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1Part Seven: Saturday Evening
In reality Meryn really didn’t have any errands to run, which did not brighten her disposition after she had left her apartment. She hadn’t shown Jeremy where any of the cleaning materials were. Let him figure that out. He was on his own. She wondered what she was going to do with her afternoon. She still had to do the final preparations and run through for her big presentation at work on Monday, but she had planned to do that on Sunday, and she just wasn’t up for it today. With nothing better to do, she went to a movie, and sat through an interminably long comedy she hadn’t found funny, and this did nothing to improve her mood. On the way home she decided that she really didn’t feel like cooking, so she stopped off at the grocery store to pick up a few items including a microwave dinner for supper. She then geared herself up for her final confrontation with Jeremy, where she would thank him for his inadequate efforts, express sorrow that it hadn’t worked out, bid him goodbye, and that, thankfully, would be that.
When she opened the door to her apartment at 4:45, she was met with an incredibly mouth-watering smell coming from the kitchen. Following her nose there, she found Jeremy bent over the oven.
“Miss Meryn, I didn’t hear you come in.” He said when he saw her. “Please forgive me.”
“Jeremy. What are you doing?”
“Making dinner. I hope you don’t think it presumptuous.”
“But there was nothing in the place to make dinner with.”
“I know, so I took a quick run to the grocery to pick up some things. Please say you don’t mind.”
“No.” She mused. “It smells delicious.” And if he wanted to waste his time shopping and cooking, he couldn’t have had much time to clean. That would make it all the more easy to find fault and be done with this.
“It’s got about fifteen more minutes to go Miss Meryn. Why don’t you relax in the livingroom, and I’ll bring you a glass of wine.”
“No, no wine today please. I’ll just go freshen up a bit. Let me know when it’s ready.”
With that she walked into the livingroom and was met with her next surprise. Everything there was picked up and put in it’s proper place. She saw that the floors had been swept, the rugs vacuumed, and all the furniture dusted and polished. Entering her bedroom she found her bed made, several days worth of clothes previously piled on a chair had either been put away or put in the hamper. A massive accumulation of odds and ends on top of her dresser were now neatly stacked and organized, and as far as she could tell, all accounted for. A foray into her master bathroom found all of the tiles and porcelain of her tub, sink and toilet gleaming, and the jungle inside her medicine cabinet made civilized.
This was unbelievable. How had he been able to do all this, shop and make dinner in less than four hours. As she continued to try to comprehend, Jeremy approached her bedroom door to let her know that dinner was ready. Numb, she followed him to her diningroom, and saw that there was only one table setting. This, she decided, would not be.
“This is not Natasha’s place, Jeremy.” She turned to him quietly. “I told you earlier that I don’t like to eat alone.” an absurd statement in that she almost always did. “Please get yourself a place setting so we can eat together.”
“Sure Miss Meryn. Anything you say.”
After he had set up his place, he brought in platters of food, which he identified as veal rolantini, a broccoli with blue cheese casserole, and a spring mix salad with walnuts, craisons, dressed with a raspberry vinaigrette. He then carefully served her first before himself. All of it tasted every bit as good as it looked and smelled, and she took small amounts of seconds of each item, unusual for her. With her permission, Jeremy had much larger portions of seconds, and even thirds. As he cleared the table he began to apologize for not having the time to make a dessert, but he hoped she would like what he brought instead. He then brought out a strawberry-rhubarb pie from Grandma’s. When she asked how he had been able to get that for her, he replied that Grandma’s was on of his favorite places too, no great surprise there she thought unkindly, and he had driven out to get the pie for her this morning, hoping that he would have the opportunity to give it to her.
This was all too much Meryn thought, enjoying her piece of her favorite pie, and watching Jeremy down two pieces. Later, as she sat in the livingroom while Jeremy finished cleaning up, she frantically strove to figure out how she was going to get out of all this. He had made it incredibly hard. There was no way she could say that he had done a lousy job. Anyone would see the lie in that. She decided to try to let him down as easily as possible, compliment him on what he had done, but explain that none of this was what she wanted.
“This is all rather impressive, Jeremy.” She said as he came into the livingroom after he was done.
“Thank you Miss Meryn. But I’m really sorry I didn’t have the time to get to everything.”
“What can you possibly mean?” She was clearly mystified. “The place is immaculate. It hasn’t been this clean since the day I moved in.”
