Above the Garage: Part 1
A young man comes of age, and meets his soulmate, thanks to his garage
renovation therapy project.
In 3 parts, by Member389. Listen to the Podcast
“She could be just the thing.”
Derek was glad that he'd thought of this apartment remodel.
It was a project he and his son Luke could work on together. He hoped that it
would get Luke to come out of his shell. Ever since his mother passed away a
few years ago he'd been closed off and anti-social. Luke gets his handiness
from his dad. He loved to work with his hands, and it was not boasting to say
that he was pretty good at it too. Fortunately the push, from Derek's dad, to
be more took him to state college to study engineering and into a lucrative
career afterward. Derek met his wife of 20 years at that college, Theresa was
the world to him, and he would have done anything to lay the world at her feet.
Fate had a different idea though. Her loss had left a deep scar on their
family. It was hard at first, friends and relatives did their best to keep them
upbeat and one or two even mentioned that Derek wasn't too old to start again.
Those ideas were brushed aside. He would never love anybody like he loved
Luke took it hard, he was only 14 when Terri found out she
had cancer. The doctors did everything they could. Throughout her treatment he
would give up being a normal teenager to be home for her when his father
couldn't be. She'd get upset with him and tell him to try out for sports at
school or join a club, and especially ask a girl that he like out on a date.
He'd just brush it off and come home as soon as he could to take care of her.
She wasted away before their eyes and in less than a year she was gone. It was
a crushing blow to both of them, and as hard as Derek had it, he could tell
Luke felt like he was set adrift, and had no guidance. Derek worked, he worked
a lot, to keep his mind busy, to keep from thinking about her. Luke just hung
around, and kept to himself mostly. He had a few friends but they, for the most
part, had moved on after graduation. Luke was accepted to the college where his
folks went to and was looking at a similar career to his fathers, no matter how
much Derek urged him to do something he wanted. He insisted that he wanted to
do what his father does, and build things. He was going to start as a freshman
Derek, in the interest of keeping Luke from hiding in his
room until fall, figured he'd give him a project. They lived in a big house
with an large 2 car garage. Above the garage was a space that was large enough
to turn into an in-law apartment. He presented Luke with the project to clean
it out, and design an apartment. As soon as he had a plan they would build it
and rent it out. Thanks to the college there's never any shortage of students
looking for off campus apartments. They weren't really close, a few miles, but
these days all the kids had cars anyway.
Like anything he put his mind to, Luke had a plan in place
pretty quickly. We worked out details for the major demolition and installing
plumbing, and electrical etc. He really did his homework, even shopping for
materials for finishing like the flooring and appliances. He got it in his head
to fully decorate it with the help of some ideas from magazines. What they
ended up with was a very nice small 1 bedroom apartment with a nice view over
the backyard. Luke had already started school and they didn't think it likely
that they'd get a lot of offers right away but they listed the apartment in the
They interviewed a couple students and even a visiting
professor who was teaching here for a year, but nobody fit what they had in
mind and too many wanted them to come down on the price. There was no way Derek
was going to let anybody devalue the work that he and Luke had put into it, the
only one who was going to budge on price was going to be Luke. It was his baby.
It was a warm Saturday afternoon when Derek heard a woman's
voice call out. He was in the back yard puttering around with a rake. He leaned
it against the house and walked around to the front where he saw a lovely
blonde haired girl walking towards the other corner of the house heading to the
yard. He called out to her and she jumped slightly startled. In only a few
moments Derek took in the sight of her. She was very pretty, her blond hair
fell around her shoulders. She smiled and held out her hand to shake.
"Hi, I'm Ellie. I was wondering if you've rented the
apartment yet?" He let her know that they hadn't yet, and that his son
Luke was in charge of that. He went in and got the keys and let her see it, and
she marveled. "Who decorated it? They did an awesome job." Dad let
her know that the whole place was done by his son, Luke, from design to
decoration. He smiled at her shock, when he told her Luke was starting school
at the local university this year. "This was done by a teenager?"
