The Apartment
7: Setting Number Twelve
She woke up early, at her normal time of about five thirty. She drug herself out of bed, put on her robe and wandered yawning into the massive kitchen. At least the coffee maker was somewhat familiar, it was a commercial coffee pot, but operated in the normal manner, coffee grounds, water… coffee. She had put all of her items that needed refrigeration into the massive steel box in the kitchen… she hadn't even opened the bar sized unit in her apartment yet. She had noticed coffee beans in one of the doors while putting away her items… but where was the grinder. She searched through the cupboards looking, and while searching found his cup… the coffee cup she had given him all those years ago. She had taken it and its mate from her mother's house when she moved out, and presented this one to him as a joke gift the first time he spent the night at her first tiny apartment. Its mate was sitting on the alcove shelf in the apartment… she'd kept hers all those years also.
She smiled, and put it back.
Eventually, she found the coffee grinder and made coffee. She started to go back to her rooms for her cup, the matching cup to his, but stopped after a couple of steps, turned back and took a different cup from a set she'd found while looking for the grinder. For some odd reason it only seemed right that these old heavy clay cups should be off limits, they should go unused… she couldn't fathom why, but she knew in her mind that this was right.
She drank her coffee and thought about her television… it was sitting on the floor in the main room of her apartment. She wasn't sure it would work after being damp. She went to get it, brought it back to the kitchen, sat it on the counter and plugged it in. It did turn on, but there was no connection, no antenna, it got great snow, but no picture. She turned it off.
Going into the living room with her coffee, she sat on the couch, picked up the remote and pointed it at the wall sized television while pressing the 'POWER' button… again, nothing. She began pushing different buttons on the remote with the same success… nothing. She was getting frustrated; she began waving it around while pressing various buttons…
**click**
…Fox12 weather shows continuing showers through tomorrow with slightly increased winds tonight…
So… as long as she pointed the remote at the shelves of electronics on the left wall, it worked. She felt gratified; she'd won this round…
She watched the morning news for a while before experimenting with the remote control further. She found it controlled a theatre quality audio system, and a computer that was loaded with hundreds of movies and TV shows sorted by age, type, etc… There were also a number of categorized folders. She used the remote to highlight one labeled 'Doc's' and clicked it open. Within it were quite a number of documentaries on space, planets, and galaxies… he obviously used these for his books. Another folder was labeled 'Navel Battles in the Age of Sail'. If she had to guess, he used this as background information for his books as well. She skipped through a number of others until she got to a folder labeled 'Ancient'. She used the remote again, and 'clicked' it open. Among the dozen or so sub categories was one labeled 'Sam'. She hesitated, wondering… she opened it. Inside the folder were about a half dozen video files, and one audio file. Still using the remote, she clicked on the first file: It was edited soundless clips of her from the old iCarly web casts… as were the next four. The next was different, the next she had forgotten all about…
'Freddie, put that thing down…' her younger self had said while sitting on the floor in her first apartment.
'No' came his reply from off camera.
'Well then, let's just see how crazy we can get!' She said grinning at the camera.
Then she pulled her sweater over her head, and then her 'T' shirt… she wasn't wearing a bra.
She flicked off the television… she knew very well where this ended up, and wasn't in the mood to relive it at the moment. It upset her slightly that he'd kept this. But then, it hadn't been his idea in the first place… this was all her idea. After they had finished, and watched the resulting video, he'd offered to erase it. She remembered her answer had been to roll him over on his back, straddle him and screw him again. She'd had a copy of this as well, well, she'd had it until she found one of her 'boyfriends' watching it late one night. That had been the end of him, and the video… she'd erased it that night. Sometimes, she wished she hadn't.
She had a thought; she flicked the TV back on, stopped the video just as it showed her beginning to remove her pants, and looked back into the other folders. Yep, just as she thought… there was sub categories labeled 'Meg', 'Audrey', 'Lillian', 'Vicky' and 'Jo Ann'. She opened the first; Meg… After about an hour and a half she had watched each and every file from every woman… and every one of the videos were 'G' rated, except hers.
She smiled.
She flicked off the television and went back to her rooms. She showered, dressed and gathered up her items for the cleaners. She loved this, shopping at this time of day. Since most everyone was at work, there was no traffic, no lines at stores, perfect. She returned home a little after noon, having done her errands which had included the cleaners, some new work shoes and a visit to the grocery store. She made herself some soup, ate, listened to the radio as she sorted and organized her closet, and then took a nap.
She was still half asleep, but thought she heard a knocking on the door. She groggily got up and made her way to the apartment's front door. Looking through the peek hole, she saw Holly was standing on the doormat holding a casserole dish. Sam opened the door.
