Brett moves out of Andrew’s loft

Brett Bohlinger’s move out of Andrew’s loft is both a practical departure and a reckoning with the life she has furnished there. She first removes her own belongings, then confronts the scale of her contribution to the home. Rather than strip Andrew’s house bare, she leaves its furnishings behind as a peace offering; the next day, she has the household goods moved to Joshua House. In the middle of this deliberate separation, she also discovers Andrew with Megan, making the emptying of the loft more than a simple change of address.

The First Load

On Wednesday afternoon at four, Brett lets herself into Andrew’s loft carrying empty boxes. The space is chilly and lifeless, and she hurries upstairs because she wants to be gone before Andrew returns from work. She does not fold or sort carefully: she stuffs her clothes into boxes, clearing the armoire and then her closet. The haste gives the departure its immediate shape. She is not arranging a new home; she is trying to get herself out of this one.

As she hauls four boxes to her car, Brett thinks of the women at Joshua House, who have only three drawers and share a closet. The comparison turns her abundance into a source of discomfort: she feels repulsed by what she sees as her own gluttony. She drives the first load to her mother’s house, leaves the boxes in the foyer, and returns for another. That destination is temporary, unlike the eventual destination for the loft’s shared goods, but even this first trip places Brett’s possessions outside the life she had made with Andrew.

Counting What She Owns

By eight o’clock, Brett has removed every article of clothing, makeup, lotion, and hair product that belongs to her. With her keys in hand, she walks through the loft and mentally inventories what she brought or bought during their life there. The list makes visible how thoroughly she had helped furnish the space: she paid half the mortgage and utilities and bought the dining room table, sofa and love seat, and two high-definition televisions. Upstairs, she remembers purchasing the bedroom set during their first week in the loft: a maple sleigh bed, chest of drawers, two bedside tables, and the antique armoire she once said she could not live without.

The inventory continues through the bathroom and kitchen. Brett recognizes her Ralph Lauren towels and Missoni bath mat, then her Italian dishes, All-Clad pots and pans, and Pasquini espresso maker. These objects had been part of ordinary domestic life; now, one by one, they make the arrangement of ownership impossible to ignore. Brett estimates that the loft contains tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of goods belonging to her. The home that never felt like home is, materially, full of her choices.

Yet she does not take the larger household inventory. She cannot empty Andrew’s house, knows he would be furious, and has no place of her own to store a houseful of furniture. She also wonders whether she might be pregnant and whether that could lead her to move back in. The possibility remains a question, not a decision or confirmed pregnancy. At the kitchen cupboard, she closes the door and resolves to let Andrew keep everything. Leaving the possessions becomes a peace offering: an intentional relinquishment rather than an attempt to claim every object she paid for.

The Discovery in the Dark

As Brett buttons her coat, she hears Andrew’s key in the door and switches off the kitchen light. A woman has arrived with him. Brett slips back against the wall beside the refrigerator, her heart pounding, and freezes between two fears: stepping out would make it seem she had been spying, while being found hiding would make her look like a stalker ex-girlfriend.

Andrew offers to take the woman’s coat, then tells her that he likes having her there because she brightens the place. Her high-pitched giggle makes Brett gasp; she covers her mouth to keep from crying out. From the dark kitchen, she watches Andrew chase Megan upstairs with a bottle of Glenlivet in one hand and two glasses in the other. The scene gives Brett an unwelcome glimpse of Andrew’s evening life while she is still inside the home, preparing to leave it. She does not confront them. Instead, the discovery remains bound to the departure itself: she is hidden among the belongings she has decided to abandon, listening as Andrew welcomes someone else into the loft.

The Loft Emptied

The following afternoon, Brett meets the moving van at Andrew’s. Three men in Carhartt coveralls and leather gloves ask what she wants moved. She tells them to take everything out of unit four. While the movers tackle the large pieces, she packs towels and sheets, dishes, cookware, and silver. The work takes the four of them three hours, and they finish before Andrew gets home.

When one of the movers asks where the load is going, Brett answers, “Carroll Avenue. The Joshua House.” The destination links the practical task to the comparison that had troubled her the day before: she had measured her overflowing closets against the residents’ limited storage, and now the goods from the loft will go to the house where those women live. Her choice transforms furniture and household equipment from evidence of her former domestic life into resources for another place. At the end, she looks around the loft and finds it completely emptied of her. The departure is complete in material terms, even though the possessions she leaves behind and the encounter she witnesses make clear how much of the shared life cannot be packed into boxes.