The hot California sun hung in the sky so much brighter than the overcast northeast. It's perfect though. I can finally purchase a home and be free of the frustration of New York rent. Driving around from potential home to potential home with my long lost friend Alina made it even more familiar. She opened the white door of a large home after undoing the keypad. Gesturing me inside, she indicated to the curved stair case, the recent remodel, and the wood paneled floor.
"Now let me tell you, this is one of the few California homes with a basement," she said. I followed her into the kitchen. Granite counter tops. Nice.
They call it the golden state for the dry grass fields as much as that gold rush a long time ago. I'd flown away from Rancho Cordova and every other sleepy Sacramento suburb over a decade ago. Trading western wine country for northeast ivy leagues and a law degree changed me in more ways than one. Nonetheless, I'm still as ambitious as ever, hornier than normal, and mostly human.
When you get a chance to practice law for a state governor you don't turn that down.
Alina walked with firmer confidence these days. Her heels clopped on these wood floors and her skirt fit her well. A necklace dangled below her neck, near her breasts, in subtle professional beauty. Her sleek auburn hair was held back in a cute business bun. Damn it had been too long since I'd spent more than a few hours with her. We weren't raised in the tech bro part of California or the glammy movie start part of California either. We grew up surrounded by flat fields, suburbs, and cattle. It must've been a few weeks after high school graduation when we camped up by the rivers. Four of us had been skinny dipping and Alina and I swam off together. Reclining on a boulder near a tree we shared the pain of change together. Alina enrolled at a local community college. I'd gotten my bags packed for the northeast. We'd known each other since the sixth grade and that summer felt like the last we'd ever see one another.
When we a found quiet space down stream, Alina asked me to join a game of truth or dare. I chose dare. She dared me to kiss her, and she dared with a look as if she'd been thinking about it all day. "If we don't do it now, when will we ever do it?" she teased. I hadn't ever thought of our friendship that way, and she was right. So I pecked her lips once, and found myself wanting more. We snogged a second time, discovering what our tongues and lips could do. Our connection electrified both our bodies that day, and we made out naked under a hot central valley sun. It was the first of many heedless make outs. Those make outs tempted me. They tempted me to toss away my future and explore more of a life with her. Yet that summer of experimental lust remained only that. I had a life to attain.
I left that August. Alina did two years at the community college, before she married... well we're not saying his name. Loser.
"I'll be honest, I absolutely love this house myself," she smiled. "I might move out of my apartment into here if you don't buy it, Caitlyn!"
"Is that so? Maybe you should. It would make you-know-who, absolutely jealous," I said.
Alina waved her hand.
"Oh please, I might want to stab him in the eye sometimes," she laughed, "but you know what they say? 'Success is the best revenge.'"
"Especially with alimony," I added.
"Hmm? Oh Caitlyn I didn't take as much as you think, you-know-who only just now got a full time job again anyway," she added. "I sell houses and I'm doing fine."
Warming inside, I looked to Alina for any hint of lust in her eyes. There's no hiding mine. As a mostly human, I've learned I can have nearly anyone I want, whenever I want. A lot changes in a decade after high school, and me? Oh I had been changed in ways I'd never dreamed. Alina blushed ever so slightly. Glamoring her would have been easier than the time I seduced that sexy track star when I started law school. No way though. I didn't want Alina like an animate doll dancing to my bidding.
"Shall we check out that basement, Caitlyn?" Alina spoke, cutting the tension.
"Yes."
We entered the basement. Our shoes touched bare concrete. Alina showed me around the space, describing the possible uses of a nice open basement. She drew my attention to the air ducts above us, noting that this basement could even be air conditioned if I needed it. It was strange though, that a duct apparently dead ended into a wall. Looking even more closely at the dust on the ground, I noticed patterns that didn't quite make sense.
"What's beyond this wall?" I said.
"Hmmm?" said Alina. "Solid bedrock. There's no danger of mold."
I knocked on the wall. It reverberated like a muted drum.
"You sure?"
Running my hands all over the wall triggered a discovery. Painted over with drywall, a gear's jagged teeth touched my fingers.
"Look!" I pointed.
Alina examined it, brushed away the dust and then her breath exhaled in excitement. She opened a dusty cabinet on the other side of the basement and pulled out a huge metal wheel. Its hub fit perfectly on the gear, and we turned it together. Something clunked, startling us both.
"That was loud!" Alina said.
"Are you scared?"
"No way!" she said. She sounded not as a real estate professional, but as my excited school friend two weeks after graduation. We cranked the wheel with all our combined strength, and a recessed bookshelf swung open. There was another room.
I took Alina's hand and we walked through. Darkness greeted us, and I fumbled for a switch. Scones glowed on the walls and illuminated a room decorated like an old world wine cellar. Though this room? It had too be at least the size of the basement itself. A metal framed canopy bed invited us further in. It had metal loops and holes for all the wonderful things I could imagine. Wooden beams in that all too familiar tall x-shape leaned to the side, complete with cuffs. Inspecting them, I found the old furred leather in surprisingly good shape. There was a cabinet, more fetish furniture, and a treasure chest in the room.
"Oh.. Umm... wow!" said Alina. Her face. I could see the excitement on her face before she forced herself back into the manner of a sales professional. "Caitlyn, I had no idea. I'm sure we can get all this cleared out."
"Why would we do that?" I said smirking.
"It's naughty and not expected," she said.
"It's part of the house Alina," I said raising my chin. "Though how can I know this works without a proper appraisal?"
"What do you mean?" said Alina. Her gaze already glinted with excitement. She couldn't hide that from me. I stepped over to her, and touched her shoulder, her necklace, and let my finger wander down towards her breasts. She didn't stop me.