"Hey Sam… Ann's got a gig and Don and I are going to be working late on our quarterly taxes, so I thought I'd come over and see how you were doing, but I can't stay at all so here's some Sheppard's Pie I had in the ice box… Oh, looks like I woke you up." Holly said all in one breath.
Sam smiled at her, and asked her in.
"Thanks for this, Sheppard's Pie is one of my favorites… you know Holly. I have no idea what you and Ann do? For work I mean… Ann's got a gig?" Sam asked while taking the dish from Holly.
"Well, duh… I guess we never got around to us… Ann teaches music at the Academy, its part of Milwaukie High School. She also plays the cello in the Portland Philharmonic, that's the gig she was talking about. I'm not that talented… I do the books and line up jobs for our construction business." Holly said, and then continued. "Look doll, I really have to dash. I've got hungry kids and a husband waiting for dinner, then Don and I have to finish our taxes by the end of the week… Sorry for the rush job, but I gotta run!" Holly said while backing out of the door.
Sam waved her goodbye, and closed the door. She took the dish into the kitchen and put it in the refrigerator. Looking at the clock on the wall, she was surprised that it was a quarter to five… she'd slept for quite a while. She wasn't hungry, but she was chilly, and she was already in sweats. She decided to try out 'house'…
"What's the temperature, house?" She said out loud to the empty room.
After a moment, the same nasally voice responded; "Average interior temperature is 65.7 degrees Fahrenheit or 18.72 degrees Celsius. Your occupied space registers 67.1 degrees Fahrenheit or 19.5 degrees Celsius. Outside temperature registers 58.4 degrees Fahrenheit or 14.7 degrees Celsius."
"Increase occupied temperature to 72 degrees." Sam said.
Nothing happened.
"Increase occupied temperature to 72 degrees." Sam said again.
Nothing happened, again.
It was then Sam remembered what Holly had said yesterday; '…it's kind of like the old Simon Says game. If you don't address it as 'house', it won't respond.'
"House, increase occupied temperature to 72 degrees." Sam said once more.
"Temperature increase acknowledged, increasing occupied area to 72 degrees Fahrenheit or 22.2 degrees Celsius." House replied.
Sam nodded her head to no one, and then thought herself daft for doing that; '…like house will see me nod my head.' She thought.
She stepped over to the window above the breakfast table and looked out. It was well past dusk. She'd wanted to explore the back yard, which was mostly an in ground pool and hot tub, but being too late now, and chilly besides, that could wait until tomorrow. She wasn't really hungry yet, and in an exploratory mood, and there was the rest of the hallway…
She entered the front room and turned right, and then into the hallway again. Just like last night, the lights came on as soon as she passed the threshold. She passed another bathroom that opened onto the hallway. This one was slightly larger than the shard bathroom she'd seen last night. Continuing on, she passed five built in linen closets on both sides of the walls before she came to a left turn. It was dark around that corner; until she had stepped into the turn… the lights blossomed on. In front of her was a short hallway, with a door slightly ajar at the end. She continued on, pushed the door open, and entered what was obviously the master bedroom… Freddie's room.
It was huge.
The first thing that drew her eyes was the bed; Large wouldn't describe it… it was insanely huge. Except for an equally insanely huge polished wood chest of drawers and a chair, the room was rather Spartan… in an insanely huge way. She walked over and sat on the bed, then lay back… insanely comfortable, of course.
She suddenly felt like Goldilocks.
She sat back up, and slid off the bed, stood and looked around. The wall opposite the bed was another wall sized television. The chest of drawers was the biggest she'd ever seen. She stood in front of it counting for a bit… it had forty four drawers. Standing in front of it, she suddenly felt Lilliputian. On the far wall were three doors; she guessed closet, bathroom and something. Walking around the bed, she chose the furthest first. Closet, if you could call it that. When she opened the door indirect lighting blazed revealing a closet that was easily the size of the apartment. It was lined with cedar, brimming with cedar cabinets and shoe nooks, and had hanger racks for more clothes than many haberdasheries stocked.
And, it was empty.
She did a mental shrug and went to the center door, opened it, and gasped. She'd found Midas' bathroom… The place was, well, insane… the walls were covered floor to ceiling in black marble with the same on the floor. On one wall was a solid black marble vanity with a black granite counter top and two huge white marble sinks. Gold appointments or at least gold colored with white porcelain were everywhere. On the opposite wall from the entry were two arched doorways; on the right hand were two more of the same. Going to the right she opened the first door; the commode… actually, it was nothing fancy. She had expected some kind of techno rocket potty, only to discover a plain old everyman's white porcelain toilet. She closed the door and stepped to the next… a walk in linen closet. This was not empty. There were enough towels, washcloths and hand towels to outfit a small army… all in black. The linen closet smelled like a cross between a cedar forest and expensive soaps.
