Search the Community

Business was slow this time of year, but that was normal. It was just after the holidays and most people wanted there houses looking pristine before that. I paint houses, inside and out, and if the client needed something fixed, I usually could help them out. Except for the big things, I didn’t have any tools or material for that. I worked alone, just the way I liked it. Sometimes I hired another guy for a job I couldn’t do by myself. I wasn’t a big, super strong guy, although you can see some subtle muscle tone I was average for a guy nearing his thirties. But I worked out, usually just jogging around the neighbourhood, that was enough to keep the fat off. Today was my day of, not willingly of course since work was slow. I had nothing planned in for today. I stood on my porch with a cup of coffee, watching the world wake up before me in a misty haze. A few cars pulled from their houses and went the road, I waved at them, I didn’t bother to look if the drivers waved back at me. I took the last sip of my coffee and made my way back to the kitchen to refill my cup. From the kitchen window I saw the moving truck arriving at the neighbours house. “Are the neighbors moving?” I said to myself, wondering if there had been a for sale sign. I saw two man moving with what i presume heavy boxes. I filled my cup and moved to my home office, it may be my unofficial day off, there still was a lot of administration to do. I returned to the kitchen at lunch time, made myself two sandwiches and filled a glass with water. I looked out the window to see that moving truck was gone, they were probably done for today or hauling their next load. I stared at the house to see if there was any movement since there was a light burning in the living room. After a few minutes I gave up and retreated back to my office. A hour later my doorbell ran. I looked up out of surprise, I wasn’t expecting anyone as far as I knew. Probably just a package for one of the neighbors I thought. I walked up to the front door and looked through the peephole. There was a woman standing at the other side of it. I guess around her mid thirties. Her light brown slightly curly hair was hanging over her shoulders. She was wearing a grey t-shirt with a red vest and dark blue jeans. Probably the new neighbour I thought while I opened the door. She greeted me before I even could get a word in. “Hi! My name is Lucy Harlow and I just moved in the house next to you,” She said while her hand reached out for a handshake. I took her hand. “Hi, welcome to the neighbourhood. My name is Michael Gilman,” I said while shaking her hand. “I am doing my introductions around the neighbourhood, and I asked one of the neighbours if she knew any good handymen around here, she referred me to you,” She said. “Depends on what you need doing miss,” “Call me Lucy,” She interrupted. “I can paint, putting together furniture and doing some smale repairs,” I continued. “That sounds great, just what I needed! Is it possible that you could help me out? If you’re not too busy?” She asked me. “Sure, this time of year is pretty slow business wise, when can I take a look?” I asked her in return. “Well if you could, you can take a look right now?” “Sure, no problem, I will be right over. I just need to finish something up and put on my shoes.” “Great! Thank you so much!” She said and walked back to her house. I closed the door and returned to my office, did the last few things and closed the office for the rest of the today. I put on my sneakers, grabbed the keys and a notepad with pen and walked towards Lucy’s house. I ran the bell, it took her a moment to open the door but it gave me time to inspect the front of the house. The outside of the house was well maintained by the previous owners. I was looking at the roof when Lucy opened the door. “Michael, come in,” She greeted me happily. “Sorry it took me some time to answer the door, I was making coffee, I hoped you would like a cup?” She continued while walking towards the kitchen. I kicked my shoes off in the hallway and followed. “Sure, would be nice,” I said. “I gave the outside of the house a quick inspection and it seems good to me, well maintained, and inside seems good too at a quick glance. What exactly do you want to be done?” She gave me a mug of coffee “Let's sit down first shall we?” She asked while motioning towards the coffee table. We sat down and she answered my question. “Well, most things that need to be done are in one room. Painting, hanging a lamp or two, and maybe put together some furniture.” “Sounds like a day of work at most. May I see the room?” I said after taking a sip of coffee. “In a moment. The room you are going to work in, if we agree on it, is not going to be your standard room. If you catch my drift,” She had quite the serious tone in her voice. What did she mean by that? Not your standard room? Is it going to be her sex dungeon or something? Or a creepy altar to some old ex boyfriend of hers. Before I could wrap my head around she already seemed to know what I was thinking. “No, it is not going to be like that. It is not going to be whatever you thought, that is the basement,” she said jokingly. “But jokes aside,” she continues. “You’re going to find out eventually when you work on that room.” “If you don’t mind me asking, what are you going to use that room for?” I asked her nervously. I took another sip from my coffee to calm my nerves for a bit. It didn’t work. “It is not easy to explain really, and I need to know if you’re open minded enough to hear about it. Above all if you can keep a secret,” she said. “I like to think that I am open minded to all sorts of stuff. I don’t get fazed when people tell me the weirdest thing, if that is what this is,” I answered her. “That is good to hear, and how about keeping a secret?” “I won’t tell anyone, you have my word.” “Good than I will start, you will figure it out eventually when you start working on that room. So I thought it would be better to get this out of the way and tell you before we have reached an agreement,” Lucy said with a straight demeanor. I could sense that she has started to tell her secret, there hung a serious atmosphere in the room. “Because I’m afraid you will get the wrong ideas if we don’t have this talk,” she continued. She probably had this conversation earlier with someone else and apparently it didn’t work out for them. “I understand,” I said while nodding along. It was indeed better to hear this from her instead of making assumptions. Knowing my mind, it would think of every reasonable explanation there is. “I’m all ears. I won’t interrupt you,” I said. “Great, before I begin, if after hearing this you don't want to work on that room or around the house, I completely understand. I will try my best to explain it to you and I’m open to all your questions, even if you interrupt me,” Lucy said shifting a bit in her seat. I could see she was a bit nervous. I took the last sip of my coffee, put the mug back on the table and waiting on her to begin. “Speaking of questions, to start, I have one,” Lucy said while looking me dead in the eye with a little smile, trying to make the mood comfortable. “Are you familiar with anything ABDL related?”