Second and third floor.

Author's Note: Link to a galery of pictures of the house at the bottom of the chapter, for those who want them.

There’s not much to say about the second floor, really. It was all bedrooms. Eleven bedrooms, in fact, with four currently being completely empty. We had agreed a long time ago that, while it was the standard for normal couples to share a bedroom, ours wasn’t a normal relationship and if we all shared a single bedroom we’d all go crazy. Everyone had their own bedroom, and we even had one ready for Diana. Close to the stairs is a door leading to a small balcony right above the front door, and there are two fully equipped bathrooms, one to the east and one to the west, that we’d have to share, but I was confident that wouldn’t be a big problem. In case of emergency, there are more bathrooms and showers on the first and third floors. All that said, the girls were very insistent in that my bedroom had an Alaskan king-sized bed. Good thing Mr. Aliev didn’t ask any questions about that, and the guys restrained themselves, but… Yeah, there’s no hiding what’s gonna happen in that bed.

Now, if the first and second floors have all that we’d need in a normal house and more, the third floor is where things get fun.

On the west side is the gym. There we have the exercise machines like the treadmills, the stationary bikes, the barbells and others. We also have the lockers right in there. Parts of the walls have full mirrors to check posture, as well as places to hang towels. We also got a stereo to play music. Really, while Sarah’s request was the pool, she was the one who designed most of the gym here. A door in the corner led to another, bigger open balcony. Next to it was the shower room, a normal bathroom with four showers, two toilets and two sinks. The last room in the west wing was big and empty, meant to be a store room for… well, everything.

On the top middle was another… um… questionable room. Let’s call it… the spa. Floor of white tiles and a wall of mirrors, two black hot tubs on the top corners, two glass showers on the bottom corners and a counter with drawers in the middle.

Mr. Aliev grumbled, and I really wanted the earth to swallow me. The guys were all holding back their laughter. But really, the spa could’ve been seen as normal if not for the wall of mirrors.

MOVING ON.

On the east one was one of my favorite rooms. It sort of had the shape of an L, dark gray carpet floor and red walls. It was Noelle’s gaming room. The walls had shelves for all her games and consoles, since she was the one with physical media. A couch and two chairs were set in front of a huge TV on the wall, with a TV stand below it to put whatever console was needed. There was also a long desk against a wall with three chairs to put other PCs, and I was thinking that this was where mine was gonna go. But right behind them was Noelle’s special little nook. A way bigger desk that would almost hide her from the world so she could stream, that is, work, without being bothered. This was where she wanted her PC to be. The west wing also had my personal music room, which, as expected, was currently empty save for two also empty shelves on the wall. That said, it was soundproofed, which is what makes it the music room. I’d have to move my instruments here, and honestly, it’s where I was likely to spend most of my time.

And that’s where the tour ended. Yep. Nothing more to see. There was absolutely nothing else. Certainly not a secret room hidden behind those empty shelves in the music room that led to a dimly lit, large room with red carpet floor and red walls that had a big hot tub, a small bar, two large couches and four double beds. And God forbid you believe there are dance poles in that room that totally doesn’t exist.

I need a drink…

Well, all in all it was an impressive and… fairly ostentatious house. At least for my standards. We spent a ridiculous amount of money on it, and a lot of it seemed awfully unnecessary to me… I mean, THREE hot tubs? A room dedicated to the hot tubs? Honestly, we could’ve stopped at the second floor and we’d have a big but adequate house. The third floor was overkill. But well… Luke insisted because he said that less than this wouldn’t cover the value of the service I was providing for him. And that only makes it weirder that we actually did hit the budget limit and couldn’t buy some extra shelves or drawers, but that would come in time. Everything essential was here.

I think.

We’d realize what we were missing when we needed it.

We all went back down to the front yard and made space for the girls who had nothing in their cars to park them inside Alice’s garage, which I suppose it’s actually the last part of the house to show. That said, there’s not much to it beside it being big. Soon, though, Alice would make it her personal workshop.

I got Cake’s carrier and let her free inside the house. She had her ears and her tail up in alert, but that didn’t stop her curiosity. She took her time, but as we started to move things into the house, Cake explored every nook and cranny she could.

We moved boxes to the kitchen and up to the bedrooms. Grace and Mila had some furniture, too. More desks and tables. Mr. Aliev had a gift for us, too. A grill to put in the backyard and a full set of utensils for the kitchen.

I think that was what finally broke Mila. She ran up to her dad and hugged him hard, crying into his chest. Mr. Aliev chuckled and held his daughter with his big arms in a comforting embrace.

“You’ll be fine, girl,” he told her. “They’ll make sure of it. Just remember to clean after yourself. Your mother won’t be here to do it for you.”

“Yeah…”

Mr. Aliev shot me a look. One that said that I’d better make sure his girl was, indeed, fine. I believe the threat of an ex-olympic wrestler breathing on my neck was unneeded, but I heeded it nonetheless.

Link to pictures of the house made in The Sims 4.

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