She went back into the larger room, and continued to her right. She opened the door and couldn't believe her eyes, again. The entire room was a step down bathtub… again, in black marble. It was then she noticed the water jets and seats on the walls of the tub… it's a Jacuzzi bath.
She knew, she'd be trying that out before Freddie got back… no doubt.
The last room had her curiosity on overdrive. She opened the door, only to see another black marble wall… and then she noticed the walkway to the right. She stepped in the room, walked around to the right, then turned left and was standing at the edge of the largest, most luxurious shower she had ever seen, or imagined. The entire ceiling was some type of metal shower head. On the walls she counted eight more large round shower heads.
"Oh yeah…" She said out loud.
She turned and retraced her route back to her apartment, stripping off her clothes the entire way. She was stark naked by the time she got to her apartment. Grabbing her toiletries and hair care bottles, she tossed on a robe and made the return trip to the shower. She hung up her robe on a hook on the back of the door and stood in the middle, and fretted. There was no water valve. Looking about, she found a medium sized computer type screen built into the wall… she tapped it. The screen came alive with a small diagram of the water outlets with temperature and pressure controls beside each picture. She touched the ceiling picture on the screen and warm water began to cascade down over her. She reveled in it for a moment before she noticed a glowing label that said 'PROGRAMS'. She pressed it and was given a choice of eleven different glowing dots numbered, amazingly enough, one through eleven. She shrugged and pressed the first little red dot.
Water started to stream out from all sides, even up from the floor. This was sheer bliss. She experimented with the different settings until she settled on one to her liking. The glowing screen cleared and asked if she would like to create a new setting. She pressed 'YES' and the screen cleared again, then resumed, saying 'SETTING NUMBER TWELVE, STORED'.
After her shower, she remembered the last unexplored door. She opened it and found another identical closet, except this one was being used. Suits and sport coats hung on one side, dress and casuals slacks on the other. Dress shirts and polo's were in their own area. Dress shoes to sandals and everything in between took up most of the shoe cubbies; while the drawers were full of… underwear? Socks? T-shirts? 'Then what was in the huge chest in the bedroom?' She wondered as she closed the door and made her way back to the chest… empty, not a thing.
Sam shook her head, and went to the front room to watch some TV. She didn't really want to think about all this empty space. The implications were… unthinkable.
Since she basically had nothing but her clothes and a few other items when she moved in, it had taken her no time at all to get settled. Even in the most adverse arraignments a routine develops, and here was no different. Over the next two weeks her normal weekday was work, home, cook something for dinner in the huge kitchen, set up something for the next days lunch, spend about thirty to forty minutes in Freddie's shower, or a bit longer if she used the Jacuzzi tub, watch some programs on the huge front room television and go to bed. The weekends were about the same except for work, interspersed with coffee with Ann and / or Holly and relaxing… and longer luxurious showers or soaks. She did do a bit more exploring, in the backyard. Out there was a large in ground pool and hot tub. At this time of year it was too cold to use the pool, and she couldn't figure out how to get the hot tub going, so she left it alone. Ann had told her that a pool service showed up on Thursday and a yard maintenance group on Friday. She had never seen either as they came while she was at work. Ann had also told her that there was also a cleaning service, but it had been stopped while Freddie was out of town.
It was Friday… the end of an especially grueling week at work, and the end of the third week she'd been living in Freddie's apartment. She'd done employee reviews for most of the week, and now was playing catch up on her paperwork. Sam had locked herself in her office about ten that morning and was still at it past lunch time. She looked at the stack of papers and reports she had yet to complete and thought she should be done by around four or four thirty.
Fred felt vindicated. At another ridiculous 'power lunch' he'd been at yesterday, he'd surprised everyone by firing the agent he'd hired to help him swim with these sharks and told the studio folks that he was putting the entire project on hold until they decided to do it his way. Then he'd got up and left the restaurant. The production group had been calling pretty much non stop since, but he'd decided to let them sweat for a while. He'd ignored their calls and booked a flight home for this afternoon… he was sick of Los Angeles.
Sam looked at the clock on her wall; it was 2:10 PM… a couple hours to go on this paper work. She had big plans tonight. She had a date with the shower and she couldn't wait to get home, have a bite to eat and relax in the shower for about an hour.
Fred checked out of his Hotel, and took a taxi to LAX. The only flight he was able to get on short notice had a short lay over in San Francisco… but that was okay with him. He'd still be home tonight… he couldn't wait. He was walking down the concourse to his terminal when he looked up at one of the clocks; it was 2:11 PM.
Sam's office clock read 3:07 PM… she flipped on her desk radio for some background noise. She checked where she was in her paperwork and calculated she would be done in about an hour and a half… perfect she thought, and smiled.
