The Photo shop
by Candyman666©
All characters participating in sexual activity in the stories are 18 or over. Please don't be afraid to let me know what you think of my stories. This story is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
To help you keep track of the different characters in the series, a list can be found on my author's page in order of their appearance in the stories.
Chapter 57: Petra's interview with Grace.
After I had returned home from my Italy trip, and as every Monday morning, at 5 to 8, Petra rang at my door.
"Hey, Petra how're you doing?"
As I never asked her that when she arrived, she looked at me questioningly.
"Why are you interested in how I'm doing?"
"I was just wondering what's going on these days between you and your landlord dear."
"If you don't want to make me angry, please don't mention that man, I hate him, he is making my life miserable."
"What's he done now?"
"How much time do you have?"
"That bad hey?"
"No, worse, he keeps making a terrible noise, almost the whole night long so I can't get a good night's rest anymore, and he wants a lot more money for the dump he is renting to me."
"It's difficult to do anything about the noise, but he can't just raise your rent on a whim."
"Oh Lew, I could kill that man."
"That could solve your housing problem immediately."
"Oh yeah how?"
"You'll get free board and lodgings in one of the state's facilities for criminals, otherwise known as prisons."
"Yeah very funny."
"I may have another potential solution for you."
"Any solution would be better than what I have now, please do tell me."
"Do you know Grace?"
"No, who's Grace...oh yes now I remember, she's the realtor woman you went on that trip to America and London with? But I've never met her."
"Yes, that Grace, well then it's high time you did meet her."
"Oh yeah, whatever for?"
"She may have a solution for your housing problem."
"Does she have a place I could rent relatively cheap maybe?"
"No even better, a place you could stay in for free."
"Oh please tell me where I'll take it...but hang on a second what's the catch?"
"No catch, on the contrary, maybe even an employment opportunity."
"What do you mean, an employment opportunity, I know nothing about selling or renting houses."
"No, it would not be that much different from what you do today, it would probably only be a part-time job, and the other part of your time you could probably keep doing what you do today, well for the most part anyway."
"What's all this, a part-time job with free housing, again what's the catch?"
"No catch, believe me, and I think you would like the job."
"OK Lew, stop talking in riddles, what is this job that I would like and sounds too good to be true?"
"It is the job of a part-time janitor."
"Part-time janitor? Does she need someone to live in her mansion and take care of the household?"
"No, not her place, but a place downtown she bought recently and for which she has made an agreement with our American friends to rent it out to American tourists."
"I still don't understand what this has to do with me and how I would fit in, just stop talking in riddles please."
"OK, Grace simply needs someone that lives in the building to take care of the two apartments there, providing hotel service. You know cleaning, making the beds, and making breakfast, but she can't hire a full-time person for that, so she was looking for someone to pay part-time and compensate with free housing. The other part of the person's time she or he will have to find other employment. So I thought that would be exactly something for you, you can keep on cleaning for me and some of your other preferred clients, get rid of your wonderful landlord, and make some money on top."
"Now I understand, it sounds wonderful, where do I sign?"
"One catch."
"I knew it, if it sounds too good to be true it isn't true."
"No, no hold your horses, the catch is that you need to pass an interview with Grace."
"Is that all?"
"Yes."
"But how did she think of offering me this job...did you have something to do with that?"
"Guilty as charged, yes. Knowing your problems with your current landlord, I suggested it to Grace. I was also thinking about myself, as I don't want to lose you as my cleaning lady, but this seemed like it would work. So what do you think? Do I make the call for the interview, or do you want to think it over first?"
"No, I want to do the interview - if I don't like what she's offering I can always say no, can't I?"
"Yes you can dear but I honestly think you will grab this with both hands."
"Why do you think that?"
"It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to improve your life and your living quarters in one go. I'll give Grace a call tonight and let you know when she wants to see you and where."
"OK, shall I start cleaning your place now then?"
"I would really appreciate it."
Petra immediately started her usual cleaning operation, while I adjourned upstairs to have my breakfast. Come to think of it, maybe I should have asked her to prepare it for me so I could report to Grace how good she was. On second thoughts, I shouldn't ask too much from her, after all, I still wanted her to keep on cleaning for me, even after she potentially took that janitor job.
When I called Grace tonight, I needed to make sure I'd be allowed to attend that interview. By noon, Petra had usually finished cleaning the studio and when I was home, we had lunch in my living quarters together before she started cleaning there.
Today was no exception.
I could see in her eyes she'd been thinking about the whole thing and it quickly became clear she had tons of questions burning on her lips.
"Could I ask you a question about this offer from Grace?"
"Only one dear? I can imagine you have loads of questions. I would say fire away, and I'll try to answer them to the best of my ability."
"You don't mind?"
"Of course not, else I wouldn't have offered, shoot!"
First question: where exactly is this place she wants a janitor for?"
"The building Grace bought is in the Cogels-Oseylei in Berchem; you know where it is?"
"Yes, I've walked through it a few times, it's not so far from where I rent my place now. It's a very beautiful street with really majestic houses, and Grace bought a property there?"
"Yes, she did."
"That must have set her back a few pennies?"
"She claims she made a nice deal, and when Grace says that, you can bet she made a killing."
"And what exactly does she want to do with the place?"
"Renovations have already started to create 2 luxury apartments to rent to rich American tourists when they visit Belgium."
"Is that sort of like what you two did together when you were in the US?"
"Indeed, but there they have far more space and we rented a villa, if she were to do something like that, the place would be too far away from the center, very inconvenient for tourists to get in and out of the city to see the sights. With this location, they wouldn't need to rent a car, even if they wanted to see other tourist sites in Belgium."
"And for those 2 apartments, she needs someone to live in?"
"Yes, she wants to provide full hotel service, including breakfast and potentially lunch or dinner."