"He should be home any minute if you want to hang
around. A few of the ground rules that we've placed are that guests please park
on the street so as to not block the garage downstairs. Use of the yard and
pool are a given so long as you keep it down to a dull roar." He said
chuckling. "There's a washer and dryer downstairs in the garage that you
can use rather than go to a laundromat. As you probably saw in the ad,
utilities are provided including cable and Internet. We can get you telephone
if you need it but it's not wired for it up here. We figured most students use
"It's perfect. Now I see why you're asking so much for
it. Any chance we can haggle on the price?" She cocked her head smiling,
her eyes sparkling. Derek chuckled.
"That's up to Luke. This is his baby, start to
finish." Derek paused as he heard the garage door opener beneath them
start up. "You can ask him yourself in a minute. I'll let him know you're
here." He stepped out onto the landing and looked at the door as he closed
it. He thought for a moment that they may have found the right person for the
apartment. He smiled as he trotted down the stairs and ducked into the garage
where Luke was getting out of the car. His hair was mussed from driving with
the window down, his shirt was tight over his well-formed chest and arms. The
work had leaned him out and toned him up.
"Hey Luke,” Derek greeted his son. “You
have someone upstairs looking at the apartment."
"I'll guess by the grin on your face it's a girl."
Luke said in a slightly annoyed tone.
"Is there anything wrong with a girl renting your
"No; I just want somebody normal and quiet."
Luke passed dad on his way to the stairs and his father put
his hand on his shoulder. "I have a good feeling about this one. Trust
your instincts." He nodded and made for the stairs taking them two at a
time. Luke opened the door and close it behind him, and Derek went back to the
yard whistling a little tune; hopeful she could be just the thing.
A short while later, Luke popped around the corner of the
garage and slowly wandered through the yard.
"She tried to get me to come down on the price."
"Really?" He smiled trying not to laugh. "How
"I asked her how much she could reasonably afford, and
I halved the difference. She took it." He smirked.
"How much lower did you go?" Derek was eager to
"A hundred bucks. Non-smoker, no boyfriend and she says
she not a partier. She's a senior in culinary arts and nutrition. She offered
to cook for us occasionally if we don't mind being her test subjects. Her name
is Ellie Love." Luke grinned, but didn't say that he'd thought about
dropping two for the pretty coed.
"No shit?" Derek laughed.
Luke just shrugged. "She's calling her folks to let
them know she's found a place."
Ellie started moving in the next day. Luke was out in the
driveway washing his car, the sound of music filtered down from Ellie's open
window as she unpacked. Derek watched Luke from the window for a moment and
caught him looking up at the window off and on. He would bet anything she was
intentionally wandering back and forth to get a look at him too.
"Hey Luke?" Ellie called down.
"Any chance you could take me shopping for some kitchen
stuff? There isn't much up here in the way of plates, glasses, silverware, you
"Sure, let me know when you're ready."
"Give me 10 minutes and I'll be down."
Ellie went and changed. She knew she was older than him by a
couple years. His father mentioned he'd turned 19 last month. Luke was hot with
his dark hair and dark brown eyes, but he seemed so quiet and shy. After the
wild roommates and crazy party atmosphere of the apartment she shared last
year, this was going to be a nice change.
She worked in a small caf , after high school and found she
loved it and thought it might be a cool idea to start her own. So she'd decided
that getting it right was going to require some learning and went back to
school. Now at 23 she was close to finishing her degree and moving on to
realizing the dream. She threw on a striped tee and pushed her sweats off and
found a pair of jeans in one of her bags and went to the bathroom to check
herself in the mirror. She knew she wasn't a knockout but she was pretty cute.
She knew that from the double-takes she got from guys at school. She was short,
in her opinion, at five foot three, her sandy blonde hair hung past her
shoulders, and her dark brown eyes were always sparkling. Her dad said they
were full of mischief. If he only knew.
