Hidden Secrets by SubmissiveRomantic,SubmissiveRomantic

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“What do you mean, funky?”

“It smells. For eight hours a day I have women of all ages and fitness levels working out. Some come here before they shower for the day or week; others occasionally come in wearing workout clothes that haven’t been cleaned in a while, or wearing their favorite scent. It’s also not unheard of to have certain gases slip out during our bends and stretches. All that combines over time to make the air funky.”

“I understand. About seven months out of the year we have the air conditioning units pulling in about ten percent outside air into the building. We have to shut that down during the summer because much of that time the outside temperature is so hot that the system actually begins to raise the inside temperature while it is running. If you think your utility bill is high now, you can image what it would be if we left it at ten percent year-round. We shut that down at the beginning of May.”

“What can I do; I’ve got to do something soon. I’d open the doors when the sun goes down, but that’s not really safe. I’m back in my office, I don’t know who or what is coming in those open doors.”

“Let me think about it. I’ll come up with something. Give me until next week. Look at the time,” he said as he looked at his watch, “I’ve got to run.”

They both got up, he gave her a quick kiss on the cheek and walked back to his truck.

During that week he searched the company’s small, but part-filled workshop. He told his uncle about his dilemma and what he envisioned as a possible solution.

“If I remember correctly, back when we first built the first of the shopping centers, there was a small coffee shop. The owner couldn’t afford to run the A/C during most of the year. He had us install a transom window above the front door and an exhaust fan in the back wall. That worked for most of the year. It cut his annual utility bills almost in half. When the shop changed over to retail, the new tenant had us remove the exhaust fan and the window. Let me think, where did we put that stuff?

After several minutes of thought he exclaimed, “Got it, they’re in the loft, over the office.” Rick scampered up the ladder and stood gazing over the dust covered collection of old parts and forgotten pieces of equipment. Leaning against the far side wall of the loft he spotted the nearly three-foot square exhaust fan. As he crossed the space, he saw the window and framework as well.

He had to make two trips up and down the ladder but in the end, he had the parts he needed; now he needed a way to make it work for her situation.

If he remembered correctly from the summer that he had worked for his uncle, they had renovated the rear bathroom for the new tenant, and while he was working, he had plugged his drill into the wall outlet on the hall wall outside the bathroom. It had been his job to supply his uncle with thin-set mortar for the floor and wall tile work. He had mixed multiple five-gallon buckets, outside in the back parking lot sweating his ass off in the heat of summer.

He knew for a fact that the back door was thirty-six inches wide, a solid core, metal clad, door, which opened outward. If he bought a thirty-six-inch raised panel door, he could build his own frame with four by fours, anchor it to the cinderblock wall above the door and along the perimeter of the existing door frame with door opening inward. He could remove the lower raised panels and install the exhaust fan facing outward. When Sasha wanted to change the air in the studio, she could open the transom window, open the connecting doors to the work out room and the door to the back hallway, open and secure the back outside door, and close the newly installed inside door and flip the switch he would install. Simple.

The following Monday morning, he told her about his solution to her problem.

“That sounds perfect, when can you do it.”

“This week if you want. I can install the transom window one evening and get my measurements for the back door assemble. I’ll make the frame and the interior door at our shop. Then when it’s complete, I can install it the next evening. It might take me a few hours for the installation of the door. I won’t be later than midnight. You won’t have to stay with me. I can lock up when I leave.” He could see her mind working hard to think of some way to avoid him being here without her.

“Couldn’t you do it on Saturday, like you did with the reformers?”

“Unfortunately, I have a wedding I have to be in. One of my cousins from Tucson is getting married and asked me to be in the wedding party. I would have asked you to come with me, but I know you have to work on Saturdays. Besides with me in the wedding party, you would have to sit with strangers for much of the wedding.”

He watched her mentally cringe as she reluctantly agreed to his timetable.

“Ok, I’ll have to let you do it your way. You’re the one doing me the favor. Of course, you will bill me for your time and any materials you have to buy. None of this working half the day for what, twenty-five dollars.”

“Let me worry about that.”

______________

That evening after work, he talked to his uncle who explained how to remove the existing window frame and window and install the transom window. The next day, before starting his workday, he stopped at the building supply company that the company used and picked up the supplies he had ordered the previous day. After work that evening, he made the frame and installed the hinges for the door, removed the lower half of the door panels and predrilled the door for the installation of the exhaust fan, which he had previously cleaned and tested.

On Wednesday, he brought the window and his tool kit and a six-foot step ladder, arriving at The Studio ten minutes after Sasha’s last class for the evening. The job was more complicated than his uncle had made it seem, but by 10:30 that evening he was cleaning up.

Rick smiled to himself as he watched Sasha, putter around the place; cleaning what really didn’t need cleaning, disappearing into her office for a half hour, then sitting in the waiting room watching and talking to him.

“You know you don’t have to wait for me to finish, I have the key to the back door, I can lock up if you want to go home.” All the time knowing that she was already home.

“I’ll stay, it’s fun watching you work. How do you know how to do all this?”

“There are somethings that you know from doing them all the time; other things you just intuitively know, and somethings you just stumble through because you’ve never done anything like it before. This is one of those jobs.”

“That’s not very comforting, the window’s not going to fall out, is it?”

Rick laughed, “No, it’s not going to fall out. In fact, the job is done. Watch, when you want to open the window all you have to do is take this handle and pull it down all the way; then pull the window down until it is just above the frame. When you want to close it, push it up and bring the handle back up until it rests behind the stop. Simple. Now you come here and try it. I’ll get down first. I suggest you get yourself a four-step folding step ladder with a handle so you can use all four steps without feeling like you are going to fall. You can get one at any good home center.”

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