrow!", Laury had told her before she ran off. "Good luck to myself", Giselle told herself in response. The anticipation grew tenfold. One more night and that would be it. Throughout the whole evening, she wasn't able to push it from her mind. Annie just accepted that. It was a huge step, no one argued about that. Giselle had her girlfriend wrap both arms around her, just so she could calm down enough to even think about sleep. Yet it didn't come to her easily. It took hours, and when she finally had gone to sleep, faint noises outside woke her again. It was one hellish night. When morning finally came, Annie complained almost immediately, "You know, I get it, it's scary and exciting, but I didn't get much sleep either". "I'm sorry", Giselle responded, rubbing her eyes that now had dark crescents under them. She didn't like this, starting into a long day with sleep deficit, but she couldn't do anything about it now.

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A grumpy Annie tried her best not to bitch too much, but got out of the apartment quickly. Giselle on the other hand went by her usual schedule. The moving company was on time, but called ahead that they'd be arriving in 20 minutes. A service that the brunette appreciated. That meant, a relaxed breakfast could be squeezed in before the people arrived. Then she went over to wait for the door bell to ring in her old apartment. Barely two minutes later, a group of three burly men walked up the stairs and greeted her briefly. All of them crowded in the living room and assessed the amount of work and in which order they wanted to tackle it.

When two of the three started to disassemble furniture, the third came over to clarify a couple of things. "And we're bringing all of this to a storage unit, right?", he mumbled in an accent Giselle didn't recognise. "Yes, it's the storage unit down the street, ten minutes walk", she said and he nodded in response. "We might need to take two tours, but I'm not sure yet. We'll know more by lunchtime", he gestured around and scratched his short beard with the other hand. "Alright, I'll be around if you need anything", she said and remembered that with the apartment came a cellar. To check it out, she left the three to their work and headed down into the basement. The cellars of every apartment were small cubicles with lockable doors down a narrow hallway. Giselle found hers and opened it. To her surprise it wasn't completely empty. A couple of wooden boards leaned against the wall in a corner. They looked familiar.

She blew the dust off and squinted when the cloud of particles came close to her eyes. The second board underneath had a different colour. Then it came to her. The kitchen. It was a fitted project that Ian and her had hired a company to do for them. These were left-overs that would most likely only be useful to Celestine, not her. She decided to leave them, lock up and walk back up. On her second flight of stairs, looking up she stared at Rachel in a short, flower-printed dress who stopped on the spot, glancing back.