‘You can’t be serious,’ I said, after I cleaned up all the water I’d just spat out. ‘Are you serious?’
‘I’m serious,’ Jason chuckled, walking around the kitchen island to stand next to me at the sink. I frowned at him, but his smile proved infectious.
‘We don’t have that kind of money in our savings,’ I shook my head, throwing down the tea towel. ‘Not even close.’
‘You don’t know that!’ he grinned at me. ‘I think you could be surprised.’
‘Surprised?’ I raised an eyebrow at him. ‘Go on then. Surprise me.’
‘What?’
‘Tell me, right now, how much does an architect cost?’ I folded my arms.
‘Right now?’
‘Right now.’
He chewed on his lip, then pulled out his phone and quickly looked something up.
‘You don’t know?’ I raised an eyebrow. ‘You want to build a house in Melbourne, but you didn’t even come up with an estimate first?’
‘I kind of did,’ he waved my criticism away, still furiously searching. ‘The trick is, you want to book the best residential architects servicing the Melbourne area, or whatever area you’re looking at.’
‘Obviously,’ I frowned. ‘But how much will that cost?’
He grinned triumphantly and held up his phone. ‘Got it!’
I took it from him with a sigh and turned around so I could lean my back against the sink. I slowly scrolled through the page, as he watched me like an excited puppy.
‘Interesting…’ I mumbled.
‘What is?’ the puppy yapped.
‘Oh not the architects, I just saw an ad for a jacket I really like.’
‘Oh.’
‘Half price.’
‘Okay…’
‘Hang on, let me just order this jacket real quick.’
‘I feel like you’re not taking this seriously,’ he frowned. ‘Why don’t you want to build a house with me?’
‘I do, I do,’ I soothed him with a smile. ‘It’s not you that’s the problem.’
‘Then what is?’
‘I just…’ I sighed. ‘I don’t think we can afford it.’
‘You saw the estimate! It’s doable!’
‘Oh, Jason,’ I shook my head and patted him on the shoulder. ‘It was a very expensive jacket.’