She pulled the door shut behind her checking that it had
locked and bounced down the stairs like she was on springs. She watched Luke
for a moment as he wiped down the car, and got a tingling sensation as he
leaned forward, his jeans tightened around his cute ass. 'Get a hold of
yourself girl' she thought. She reached her hands behind her causing her shirt
to tighten across her small breasts, and cleared her throat.
Luke looked over his shoulder at Ellie. Damn she was cute,
but she didn't act like she knew it. He gave her a small smirk.
"Sorry about the kitchen. I didn't stop to think that
someone moving in wouldn't have dishes of their own."
"Oh, no problem." Ellie countered quickly.
"It's just that my last place, everything belonged to my room mates, and
as long as I kept them fed they didn't care what I used." She smiled.
"I could use a couple towels too. I'm on a budget so let's hit up that
little French boutique, Tar-jay." Luke laughed at her joke and reached for
the passenger side door opening it for her. He bowed with a flourish.
Luke was already winning points as she climbed into the car.
He hopped in and started the car backing out of the driveway. On the way to the
to the store Ellie drew him out asking what he was going to school for, and
what he planned for after. He didn't do sports or really anything with friends.
She could tell he was one of those quiet loner types, and he had a lot going on
in there that nobody ever saw. She decided then and there that she'd make it
her goal to draw him out of his shell.
"Maybe you can build my swanky caf for me when you
graduate." She winked at him.
Luke looked over at her for a moment and smiled. "Yea
"Seriously, that apartment is awesome. I bet it
wouldn't be much of a stretch. Your dad said you planned it nearly free hand.
You don't do something like that without real talent."
Luke just shrugged and said thanks.
They pulled into a parking space and Ellie grabbed a cart
and hopped up on the rail, riding it a few feet towards the store like a kid.
This gave Luke a great view of her backside and she knew he was looking by the
expression she saw when she looked over her shoulder. He looked slightly
shocked then looked down and away. She bit her lower lip and grinned. This was
going to be fun, she thought.
They made their way into the store and Ellie took the long
way around to housewares and chose a cheap set of dinnerware, then some glasses
and flatware. She went over the cooking stuff with a fine tooth comb looking at
labels and chose a few items. The cart filled up fast with the large items. She
decided that she'd done enough damage there and wandered around a corner and
started up the aisle. Luke just pushed the cart along behind her watching her
walk. He was pretty sure she hadn't wiggled her ass like that on the way in.
She reached out to a blouse hanging next to the aisle and felt the fabric and
held it out and let it go and she walked past a rack of lingerie.
Ellie let out a little ooh when she saw a little yellow bra
and panty set hanging up and took it off the rack. "What do you
think?" She asked holding the cups up to her chest, grinning devilishly at
Luke. His face turned red and he looked around.
"It's definitely your color." He said and mumbled
"What?" She asked, making him repeat it.
He breathed deep and replied. "Did you want to pick up
some food while we're here? The basics at least?"
Ellie gave him a sly smile. "Chicken."
"I don't know if they have chicken, but they've got
groceries. You know, canned, boxed and frozen food, stuff like that."
She walked right up close to him and reached over and set
the lingerie right in the top of the basket where he was sure to keep it at the
forefront of his mind. "Sure, let's go stock the cupboards." She
chose some basic dry goods, a couple cans here and there. "If I'm going to
be a chef, I can't be relying on packaged goods too much, but sometimes a girl
needs a night off." She grabbed a couple cans of soup and found some
microwave popcorn piling it all on top of the cart. They made their way to the
check out and the lady behind the counter was scanning away and looked up at
the two of them noting what they were buying.
"You kids setting up home for the first time?" The
Ellie wrapped an arm around Luke pulling them together and
laid her head on his shoulder. "Yes, we're going to be so happy." She
peeked out of the corner of her eye and noticed Luke had gone red again. She
pursed her lips and slid her hand across his lower back taking her time letting
it drop and grazing his ass. The feeling sent a shock through Luke and he
wasn't sure how to react so he did his best to forget it happened. They brought
their cart out to the car and packed it away. On the trip home they didn't
speak, and just listened to the radio. Luke turned off the car and reached for
the door when he felt Ellie put her hand on his and give it a squeeze.
