by David Horne
“Yeah, do you wear the usual clothes while you’re cleaning or do you prefer torn up and rough-looking clothes?” He asked with a grunt, Eric biting his lip and running silently to his closet. Picking around he checked to make sure he still had the old clothes hung up in a different section, relieved when he spotted the familiar stains.
"I think I will wear some torn-up clothes since I have them on hand. Usually I clean and paint in these anyway so they’ll work fine for me. Is that all right with you?" Eric asked while getting out skinny jeans with bleach and paint stains. The knees had holes and the shirt was just as stained with the sleeves torn. Even the collar was stretched out to where it showed his shoulders or his chest no matter how he tried to place it. "I will send you my resume and work experience if you want," he offered, looking at himself in the mirror with a satisfied nod.
"I guess that's fine but we'll still talk about it when you come here just so I can explain what's going on. Other than sending the information asked of you, you can send what you deem appropriate as extra. It will all be looked over by tomorrow," Damien said and added a quick good-bye after sending what other information he needed. Eric sat the phone down and did a dance around his room, trying on the outfit and pretended a pillow was Damien. He posed with a duster in hand, trying to look casual but also tasteful, yearning for the attention of the man.
“Mister Damien, you look tired after such a long day of work, would you like me to make you dinner?” He gave his best smile and started cleaning his room just to make sure he could put down what he knew how to clean. “Vacuuming, sweeping, dusting, dishes, bathroom cleaning, laundry, and unclogging the drains. Let’s see, I could say free dick cleaning but that might make him want to hire me less and Emma would kick my ass. I’ll just say I’m good at making simple meals.” He typed everything out, from work experience to college majors and minors then attached his resume before sending it to Damien’s email. Choosing not to stress out over it he went about doing his regular routine when he doesn’t have work.
Later that night he was getting ready for bed after eating a healthy salmon and salad meal for dinner when he got an email back. Damien had invited him to come over the following day when he got off work at four in the afternoon. This made him go to bed happy after he replied back that he would be there, making sure he had the correct address. Morning arrived and he was getting ready in the clothes to wear to work. Standing in the doorway he got on a pair of shoes and packed up a few extra cleaning supplies just in case Damien didn’t have them available.
“Hello, Damien what a nice day we’re having,” Eric mumbled to himself practicing what he should say as a polite greeting. “Damien, thank you for this opportunity? No, just let it flow naturally. Don’t be stiff!” His fingers tapped on the wheel anxiously as he arrived a little early and decided to check his hair in his mirror to make sure he looked decent. “Just a nice ‘how do you do’ should be fine, right?” He fixed a few light brown hairs that got frizzy and sighed softly. Sitting back, he turned on the radio to make the time pass faster singing to the music. When a car pulled into the driveway he waited until Damien was inside his house to get out and left his bag in the car for the time being.
There was barely time to ring the doorbell before he was met face to chest with the man. “Come on in, I’m just gonna change out of my work clothes, you can take a seat on the couch,” Damien was already unbuttoning his shirt when he opened the door. Eric nodded and tried not to imagine what the rest of him looked like, instead texted his dad that he was at a job interview. Still, his mind wandered how he looked that ripped through a shirt with buttons on it without making them stretch. Sitting down he took a look around noticing a few things in his observation, there clearly not being anyone cleaning on the daily.
“Did everything look okay to you?” Eric asked when Damien came back into the room. Surprisingly he was wearing sweatpants and a white t-shirt, fairly more casual than expected.
“Yeah, you’ve worked a lot and went to a good college with honors at graduation so you must be good at scheduling or something. I struggled through my high school years and had to get help,” Damien murmured and stretched. He grunted as he sat down on the couch next to Eric having printed out everything on paper, looking over it for reference.
“Woah, I didn’t know you would print it all out, was it really that many pages?” Eric asked, rubbing his neck in embarrassment. “College wasn’t easy, and my parents paid for it so I didn’t want to mess it up. I might give off an easy-going attitude but I’m really a hard worker when need be, like at a job or school. Most people just expect me to know everything though, so I got fired a lot in jobs I was new to.” He didn’t mention that wasn’t the reason for his most current unemployment, feeling a small amount of guilt for the deceit.
“You do know how to clean though from what examples you gave me, even did janitor work in high school to get in extra volunteer hours. Kind of impressive the work you’ve put in.” Damien read off the papers putting them in his lap while he sat back. “I’m willing to hire you, what kind of payment do you want?”
“Anything you deem good enough based on how well I do after the first week. How often would you like me to come over to clean?” Eric questioned, getting his phone out to make notes and looking expectantly at Damien. Watching him he realized the guy had fuzz in his hair so he reached over and gently guided it out before seeing the look on Damien’s face. “There was uh a piece of fuzz and see it was probably from your jacket. You need a rolling pin to get off the excess fuzz and hair that might stick to it.”
“I think every day should be good, you can start today if you want to. Stay until you feel like it but leave when I go to bed and please don’t come before I wake up. I’ll send you my work schedule after you become more trustworthy, just to be on the cautious side,” he sat up and put the papers down on the table, getting an extra key out of his pocket.