Fred had made it through check in quicker than he thought. He was having a beer in one of the airport bars, waiting for his three thirty boarding time. He checked his phone… five more calls from the production idiots that he'd set to go directly to voice mail. It was 3:15 PM. Time to finish the beer and get to the boarding area.
Sam finished the last report and transmitted the lot to her boss. She looked up at her wall clock; 4:35 PM… perfect. If she hurried, she could still beat the worst of the traffic.
Fred disembarked into the San Francisco terminal. He glanced up at one of the concourse clocks, it was 4:40 PM. He had a forty minute layover before his flight home. He'd passed on the airline food offered in flight. There was this bar and grill he'd eaten at a number of times before. Their food was outstanding. He had just enough time to grab a sandwich or a steak before he needed to board. Walking to the concourse restaurant, he decided on the steak… no, on second thought, prime rib with horse radish sauce… yeah, that's what he wanted… the place was out of business. He stopped at a concourse convenience shop and picked up a couple packs of peanut butter and crackers along with a bottle of water. This would have to hold him for a while.
Sam glanced at the time on the dash board of her car; 5:43 PM. Well, she'd almost beat the rush hour traffic… most of it anyway. She had picked up a few pork chops the other day on sale, and had decided that was what she would have for dinner. Then she remembered she didn't have any apple sauce… what were pork chops without apple sauce? She stopped at the grocers and picked up a large jar since the larger size was on sale. She pulled into the driveway of Freddie's house and pressed the garage door button on her sun visor. On one of her exploring trips she had discovered that the only thing in Freddie's three car garage was his car… that's it, nothing else. Sitting on a shelf next to the door into the house was three garage door openers… she'd experimented and found one that opened and closed the single door on the far side of the garage. Ever since then, she'd began parking her car in the garage… she chuckled to herself about how nice it was for Freddie to take such good care of her, and not even know it. She pulled into the garage and pressed the button again; the garage door closed.
Fred was sitting in First Class with his laptop open catching up on his email. He glanced at the clock in the corner of the computer; 5:50 PM… he had about an hour to go.
Sam finished her dinner, and sat for a moment sipping a glass of pinot noir wine. After a bit, she got up, gathered up her dishes and washed them and the frying pan. She dried everything and put it away… she liked a clean kitchen. It made things easier the next time she needed to prepare something. She started thinking about that shower… yeah, that was going to feel good after today. She could hardly wait. She stepped back into her apartment and got undressed. She looked around for her robe, and then remembered it was in her dirty clothes hamper. She shrugged slightly and streaked through the house. Freddie had a robe hanging on a peg inside the shower room… she'd borrow it. It wouldn't be the first time. As she walked into his bedroom she noticed his alarm clock read 6:59 PM. She continued on into the bathroom.
Fred had landed, got his luggage and now was riding in a cab… he'd be home in about fifteen minutes. It had been a long day… he was ready to relax. The clock on the cab's dash said 7:05 PM.
Sam stepped into the shower and pressed the little screen… it came on immediately. She pressed the little red dot next to 'setting twelve' and reveled in the cascading water for a moment… she let the water pulse and pour over her while she felt her muscles relax… she took some shampoo and washed and rinsed her hair, then reached for the conditioner.
Fred was standing just inside his front door while the cabbie brought in the last of his luggage. He paid the tab, and tipped the fellow about double what he should have. The driver thanked him, and turned to walk back to his car. Fred looked at his luggage, and thought 'screw this'. He tiredly began walking back toward his bedroom… he stopped for a moment and said:
"House, occupancy program one, office program two, shower setting number four."
"Occupancy program one, office program two, shower setting number four, acknowledged." House replied.
He continued down the hallway hearing his office computers begin to boot.
Sam noticed the shower streams had changed, and the water temperature had gotten slightly warmer. She was right in the middle of lathering the conditioner… she'd deal with the change when she finished rinsing.
Fred was stripped by the time he entered the bathroom. He had just tossed his clothes on the floor as he pulled them off… he walked over to the linen closet and listened to the shower… he couldn't wait. This shower, heck, the bathroom, had cost a ton of money, but it was more than worth every nickel. He grabbed a towel and headed into the shower room.
Sam had her eyes closed and both hands in her hair, beginning to rinse the conditioner out.
Fred rounded the corner of the room sized shower, stepped in… and dropped his towel.
=Required reading=
Anything by these fine authors:
KingxLeon21
BaalRules
BoxOfTrinkets
Dwyn Arthur
heartlines
Moviepal
TheWrtrInMe (Ao3)
WhiteKnightro
WildPomegranate
Well now… things seem to be getting interesting!
Tell me your thoughts.
Will things heat up?
Come to a boil?
Or are these two all wet.
With everything just going
down the drain?
Review please!