"Sorry, I was just;” She said softly, biting her
Luke looked at her and nodded, and got out and began
unloading the car. The little table was piled with boxes and bags were strewn
Luke was about to turn and leave when Ellie stopped him.
"I was just having a little fun. I didn't mean to
embarrass you." She winked.
"Are you busy this afternoon? I could use a hand
unpacking all this stuff and washing the dishes."
"Sure, I can help." He took the first box and
opened it up and brought it into the kitchen and started loading the dishwasher
with the plates and bowls. "We forgot cleaning supplies. I'll run
downstairs I'm sure we've got plenty. He headed for the door and trotted down
the stairs, and his own kitchen.
Ellie decided to get more comfortable and wandered into the
bedroom and lost the shirt and jeans. She had just pulled on her sweat pants
when the door opened and Luke walked in. She hadn't bothered to close the
bedroom door and he got a full on look at her standing there in her sweat pants
and a lacy pink bra. His eyes locked on hers and he froze. Ellie just smiled
and reached for her hoodie putting it on and zipping it up to mid chest just
barely concealing the bra. She walked out of the bedroom.
"Relax it's the Internet age, I'm sure you've seen a
girl in lingerie before."
"Uh yea, sorry I should have knocked. It's just that
I've been up here so much while decorating that I forgot someone lives here
Ellie shrugged , "Mi casa es su casa. You're welcome up
any time. I don't make it a habit to walk around like a lingerie model, don't
worry. I don't have the body for it."
Luke mumbled something, and Ellie was sure it was a denial
of that claim but she just bit her lip to keep from smiling. Luke started
running water to clean the larger items in the sink and Ellie started putting
things into cupboards. The tight space meant they were brushing against each
other often. Luke noticed Ellie used him as a balance whenever he was in reach,
a hand on his shoulder when she leaned into a cabinet. She placed a hand on the
small of his back again to see what he was cleaning.
"No abrasives, just soapy water on that one. That's a
pro quality non-stick saut pan right there." She winked. "It said so
As she leaned back Luke got a light scent of her perfume. He
hadn't noticed it before but it was sweet and flowery. Had she put it on after
he'd gone downstairs he wondered. It was having an intoxicating effect, along
with her touch. He was glad he was facing the sink to hide the bulge that was
"I'm going to go throw these towels in the wash real
"Okay I'll just stay here and slave away in your kitchen
like a drudge." Luke's response was surprising causing Ellie to bust out
"Yes! I have my own kitchen drudge!" She did a
little fist pump in triumph.
Luke peeked over his shoulder as she made for the door
watching her cute little ass with the store name plastered across the seat of
her sweats. He'd better get out of here fast or he wasn't going to make a safe
exit with the tent in the front of his jeans. He wiped down the last dish and
headed down the stairs and poked his head into the garage telling her that he
was done, and if she needed anything else to just let him know. She thanked him
and he rushed into the house.
Ellie went back up to find the dishes all cleaned and laid
out waiting for her to decide where they'd be put. She worked efficiently
putting things in their logical places and had just enough room to fit
everything she'd bought. She saw the yellow lingerie she'd bought and smiled.
She hadn't intended to buy it, but wanted to tease Luke. They were cute though
so she put them in with her wash.
The weekly grind began, everybody leaving the house and
heading off in their respective directions. Ellie got home late from her job at
the little caf , and hit the books for an hour or so before taking a shower.
She wandered into the bedroom and looked out the window hearing something
moving around. She spied Luke hauling a trash can and recycling to the curb.
Luke turned and looked up at the light in the window and saw
her outlined in soft yellow light. She stood there in a long sleeve shirt,
unbuttoned part way down the front. She lifted a hand and gave him a little