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“Sure.”
“Alright, why don’t we clean up and get dressed, and, oh, shit!” I jumped out of bed and ran into the kitchen naked. “Aw, crap!” I had left the new container of ice cream on the counter, and now it was ice cream soup. I dropped it into the sink and returned to the bedroom.
“You okay?” he said from the side of the bed, where he was locating his clothing.
“Yeah, I had just taken ice cream out of the freezer when you got here.”
“Whoops, sorry.”
“You owe me a container of chocolate peanut butter.”
He chuckled. “Mind if I use your bathroom?”
“Go right ahead. There are clean towels in the closet if you want to rinse off before getting dressed.”
“Thank you,” he replied and disappeared into the bathroom but didn’t shut the door completely. I watched from the crack in the door as he opened the linen closet, pulled out a towel, and then glanced up and down as if he were taking inventory of what was inside. I didn’t mind. There was nothing to hide in there.
I used the guest bathroom to clean myself up with a washcloth and then slipped on lounge pants and a comfy cotton shirt that was slightly see-through. As I finished, I heard the water turn off in the bathroom and went to the living room to give him privacy.
Mike joined me a few minutes later, and I offered him a beer. “Jesus, woman, what the fuck? You let me shower, and then you put on a shirt that I can see right through? You do that to see if I can go a third time?”
I smirked. “Oh, you noticed, huh? Sorry, it’s comfy.”
“You are a cock-tease.”
I set a beer down before him. “I will have you know I did not tease your cock without his permission.”
His laughter came from deep in his chest, then he grabbed the back of my neck and pulled my mouth forward to kiss me for a moment. His eyes were bright and smiling as he spoke. “You’re a trip, Candy.”
Glad you approve, I thought to myself and collected my beer and the envelope with the quote in it and went to sit in the living room. “So, let’s talk business for a little while.”
“Let’s do it,” he said as he took a seat beside me on the couch. “Hit me with it.”
I pulled the papers out and started going over them. “Sadly, it’s even more extensive than I originally thought. Once I got down there, started measuring things, and dug deeper, I found another issue.”
“What’s that?”
“There is mold in the basement in certain places. It must be remediated as part of the water management system.”
“Water management system?”
“Yes, the first thing that needs to be done is the stabilization, then you need to focus on the moisture issue. That is what is causing the foundation to shift. Water gets trapped in the cinder block walls. When the moisture freezes, or floods, it causes the earth to move, that causes the foundation to shift.”
“Seriously?”
“Yep, so you have to get the water out of the walls, treat the mold, get a water management system, stabilize the foundation by installing multiple piers deep into the earth, and then brace the bowing walls.”
“Walls? There is more than one?”
“Yes.” I nodded and flipped to a drawing I had done. “These two are starting to bow inward, and one is much worse than the other.”
“How much are you talking about here?”
“Well, if you, and by you, I mean Howard, or whoever purchases the property, go with the company that I work with, it’s close to eighty thousand.”
His jaw dropped. “You’re shitting me?”
I shook my head. “No, I’m not. Now, there are other companies out there, and I urge you to get other quotes, but we are the only ones around here that use this particular system. All of the work is from the interior. The rest of the companies I know of dig from the outside, so big ditches all around the building.”
