Snowed In

Chapter 4

I set about putting my things in their temporary spaces and set his bag where he had requested that I put it. Then turned my attention to the large windows and the sun hovering still a ways from the horizon. I just stood and watched the color move over the clouds as they changed position in the sky. Avi was right. It was beautiful. The world was beautiful. I needed to stop and take the time to see that. The colors saturated my eyes and stole my breath away. I couldn't stop the tears from falling as they slipped down my cheeks. I looked over to the railing and down at the kitchen where Avi had busied himself preparing dinner. I didn't know where the food came from, but I imagined that he had ordered it in and set it up so that the groceries would be there when we arrived.

What I saw outside was beautiful, but so was watching sweet Avriel move about a kitchen with his hair still up in that messy bun I threw it in that morning. The thick waves from the braid I put it in the night before while it was wet wouldn't come out until he washed it or got it wet again. If we were to brush it out, it would have become a bushy mess on top of his head. I had to admit I kinda wanted to see that. Thinking about him having to wash out the waves to get his ringlets back got me thinking about the bathroom in the place. I saw one to the left of the mudroom. There had to be one up on the loft. I went back to the stairs and opened the door at the top of them and my jaw just about hit the floor as I fought back the scream of shock and amazement that wanted to escape me.

The bathroom was fucking beautiful. Absolutely fucking beautiful and there was no other way to say it. I wanted to run down and grab him and show him, but I didn't think that he needed to be interrupted. I sensed something in him that I hadn't before. Maybe he hadn't shown it be because he wasn't comfortable with that part of himself or maybe he wasn't ready to let it go, but I knew something was up and he needed a touch of personal space and time to work through it. I was feeling some things too that I wasn't sure I understood. I needed time and space just as much as he did. I didn't think either of us would find much that weekend. In fact, after looking at that bathroom and imagining all the things that might go down in there, I was pretty sure that we wouldn't.

In front of me was one of the most amazing showers I had ever seen. It was a large floor to ceiling glassed-in space dominating the corner of the room. The tile on the walls was a combination of three shades of blue dominated by the lightest shade whereas the floor, which had a square built up out of the corner closest to me that I didn't understand at first, was tiled in the same shades of Blue with the darkest blue being the prominent color. I just stood in the doorway. Which slid open rather that opened into the room. I thought that was ingenious, a pocket door to conserve wall and floor space. No door to get in the way when it opened. I walked in and discovered that the natural tile of the floor outside the shower was non-slip tile. Very smart. I flipped on the light and smiled as brightly as I think I might have ever smiled. The first switch turned on the white spotlights outside the shower. To both my left and right I saw vanities with a set of floor to ceiling shelves and a sink to anchor them on the ends. As I turned and looked at them I found them to be mirrors of each other and to have mirrors on the walls with a bank of dressing room lights above and around them. The light switches were placed on the outside of them close to the shelves so they could be turned on individually. Each set of shelves was decorated with small knick-knacks in a mountain theme and stocked with thick navy-blue and bright-white thick towels. It all served to tie the whole wall together.

I flipped the second switch and heard the fans kick on. I felt the heat immediately. The third switch was the most wonderful of all. It turned on the lights in the shower. They were blue! I turned off all the other switches and turned to look at the shower space. I signed heavily as I marveled at the masterpiece of interior design in front of me. The lighting was perfect. They were like spotlights pointing at the benches around the outside walls and in the far corner. I could see the blue light reflecting softly off the silver shower heads mounted to the walls and the counterpart shower heads on the end of silver hoses with the controls for each just below them. The shower heads that were mounted on the wall were large and round and very high so a tall man could stand easily under them. The shower heads on the ends of the hoses were also silver but they were much smaller than the others. Maybe a quarter of the size my technical mind gauged.

I was happy to discover that the raised square in the corner nearest me was actually a bathtub the size of Atlantis. It was clear that it could be filled by a silver faucet the arched up from the middle of one side with two knobs on one side and one on the other. I wondered about that third knob as I stood outside the glass wall and looked in. The fourth switch on the wall illuminated the tub. Where those small silver spots along the edges of the tub candle holders? God this designer had thought of everything. Upon inspecting the ceiling, I found another large silver shower head over the center of the bathtub. Oh My God you could make it rain. How the hell did they run the pipes for that and why did my mind even go there? I shook my head and turned to my left. I found a wall and another pocket door. Behind it I found the toilets. Yes, two of them! Everything. The designer thought of everything. Sinks and toilets in completely separate rooms, but it was not like I was going to be using the toilet while Avi was using the one next to me. There was a curtain. Yes, the designer thought of every damn thing. I turned and walked out of the room feeling very satisfied and complete amazed. The smell of dinner hit me when I stepped out of the bathroom. Intrigued, I followed the scent down to the kitchen. Where I found Avi whistling while he searched the cabinets for plates. It was time to eat.