He sets everything of Georgie’s down, takes my suitcase from my hand and heads for another staircase, similar to the last one, but longer and going sideways up the back wall. I set her down and go to the kitchen counter and grab the paper towel off the holder, then open the carrier doorlatch. She cautiously comes out, ears pinned back and looking spooked and also curious about more new surroundings.
I stuff a bunch of paper towels into her carrier and then pull them out, catching the bit of mess where she got sick. I reach in with another dish-soapy paper towel and wipe up before I unpack her food and water bowl and set that stuff up on the floor by the end of the kitchen counter. I don’t know where he wants me to put her litter box.
I survey the space and I’m more than impressed. The kitchen is shiny white tile and white stone countertops with chrome appliances and glossy white cupboards. The floors are a shiny dark slate in the kitchen area, dark wood in the dining and living space with light gray, blue, and black area rugs under the dining table and where the living space is.
The dining table seats ten with a dark wood table and ten white high-back leather chairs with silver studs along the outline. The table has a terracotta orange runner down the middle that ties in with the furniture, which is the same color.
Two comfy-looking sofas and a huge television mounted on the wall as well as two navy blue leather theatre-style loveseats make up his living room. This place has a wall of mostly windows and no window coverings. There are big leafy plants hanging on either side of the outer of the two living room windows that aren’t reachable because of the balcony overlooking the lower level. Multiple framed landscape portraits hang in various places.
On top of the wall of kitchen cupboards a big ivy plant climbs in either direction of a large and glossy orange pot. I spot a bathroom that extends to the back of the building and there’s an accessible second floor balcony window in there, I’m guessing. Yes, I’m thinking about escape routes.
Georgie is drinking her water, so I head up the next set of stairs and see Jude is stripping his bed. This level is the master suite.
And this floor is why I thought of his place as an awesome sex lair. He described the top level of his place to me during our first date, calling his home a converted industrial-style building into several townhouse-like units with a loft feel on the top floor, but I never even imagined it’d be this impressive. He said there were three identical units at the back and the front of the building had several smaller apartments. He also mentioned a staircase near his bed that leads to a roof patio, which he said is split into three for the back units. I see two big skylights, industrial-type ceiling fans, and ridiculously high ceilings up here, and that metal spiral staircase climbing up to the ceiling in the corner, leading to a hatch with a shiny golden metal handle.
He side-eyes me while stripping the big bed that was previously covered in white bedding, which is being tossed to the floor and changed for gray sheets and a blue comforter.
White really doesn’t seem practical. But I bet his baka does his laundry with lots of bleach. The double closet doors are open, and I see dark wood dressers in there along with shelving. It’s huge and more than half the shelves and rod space are unused. The way it’s empty in specific places makes me think he shared this space with a woman who is no longer here. I see a make-up table with lights around the mirror, as if it’s a celebrity’s dressing room. That’s all empty.
Hm. Did he have a live-in girlfriend at some point? Because that’s not a man’s mirror.
A stretch of my neck lets me see a giant safe with a big silver dial on the front and that closet also opens up into the master bathroom.
I take two steps to see better in there and spy the pièce de résistance. The bathroom centerpiece there is a huge, more modern version of a clawfoot tub and Jude was right – way better and way bigger than the tub in my apartment. The wall behind it is all cobalt blue shiny tile. And I’ve suddenly got the urge for a long bubble bath.
I can’t properly take in everything around me about this place. The fact that it’s gorgeous. The fact that it adds a new dimension to Jude, and a very adult one. He’s a grown-up with a great place, his own business, and a whack of trouble on his plate right now because of me.