"That sounds reasonable, I'll come after you're awake if you tell me what time you will be up by. I’m okay with rising early in the morning to start working," Eric explains and takes the key putting it on his small ring of keys. He made sure he wrote everything down in the notes on his phone typing away for a good minute then reading over what he wrote to check that he had gotten everything. On confirmation he smiled and moved to the next line since Damien appeared to have more to add.
"Oh, and could you make a grocery list for me? Like if you need detergent, soap, or anything in the way of cleaning my house. Just magnet it to the fridge or send it to me in an email," Damien said and Eric quickly wrote that down. "That should be all, you can start now if you want. The cleaning tools are all in the closet by the kitchen, the white door not the blue one."
"Is the blue door to a cupboard for the kitchen?" Eric asked in case he needed to cook a meal for Damien one day or was doing a grocery list for him.
"Please don't go in there, all right? It's personal stuff so you don't have to clean that room. I'll take care of it myself," Damien said a bit sternly before he stood up to show Eric around the two-story house.
"You don't have many pictures up on the walls here and it’s a little barren. Did you just recently move in perhaps?"
"Yes actually, a few months ago I finished renovating the first floor and most of the second floor so I let my apartment lease expire then settled down here," Damien hums as he waits for Eric to grab a few things from the cleaning closet. "I would appreciate you organizing my cabinets for me, my dishes are in boxes mostly. No time to organize when you're working two jobs and fixing up a house."
"I would do that gladly, making things fit nicely is one of my personal strong suits I believe," Eric followed him around making note of the places with the most built-up dirt. The house was plain blues and dark grays until they got to the second floor. There the floor changed to carpet and the wall was painted in a striped pattern of black and dark blue on one side. "Unique and interesting, I like it."
"I was experimenting and ended up en
joying it so I left it as it is. I'm not sure whether to try and match it or not," Damien mumbled picking up a box of tools setting it into a room where a bed was being put together along with other furniture. "In here sweeping and window washing would be appreciated. I still have to connect the power so the only light is that single window over there."
"Let me make a note of that, just to be sure I don't forget," Eric typed a quick instruction for himself then hurried after Damien to the next room which was a full-sized bathroom. The tile on the floor matched well with the simplistic decor. A shower with glass rolling doors and a big tub with jets in it made for a grand looking area. "I was lucky and they promised to remodel this bathroom however I wanted since they made me pay extra for a finished house but it never happened."
"Well, I'd say you got compensated fairly well. I don't think I've seen a bathroom like that since my parents decided to move to a minimalistic house," Eric stared for a few moments then shook his head before he could start fantasizing too much about it. "To the rest of the house then?”
Chapter Three
"And down there is the basement where I'm also doing some fixing up. Be careful when you go down there, the light switch is on the bottom of the stairs to the left just after the last step. I almost stepped on a nail, which I’ve removed, my first time going down there. I still would rather you stay on the side of caution though," Damien headed down first at a slow rate, Eric waiting for the light to be turned on.
"I've got a small fear of basements, but you know it's better to get over your fears I think," Eric says and hums as he starts his way down when it was lit. "So, are you going to have a mancave down here?"
"Something like that. Since it's quite dirty down here, you can take your time cleaning. I don't think you could get it done in one day," Damien walked around boxes and tools laying around. He picked some of them up to place onto a dusty wooden table at the back of the basement near a window covered by a dirty curtain.
"I guess this will be the long mission while I'm cleaning the rest of the house then. If you need any help building I know how to follow instructions pretty well but you'd have to teach me how to use a few things," Eric talked all the way to the bottom of the stairs and all the way up after Damien shut off the light behind them.
"Maybe you could help me when I need to put in furniture in some of the emptier rooms," he suggested and headed into the kitchen to grab a drink from the counter. "Are you thirsty? I've got lemonade, soda, and water."
"A glass of water would be nice, then I’ll get to work.” Eric set down the cleaning supplies he had carried around on the tour, starting to sweep up the kitchen while Damien was getting him some water. Focused on what he was doing he soon forgot what was going on and had to stop abruptly so as not to bump into his new employer.
“I know I hired you as a cleaner but I don’t want to be part of the mess you have to clean up buddy,” Damien laughed to himself and handed over the water. Gripping the drink, Eric turned red in embarrassment, turning to the side to drink the water and make himself less conscious of how close they had gotten.
“Sorry about that, I get really into it once I start. I’ll be more careful when you’re around though so I don’t bump into you.” Eric waited until Damien left the room to continue his clean-up of the kitchen, finding the garbage on his own. After a few hours of doing general cleaning and organizing in that room, he moved to the hallway entry just to sweep up and put down the welcome mat.
"I'm going to be going to bed soon, I'll text you tomorrow when I'm ready enough for you to come," Damien yawned with a hand covering his mouth, which in turn made Eric yawn. With a simple nod, he put away everything and put his shoes back on.
"I'll see you tomorrow then! Good night Damien." Eric walked down to his car with a grin on his face doing a little victory dance once he's inside his car. "I'm working for an officer as a house cleaner, who would have fucking guessed!" He laughs quietly to himself and glanced over at the papers scattered on his passenger seat. "No more begging, I can prove myself after this. Then they'll let me work!"
