As Eliza fought her way awake from a fitful dream, she reminded herself, not for the last time, that she HAD to get a social life that did NOT depend on a bottle of Black Jack and bar food. "Damn, my mouth tastes like I hosted a track meet inside," she muttered to herself as she slowly made her way to the bathroom. "Maybe a hot shower will help."
"YEEOWCH! DAMMIT!" she screamed at the shower when the water temp went from a comfortable 101 degrees to what felt like sub-freezing after only a minute of her shower. "I'm gonna kill that stupid bastard of a super today, I swear it!" she raged as she dried her dripping body off. She was still fuming when she wiped the fogged mirror off so she could see to dry her hair. She thought to herself, "If he could see how mad I am right now..." Suddenly, the thought of the super seeing her at this moment sent her into a paroxysm of laughter; "He'd have a heart attack! I'd bet he hasn't seen a woman naked in forever" she thought to herself as she toweled the last of the water clinging to her still attractive body. "Not bad for an old girl pushing the double-nickel," she thought, admiring the way her butt and breasts were, if not as perky as when she was younger, still not bad at all. "Maybe I should call him now, while I'm still mad, and see what he can do about my problem...or problems," she mused, with the beginnings of a wicked smile curving her lips up in a way that they had not for a very long time. "Perhaps..."
Five minutes later, after calling the super and raging at him about the water temp, Eliza giggled as she anticipated the look on Kit's face when she opened the door in her towel when he arrived to repair the antiquated plumbing. As if in response to her amusement, at that moment came a knock on the door. "Super! Ms. T., are you there?" came the familiar voice of the building's 58 year old superintendent, a retired military man who was a jack of all trades, and unfailingly polite whenever he met with any of the building's tenants.
"Just a minute!" Eliza answered, trying her best to keep the giggle out of her voice as she wiggled to the door in her bath towel. She figured that she would get better service if she was still dripping, so she had not bothered to dry her hair, after all, but had run it under the faucet just a moment before to keep it wet. "Come in, please; this shower's a pain today, and I have to meet someone downtown this morning" she said, trying to replace her amusement with a stern-sounding voice, and barely succeeding, " and today WOULD be the day the shower takes to screw up!"
"Sorry, Ms. T., really I am," said Kit, as he followed her back to the bathroom to look at the old shower. "I hope that it's just the water control valve, 'cause I can fix that right quick. If it's anything else, I'll have to get parts from the hardware store."
"Aw, man," Eliza groused, "how long would that take? I don't have all day, and I still haven't finished my shower."
"Well, depends on what's wrong," answered the slightly heavy, but still not-unattractive super. "Let me take a look at it." With that he opened up his toolbox and extracted a screwdriver and a small, goose-necked flashlight. Expertly, he removed the cover from the water valve and peered inside the opening in the wall with the flashlight. "Hmmm," he muttered.
"What do you mean, 'Hmmm'?" said Eliza as she looked over his shoulder, letting the towel loosen slightly.