Twelve Days (It takes two): Day 3

Last night, after the training course, Ryan had decided to turn sleuth in order to work on the first step in being the best parent he could. His new friend Thomas had told him that ‘a kid needs a roof over their head – don’t want them getting wet’ and having thought about it and talked it through with Amber, he had come up with a plan.

Ryan and Sarah had a home, but for the last few months of Sarah’s pregnancy she had been badgering him to decorate the baby’s room, and he had promised he would only he hadn't yet. The only part of the conversation that he had listened to was that it needed decorating, he had switched off when she had discussed the details, he had been too busy thinking about the last boys trip he would have before the baby. A weekend playing golf in Scotland. Ryan would need to gather intel (he watched far too much CSI) on what kind of ideas she had for the room.

“Hey Sair…I was just…erm..wondering…hypothetical question for you…if you were having a baby…”
“I am”
“Yeah, yeah, I know. But just say hypothetically, if you were having a baby and were going to say…I don’t know...decorate a room or something just for them…what colour would you choose? Just hypothetically”

Sarah looked up from the book she was reading on having a baby and looked at Ryan, and with a crinkled brow she replied “Mint green…hypothetically speaking of course” and she turned back to continue reading. Ryan could have sworn he saw her roll her eyes and shake her head from the corner of his eye but decided he must have imagined it.

Luckily, for the last few weeks, Ryan had been working flexi-time and he decided that he would use the hours he had accumulated to take a half day and go to the local DIY shop and buy some paint, then come home and paint the babys room.
He was currently stood in the paint aisle of the shop with his mouth slightly agape in awe at how many different shades of paint there were. When they had decorated the house, when they first moved in, he had mindlessly followed Sarah into the shop, and done the carrying. It was only now that he giving any attention to the paint. It was daunting. There was an upside, and that was that the paint was on a special offer;

Now what colour was it Sarah wanted? Ah yes, how could he forget, she wanted a mink green. Ryan leant in to take a closer look at the colour chart that was hanging beside the paints. There were so many different shades and such curious names, Tungsten Green…Churlish Green…Saxon Green…Breakfast Room Green…there were so many greens…he couldn’t see a mink one. What colour was mink anyway? He looked at the greys and there was no mink, he looked at the browns and there was no mink, he looked at the pinks and there was no mink and so he checked the greens again, and there was definitely no mink green. If he spent any longer picking the paint he wouldn’t have time to paint the room before Sarah got home. The best thing for him to do was to see which colours were on offer and pick one of them. They had London Stone, Brinjal, Charlottes Locks and Green Smoke. Green Smoke was the only green and so he picked up two cans of it and went to pay.

Only 6 hours later and he had given the small box room, which was to be the baby’s room, two coats of Green Smoke. He had got a little bit over himself and stood in the paint tray a couple of times but there wasn’t any carpet down so he didn’t worry. He was proud that he had done a good job, had done it all in a day, made minimal mess and was now able to tick off number one on the list. His baby would have a roof over their head and they would also have a nice room too.
He was still admiring his handiwork when he heard the key turn in the lock and Sarah’s voice, “Ryan? Ryan? I can smell paint. Where are you?”
“Come upstairs Sarah, I have a surprise for you!”
Sarah reached the top of the stairs a few minutes later, slightly pink in the face and panting and she looked at Ryan, “What have you done Ryan? Please tell me you haven’t painted the baby’s room?”
“SURPRISE!!”
Sarah walked very slowly to the door of the room and stood there gobsmacked.
“No need to say anything honey, I know its great right? And you say I never listen. I must confess though, I couldn’t find Mink Green but green is green. What do you think?”
Sarah scanned the room, slowly taking in the colour of the walls before noticing the paint footprints walked across her newly varnished wooden floorboards.
“What HAVE YOU DONE!!” she screamed.
“Wha…what? I thought you would like it.”
“LIKE IT! LIKE IT!...I..I…I can’t speak…” and she stormed off to the bedroom and slammed the door behind her.

Ryan was confused, he had painted it the colour she wanted, he had done a good job of the walls and she had reacted as if he has done something wrong. He felt deflated and crestfallen as he headed to the bedroom to see if he could find out why she had reacted in the manner that she did. Sarah’s hormones were all over the place with the pregnancy so maybe it had nothing to do with him at all. Before he left he took another look at the room, and it was only then that he really looked properly at the room and realised that the floorboards which he hadn’t been worried about, were varnished to perfection, that the specks of paint that flew off the roller when he got a bit crazy painting along to ACDC, had spattered the babys cot, then he saw that he had painted the lightswitch. He went over and started unscrewing it and as he pulled it away from the wall he saw that the colour underneath was a pale pink. It struck him as odd, as when he had painted the room it had been a very pale green, like a... mint green.

Ryan gently pushed open the door and stuck his arm around it, in his hand was a small stuffed toy rabbit, he made his voice squeaky and said,
“Sawah, sawah…wyan is vewwy vewwy sowwy…can you ever forgive him?”
Sarah gave a loud sigh.
“Come in..”
Ryan sheepishly slid through the small gap and sat down next to Sarah, who was lying on the bed, and handed the bunny to her. She sat up and Ryan saw that her eyes were red and felt extremely guilty.
“I didn’t know! I...I wanted to help...I’m sorry”
“Sometimes Ryan you test my patience to the nth degree, I spent last weekend decorating that room, getting it just right, making it perfect for our baby and you come back and in one day you completely wreck the joint. I know you mean well but…next time…can you mean less?"
“Ok, ok, I understand. I was away last weekend and I guess I didn’t really notice when I came back. Then, yesterday when I asked you about the paint you never said…”
“Ryan, I thought you were being funny…you do that sometimes you know…”
Ryan gave Sarah his best puppy dog eyes and she rested her head on his shoulder.
“I will forgive you on one condition…”
“Anything!”
“You pay a decorator to come in and paint it back to Mint Green and to sort the floorboards out”
“Deal.”