It was eight in the morning when he got a call from Damien, "You can come over now." The beep alerted him that the call had ended right after he said that.
"Guess he's not a morning person," he got dressed in clothes similar to those he wore yesterday. He added a baseball hat to the mix to help tie the look together then grabbed himself a breakfast burrito to eat on the way. With his music thumping, he was tapping his fingers to the beat of the music as he pulled up next to Damien’s car in the driveway.
"Good morning," Damien grumbled and got on his jacket, ready to leave.
"Good morning, I hope you have a good day at work!" He said with a smile and got to work. By the time Damien came back, he had gotten the first floor cleaned and organized along with laundry washed as well as folded. The tap on his shoulder as he was scrubbing the bathroom tub made him jump.
"You're doing a great job but did you eat today? I was going to make myself some dinner and thought you might want some," Damien offered him a hand up. It was not a moment of hesitation for Eric to strip off the gloves and grasp his hand.
"I would be delighted, I forgot to get lunch when I went to take the garbage out," Eric explained as he used his help to stand up. Their hands parted when he got his balance but he wanted to hold just a little longer to the soft but calloused hand.
"Set an alarm on your phone if you're really going to be forgetting so much," he shook his head at him and led the way downstairs. "I'll have chairs and a table set up soon in the empty dining room down here. You cleaned it up nicely so it'll be so much easier, that dust was making me have a sneezing fit every damn time I walked in."
"I'm glad you approve if there's anything you notice you want to be cleaned feel free to tell me about it!" Eric used a chipper voice not able to hide his happiness at the approval. It wasn't often he got praised for the hard work he put in. Most times expectations were simply that he did it without a problem.
"I don't see anything wrong yet; I'll tell you if there is later though," Damien murmured and placed a hand on his shoulder. Soon the kitchen was filled with a savory smell of meat and potatoes cooking on the stove with vegetables in a sort of pasta dish chilled in the fridge. Ordered to sit, Eric had his place on the couch looking at his phone for the second time seeing a few messages from his parents, paying particular attention to them. Besides that, he was skimming over a few congratulations' messages from friends. The rest of his notifications were from social media showing what the people he chose to follow decided to post.
"Are you a professional chef? Your food is making my mouth water," Eric called out to him in a slightly louder voice than normal. Not even his parents' old chef made food good enough to do that to him, it was nice also to be able to talk to him without getting reprimanded.
"Not professional, but I've been cooking for myself since I was around fourteen. I have to stay healthy so this isn't going to be some savory junk like fast food. It doesn't have to be greasy to make you want to eat it," Damien chuckled as he walked in with two plates. He had set up the tv on a stand before going to get Eric’s food, turning on a random movie. Everything was placed neatly on the thick glass plates, fancy designs around the edges of fish and vegetables.
"This is delicious, thanks so much for making the food," Eric said after swallowing his sixth consecutive bite. By that time, he had realized he was eating faster than normal, having dug in after the first few seconds of admiration. He starts taking some more time with his food, enjoying each bite individually of the chicken and potatoes then ending with the vegetable pasta. Without even knowing the name of the dish he ate it all. "Can I ask why you were cooking for yourself at such a young age?" He asked in a soft voice after getting halfway done eating.
"Not a story I'm willing to tell yet, maybe some other time." Damien ate his food and sipped on his drink, using both hands equally which made Eric tilt his head. For a short time, he watched him switch han
ds every time he put down or picked up his drink. It was a marvel to him that Damien was using his fork with ease on both sides.
"Are you ambidextrous?" The question came out before he could even think it through, his curiosity getting the best of him.
"Yes, but it's not that big of a deal," Damien shrugged his shoulders then glanced at Eric. "Careful or your food will fall off the fork."
"Oh shoot!" Eric gasped and quickly ate the bite that was slipping off his fork. By instinct, he tried not to curse too much in front of other people he doesn't know well enough to feel comfortable about it. Instead, he kept up that small guard until he knew their boundaries for cussing or cursing.
Chapter Four
"You really are good at cleaning, there's not a speck of dust on this shelf or the counters. Those cabinets were a completely different color from all that dust and grime," Damien whistled as he examined everything in full. Already back to work, Eric had started washing the dishes when they finished eating and placed the extra food into containers. "Your friend said you were well off but you seem to know your way around with a duster pretty well."
"I had a cleaning habit so the usual maid just let me clean up my own room and bathroom. Until my parents downsized, then I cleaned the house for an allowance. They still give me the allowance, but it increased. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy to work and that's what they say they want me to do. Work hard and get things done," he says smiling at Damien.
"Your parents sound nice if they're still supporting you when you're just getting started. So, did your last job really fire you?" He asked more out of his own curiosity about what he might have done to get fired. It went silent among them and Eric finished the dishes before he spoke again.
"My parents said the job didn't seem right for me and told me to work somewhere else, but I don't want to tell Emma that. She already calls me a child for trying to please my parents with what I do. You won’t tell her, right?” He gazed at him with a kind of embarrassed expression, barely keeping eye contact.