"Oh hello, Heather," Mrs Locklear said when she and her husband came home and found the two of them on the sofa watching TV.
"Hi Tessa, how are you?" Heather said with a smile, sitting upright a bit more so she wasn't leaning on Kevin too much.
"Good thank you. How was Cambridge?" she asked now as she put her coat away and sat down on the other sofa.
"Great. It was a good experience," the girl nodded, wondering why she was feeling slightly uncomfortable and decided it was probably because it was the first she'd seen the Locklears since she broke up with Kevin three years ago. "Did you have a good night?" she asked both of them.
"Yeah it was alright," Mr Locklear spoke up now, a little non-committal. The event they'd gone to was not really his thing, but his wife loved going to them so, every once in a while, he had to put up with it. "What you kids up to?"
"Not much, we had korfball tonight," Kevin answered his father with a shrug.
"Are you still applying for jobs?" his mother asked strictly now. She was happy her son and Heather were back together, but she wanted him to focus on getting a job and securing a future.
"Yes," he said a little too defensively, and took a deep, calming breath when he saw her disapproving look. His girlfriend looked a little uncomfortable; she hated feeling like she was getting in the middle. "I did yesterday, and I will be tomorrow as well," he said a bit more calmly now, getting two more approving looks from his parents in response.
"How about you Heather, looking for jobs around here?" Mr Locklear asked curiously. Like his wife, he was glad his son, as well as Heather, had come to their senses and gotten back together, but he wanted them to stay that way. Which meant that if one of them was looking for a job elsewhere, that would be made rather difficult.
"Yeah, I have been. As much as I loved Cambridge, I was finding it hard to find something there and being back here reminded me how much I loved it here," Heather answered with a nod, getting two relieved smiles back.
"Good," he gave her a pleased nod in return, and she felt like Kevin's father was the more supportive of his parents.
"We should probably… get to bed," Kevin said slowly in a soft tone, taking hold of his girlfriend's hand. It was getting late and he was kind of done talking about their job search for one day.
"Eh yeah, okay, if you want," she said hesitantly, not wanting to look too eager to escape his parents' company. She gave his parents an apologetic smile as she followed his lead, up off the sofa. "Good night," Heather quickly added.
"Good night," Mr Locklear responded, almost glaring at his wife when he noticed she wanted to object.
"Night guys," Kevin said as well, pulling his girlfriend along with him as he made his way up the stairs to the second level, where his room was. The first level held the bathroom and his parents' room. "Sorry, I just couldn't face another conversation with them about looking for work," he told her as soon as she'd closed the door behind her. She gave him a reassuring smile.
"That's okay. I felt like they were holding me responsible for part of that..." Heather admitted to her unease. Her boyfriend responded by pulling her in for a hug.
"You are, but in a deliciously naughty way," he whispered after a few seconds, making her giggle.
To appease both sets of parents, Heather and Kevin spent the Wednesday separately at home, looking for jobs. They did text throughout though to make sure they were still applying around the same area and to let the other know if they came across something that might be interesting.
Heather also tried to score herself some brownie points by first tidying up her room after looking solidly for an hour; then cleaning the bathroom after the second hour; cleaning the kitchen after she'd finished her lunch and hoovering the living room after another hour and a half of applying. As she searched, she created a spreadsheet, so she could keep track of what jobs she'd applied for, when she was likely to hear back from them and what other application deadlines were still open. It would also prove to her parents that she had been working hard and not just spent the day cleaning and procrastinating.
After dinner she sucked up a little more by offering to do the washing up, before asking if it would be okay for Kevin to come over. She was well aware that, even though she was back living here, it wasn't technically her house as such anymore and she didn't want them to think she was treating it like a hotel or bed and breakfast. Mrs Fawcett seemed to have half a mind to tell her no, but her husband reminded her that their daughter was an adult and had clearly worked hard for the day.
It took Kevin less than five minutes to make his way over after she text him to say it was okay. They spent the first hour downstairs with her parents, watching TV, just so they couldn't be accused of being anti-social or indeed treating them like a hotel. But they made their way up to her bedroom as soon as they could.
"I missed you today," Kevin said softly, feeling a little pathetic, as he pulled his girlfriend into his arms to start kissing her. He felt her smile into their kiss.
"Me too," she told him, her hands feeling his muscles as she wrapped her arms around his waist. She led the way over to her sofa and pulled him next to her. He made himself comfortable against the arm of the sofa and pulled her in for a cuddle, pressing a kiss to her hair. "You know, I was thinking today… maybe we need to look a little further out than Canterbury and Ashford," Heather said after a few minutes.
"You think?" he asked thoughtfully. "Like how far?"
"Not much, just like Maidstone or Rochester. That's only 45 minutes to an hour away from here and still in Kent," she nodded.
"That's still a lot to commute every day," Kevin said, a little hesitantly.
"Well… we might need to move a little closer, but we'd still be close enough to here," his girlfriend said realistically, a little worried about his reaction; after all, the topic of moving had been the catalyst for his break-up with Stephanie. Heather didn't push him, leaving him to think it through.
"Maybe… maybe we should. We don't seem to have much luck around here," he conceded slowly after a few minutes. "But if we do, we go together, right?" he checked, his arm around her shoulder pulling her in a little closer as his right hand rested on her leg. Kevin could put up with being away from Broadstairs, his parents and his friends, as long as they weren't separated; he could put up with a commute, as long as he didn't have to commute to see his girlfriend.
"Together," Heather nodded her promise.
He gave her a small smile before he leaned in to kiss her.