“Oh there are a number of things I just didn’t have the time to get to. Mostly the laundry.”
“The laundry!!!” She exclaimed. The laundry. Her laundry. He was actually talking about doing her laundry. A job she hated, even in the best of times, and which she hadn’t done in almost a month. She wondered if he knew there was more to it than the overflowing hamper in the bathroom. She had three extra laundry bags full and stuffed in her closet.
“I couldn’t find a washer and dryer in the apartment, and I didn’t know where the local Laundromat is.” He went on.
The laundry. She had to put a stop to this right now. But how? He’d done everything and more than she had asked. She had to find some excuse, something that he wouldn’t or couldn’t do that would giver her an out. But what? He seemed to be able to do everything.
Looking at him as he “waddled” over to bring her a cup of tea she had requested, an idea suddenly presented itself. She had to give him a task that he would surely fail at, and she suddenly knew what it was. The idea repulsed her, but she was desperate. She just had to get out of this situation, but it was important to her that he would feel that she had given him a chance, but he hadn’t succeeded. She saw no other way without outright rejecting him as Natasha had. That she couldn’t bring herself to do. Steeling herself, she quietly but firmly said.
“Jeremy, I want you to go into my bedroom and take your clothes off. Everything but your underpants.”
She could see that he was definitely surprised by this. An order was an order however, and he got up and went into the bedroom. After a few minutes she followed him in. Seeing him standing there undressed, she grimaced when she saw that he was again wearing those awful pink panties. This time Jeremy couldn’t help but notice her reaction, and as he dropped his head, she realized that he had misinterpreted the reason. She started to apologize and explain, but stopped herself. This actually would suit her plan more. She was going to hate herself for doing this, but he had given her no choice.
She brusquely told him to follow her into her bathroom. When he had entered behind her, she pointed to an item on the floor and said “Step on the scale Jeremy.”
Jeremy hesitated for a moment, the first time he had done so for anything she had asked, but then he slowly stepped forward and on to the scale. Since she hadn’t ordered it, he did not look down. Meryn came over and did so instead.
“Two hundred and ninety seven pounds.” She reported. “Jeremy. You’re obese.”
Jeremy now looked down. “I know Miss Meryn. I’ve always been this way. I’ve just never been able to do anything about it.”
“Well, if you want to be able to...um...be allowed to come here, you’re going to have to do something about it. I don’t like fat men, Jeremy. But I’m going to give you a chance.” His head came up at this. “I’m going to give you one week to show me you can lose a significant amount of weight. For me Jeremy. Do you understand?
“Oh yes Miss Meryn. I’ll try my best, I promise.”
“I think you’re going to have to do a lot better than that.” Way better she thought. “And Jeremy, I’ll be the judge of what is a significant amount of weight.” This was just in case he was able to lose one or two pounds, which she thought unlikely anyway.
“I understand Miss Meryn, and I really want to thank you.”
God, he wasn’t making this easy.
“Okay Jeremy, you can step off the scale and get dressed now. One week from today we’ll weigh you again and see if this is going to work out. And Jeremy...”
“Yes Miss Meryn?”
She paused.
`”I don’t want you wearing those stupid panties any more. I want you to wear your own underpants.” On a whim. “What do you wear anyway, boxers or briefs?”
“Which do you like better, Miss Meryn?”
She had never given it much thought, but decided she liked boxers better.
“Briefs.” She said. It would make his rolls of fat stand out more, and make it easier for him to see his failure.
“That’s what I wear Miss Meryn.” And they both smiled.
After Jeremy had dressed and was getting ready to leave, he turned to Meryn and asked. “Miss Meryn, I was wondering...”
Here it comes, she thought, the negotiations about how much she expected him to lose. No way she was going to give him a number like five or six pounds. He just might go all out and starve himself for a week to make it. Unlikely to succeed, but she wasn’t taking any chances.
“Yes Jeremy?”
“...if I could come back over tomorrow to finish everything up.”
She stopped, and then thought, why not. She might as well get some benefit out of this whole thing.
“Sure Jeremy. Why not. But I like to sleep late on Sundays. So why don’t you come over around noon.”
“Whatever you say, Miss Meryn.”
“And Jeremy...”
“Yes Miss Meryn?”
Another pause.
“The washer and drier are in the basement. I’ll give you the key tomorrow”
“Great Miss Meryn.”
As he left Meryn could only shake her head. The laundry.
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