Skyscrapers: A Tale of Two Architechts

The Russian in the Apartment

The next day after work he headed over to the apartment. It was second floor, which was fine by him. The building itself was pretty simple architecturally, but it actually had some really cool mural on one side. It also had several rainbows graffitied on the other side. These Karl appreciated. The steps were cool grey cement but not dirty.

The door was made of a nice wood, and when he knocked the man from the picture opened the door. If Karl thought he was hot from the picture alone, this man was breathtakingly beautiful.

"I uh... I'm Karl. I'm uh... here about the apartment."

"Yeah. I'm Vladimir, Vladimir Sadovsky. Come in and take a look around if you like. Can I ask you a few questions?"

"Oh yeah, of course you wouldn't want to let anyone move in with you."

Karl stepped inside. The place was very clean, and Karl wondered if Vladimir had cleaned it for the occasion or if he was super OCD or if he never really used the place. There was a kitchen to one side of the room, and a high table with stools. On the other side was a low coffee table and a couch, and a darker part of the floor in a straight almost red carpet to the back where there was two doors. This was a design he liked. The line separated the kitchen and living room and served as a kind of pathway to the back. Looking up he discovered that the same dark strip was on the ceiling. This he could appreciate as an architect. One of the two doors standing open showed the corner of the sink and mirror, clearly a bathroom.

"That's the bathroom, and that's the bedroom, right?"

"Yeah. There is just one bedroom, two beds."

"You can take a look if you want."

"Sure."

Vladimir opened the door to the bedroom. There were two beds, each pushed against one wall, and a window sat in between them. A low table sat under the window stretching to the edges of both beds. There was a lamp and a clock on the table. The clock projected the time onto the ceiling, which Karl thought was a fun touch. Karl quickly looked under the table to see that there was one outlet which Vladimir had attacked an extension cord to that had many other places to plug in.

On each wall there was a set of shelves and a closet in the corner of the room. Vladimir had clothing folded perfectly on the shelves and a jacket and some button downs hanging perfectly in the closet.

Karl was convinced that Vladimir must be super OCD. Karl wasn't opposed to the idea of living with someone with OCD, at least everything would be pretty clean. Vladimir had not posters on the walls or art or anything. Only a phone charger stand and a computer charging on his bed made it look like anyone actually lived here. There was a desk in the other corner opposite from the closet. Vladimir had put a jar of pencils on it and a desk light but nothing else. It was a little eerie.

Karl turned his attention back to Vladimir. His hair was short and so blonde, his eyes such a piercing blue. He had a clearly muscular shoulders and pectorals. He had long limbs, and he was tall. Karl thought that he himself was tall at six feet, but Vladimir was a good two inches taller. He was hot. His voice was low and thick with a russian accent. Karl remembered the last time he had dealt with Russians. They had tried to take the skyscraper from him. His dream, the part of him that still loved Ola. He wouldn't let them. Never. Karl remembered suddenly that the man's name was Vladimir. How interesting, same name. Karl shook that memory from his mind thinking, there must be millions of Vladimirs in Russia.

Vladimir's voice broke through his thoughts. "Do you want to sit down and talk about a few things?"

"Oh yeah sure." Karl followed Vladimir into the main room. They sat on the couch facing each other.

Vladimir asked about Karl's habits, and what he liked to do. They smiled at laughed a bit.

"So what do you think of the place?"

"Honestly I think it's awesome, but it needs a little more color."

Vladimir smiled. A perfect smile thought Karl. "If you wanted to take the task of decorating upon yourself I wouldn't mind."

"Are you saying if I decide so that I could move in?"

"As long as you are sharing the rent."

"Yeah. I think I would like that."

"You can move in whenever you like. Oh, here's my number."

Karl took the piece of paper from Vladimir he had scrawled, in the most beautiful way possible, his number. "Great. I'll probably be a few days."

"No problemo."

"It's el problema. No problemo."

"I am sorry. I work on my English, but my Spanish is not very good."

Karl smiled. "Sorry. I'm just like that."

"It's fine." Vladimir laughed.