Authors note: This is the first installment of a new series. It was also edited by a new editor I have helping me. Hope you all enjoy the series!
"It is stifling in here, isn't it?" I said to Miranda, my realtor, as she led me up the stairs to the second floor of the old farmhouse.
"Well. They said the furnace works fine; I guess they weren't kidding." She said as she led me up the creaking stairs. As she climbed in front of me, I couldn't help but notice how short her dress was under the winter coat.
I had been looking for an old house to refurbish as my photo studio and this place was starting to look like the ticket. There were several outbuildings to work with as well as the nearly hundred year old house. Given that it was well below freezing outside with several inches of snow it was a surprise to find it so warm in the vacant house. In fact it was so hot I had shed my winter coat on the first floor and was giving serious thought to tossing my pullover as we climbed the final steps.
"This is the master bedroom." She said leading me to a room that spanned nearly half the width of the house. Someone some time had obviously combined two rooms together to make the master bedroom. Large was more than accurate for the huge room. I followed her toward the next bedroom, her high heels clomping loudly on the hardwood floor.
"As you can see, it has two more smaller bedrooms, perfect for an office as well as a guest room." She said as she opened the door to a small room, its single small window overlooking the hundred acre field and woods behind the house.
"Yeah it is about perfect. Especially with all the space on the first floor." I answered as I backed out and started to look around the rest of the upstairs. I found the bathroom, which was definitely going to need some work, and another door that seemed stuck.
"Where does this go?" I asked as I tugged on the door again.
"I think it's a closet." She answered. "I haven't been able to get it open yet." She said as she slipped her winter coat off and hung it over her arm.
"Hmm." I grunted, pushing down on the door and giving it a yank. With a sudden "shtunk" the door swung open revealing a long narrow stairway going up.
"I'll be. I had no idea. It must go up to the attic." Miranda said, peering up the staircase with me. She slipped past me and started climbing the steep narrow stair, inadvertently giving me a really nice view up her short skirt as she climbed. I followed her up the stairs, which turned twice half way up before coming to another door. She turned the knob and pushed against the door.
"It won't open." She said from the top of the stairs in front of me.
"Want me to try?" I asked helpfully.
"Sure." She replied, leaning back against the wall to let me try and slip by. The stairway was extremely narrow, just barely wider than my shoulders. I turned sideways and tried to slip by her, her tits brushing against my chest and my thighs banging into hers as we jockeyed between each other. "Sorry." She said shyly.
"No problem. I wasn't about to complain." I answered with a chuckle as I turned the knob and pushed my shoulder against the door. Twice I banged against it before it suddenly sprung open, revealing a large attic space. I stepped into the room and walked around, the rough floor planking squeaking as I moved.
"Wow. It's roasting up here!" Miranda said, fanning her already sweating face as she followed me around the mostly open attic space, a tall A frame type space, that was open from end to end of the house except for the unusually shaped "room" that surrounded the steps and the brick chimney running up through it near the stairwell.
The room was open and empty except for a couple of trunks sitting in various places, a porch swing with an old quilt folded and draped over it, hanging from some hooks screwed into the rafters, and a few odds and ends boxes stacked against the far wall. I made my way to the only window in the attic, a small foot square frame that didn't look like it had been opened in its entire life. "Well. This is certainly interesting. Might even be nice hiding place if someone were after you." I said with a chuckle.
"Yeah. But I think when we get out I better call the listing realtor. There is definitely something wrong with the heat. It's hotter than a pistol up here."
"Yeah. I'm all for getting some place cooler." I told her.
"Me too." She said as she turned and headed around the small stick up walls that enclosed the staircase. She reached for the doorknob and pulled, pulling the ancient glass knob right off the steel shaft. "Shoot." She said as she automatically went to push it on again, pushing the steel shaft right through the other side of the lock mechanism and out of the door.
Klunk klunk klunk klunk... We heard as the other half of the doorknob bounced down the stairs.
"Shit!" She swore as she bent over to see if there was some way to open the door. She stuffed the knob into the hole and turned, without any result. We tried to pry the door back open, but couldn't find any way to grasp it. We spent the next five minutes trying to get the door open before we both gave up, sweat dripping from our faces. It had to be at least ninety degrees up in the attic and I had already had enough heat. I peeled my turtle neck sweater off and dropped it onto the floor while I went back to work on the door in my t-shirt.
"God I'm roasting." Miranda said, waving her hands at her face, her short black knit sweater dress getting obviously darker in a number of spots as it collected her perspiration.
"I don't think there's any way to get this open from this side." I said finally, as I looked over at Miranda, who had taken to walking around the attic aimlessly.
"I can't get any cell signal." She said, waving her phone around.
Must be the metal siding and roof." I said as I pulled my iphone out and checked it as well. The "no signal" message up in the corner was far from encouraging. "I can't either."
"Damn. Well, Debbie will come looking for me when we don't come back to the office, but that could be a while." Miranda said as she stood there defeated.
"How long?"
"Ohhhh A couple hours I suppose." She said with a huge sigh. "I don't know if I can stand a couple hours in this heat though." She said, walking to the window and banging on the frame to see if it would open. Much to my surprise she managed to squeeze it open a few inches before it jammed in place, allowing a trickle of the cool air to come in.
I walked over to the porch swing and sat down on it, stripping my t-shirt off and using it as a rag to wipe my face.
