The doorbell buzzed as I was rinsing off the shampoo in my hair. "Damn it," I grumbed. If it wasn't the phone with a telemarketer on the other end, it was the doorbell with a false cheery pain-in-my-ass door to door salesman.
I decided to ignore it, reaching for the conditioner, but not even a few seconds passed before that damned bell went off again and again, one after the other. "I'm coming, I'm coming!" I yelled, hoping whoever it was would hear that and at least stop ringing the stupid bell.
I turned off the water and dried my hair enough so it wasn't dripping everywhere, then quickly patted most of the water off my body before I threw on a bathrobe.
The bell went off again as I stomped down the stairs. Maybe I should just put one of those beware of dog signs out, at least that would reduce the amount of people who decided to come and visit to sell me random crap.
I yanked the door open, hoping I looked as mad as I felt (maybe they would just run away screaming in fear), and a young man was standing on my porch, a handful of fliers in his hand. My eyes went from his face, to the papers in his hand, to his ratty, beat up Chevy outside on my driveway.
I looked a little longer at his face, and took a deep breath, trying to calm down. The guy was probably fresh out of high school and barely in college. I figured I shouldn't make his life worse by ripping his head off.
By the look of him, he was probably trying to earn a little extra spending money, something he didn't have to use to pay off his college, or maybe it was for helping to pay off his college, I thought, shrugging mentally.
He was so caught up in looking me over he didn't notice I had paused myself to do the same, although he wasn't looking at me the same way as I looked at him. I cleared my throat, put my hands on my hips, and cocked an eyebrow at him.
He jumped a little, startled, then looked quickly at my face and blushed, but kept his gaze steady. Brave boy.
"Um, I was just going through the neighborhood passing out these fliers, and I didn't leave them on the door 'cause most of them fly off before they can be collected, and it usually saves me a little gas money to get an answer right away instead of having to come back and talk out the details."
He said this all very quickly, like he'd had to answer questions about his fliers before and didn't want to wait for the questions this time. I sighed. I was kind of hoping he'd be put off by the bathrobe, and maybe feel a little bad about dragging me out of my shower.
I couldn't bring myself to turn him away after his little speech and all the apparent trouble he had gone through to get his flier to me, so I resolutely held my hand out for the paper. He meekly handed me a paper, and I quickly scanned over it.
It was something about mowing lawns and tending gardens, along with handyman fix-ups around inside and outside of your house, among other things. Literally, it said he'd do pretty much anything even if it wasn't on the list, as long as you asked.
Poor kid, he must really be broke, I thought to myself. I gave in to another sigh. The kid must have thought I was a bad job and started to turn away, but I brought him up short, grabbing his arm to keep him from walking away.
"Why don't you come inside, we can talk it over. I think there's plenty of stuff for you to do around here." I told him, pulling him through the door. I tried to look a little more friendly now; I think I might have actually scared him a little.
I closed the door as I got him in the foyer, then let go of his arm. "Look, I'm sorry if I was a little crabby earlier. I just got off work and was in the middle of a nice relaxing shower when the doorbell rang. Why don't you just take a seat in the living room, I'm just gonna pop back up there real fast to finish my shower, if that's ok with you." It better be ok, I grumbled to myself a little.
It took him a few seconds to remember how to speak, then he just gave up and nodded, and walked towards the sofa. I rushed back up the steps, my robe flapping a little. Whoops, well, if he got an eyeful, so what, I'm sure it wasn't his first time seeing a naked woman.
Tossing the robe on the counter, I flipped the water back on and scrubbed some conditioner in my hair, poured some soap on my loofah and quickly soaped myself up, then washed it all off.
I smacked the nozzle of the water to turn it off, then hopped back out of the shower, grabbed my towel and dried off, and left it in a corner on the floor.
I peeked outside to make sure my unwanted visitor didn't decide to sneak up and get himself a view, then sprinted to my room and quickly threw on a summer dress and some underwear.
* * * * *
I rang the bell, hoping this time I wasn't going to get bitched out again just for trying to get some money together for myself. After all, I was trying to work for it. It wasn't my fault jobs were hard to get in this part of town.
I bounced up and down on my toes a few times, waiting. I looked at my watch. It was a little after six. Shouldn't people be home by then? I jabbed at the button a few more times. Maybe they didn't hear it.
I thought I heard someone yelling, but wasn't completely sure. I waited another minute, then decided I didn't hear anyone, and pressed the doorbell again, just once more.
Not even five seconds later the door was yanked open, and a pretty and somewhat pissed looking woman in what looked like only a bathrobe answered the door. I gaped a little, my eyes roaming her barely covered and somewhat wet body.