The Home Assessment

Author Note: This is the third chapter in the series "The Contract." This chapter takes place before "The Medical Assessment."

Part Three - The Home Assessment

The doorbell rang, I paused the film I was watching and went to answer the door. I was a little surprised to open it and see Natalie stood there in a white long sleeve blouse and knee length plaid skirt. Her black pumps had obviously been shined recently. She looked rather officious behind a pair of thick rimmed black glasses and was holding a clipboard.

"Are you a stalker?" I said with surprise. "How did you find me?" a hint of sarcasm in my voice.

"I am here to conduct your home assessment Mister Thomas." Natalie replied looking over the top of her thick rimmed glasses. Her face and tone were purely business, not even a hint of a smile. I decided to stay quiet at this point, my attempt at humour clearly didn't work. I stepped to one side, motioning for her to come in.

"Thank you" was her somewhat short response as she stepped into the small rectangular hallway of my home.

"We will start with your general living arrangements, please show me round your home." She said to me, her tone not changing.

I was somewhat taken aback by her instruction, this was the first time Natalie had been to my house and sounded quite abrupt for a first time guest. I was also a little worried about how she had found where I lived but I thought I would play along for now. Maybe she would lighten up a bit as time went on.

I led her in to the living room, a long rectangular room which ran the entire length of the right hand side of the house. A large three seater couch with two matching chairs just inside the door, a heavy wooden coffee table in front of the couch and a large flat screen television on the opposite wall. I waited while Natalie walked round the room and taking notes. She went to the other end of the room where an expandable dining table with six chairs was in the middle of the width of the room. A smaller brown wooden desk was against the far wall with my laptop and monitor on show and a comfortable office chair on wheels pushed in under the desk. She looked out the double patio doors that led to the small garden and took more notes. Although she had said nothing, it felt like an interrogation.

Natalie walked back to the couch, prodded the cushions before saying "adequate" and writing something else on her clipboard.

"Stand here please Mister Thomas" Natalie said, pointing at the floor in front of her with the end of her pen. The interrogation started to get more intense.

"Section three of the assessment covers your general fitness and exercise. Can you remove your top please?" I felt Natalie's eyes watching me intently as she asked the question. I hesitated for a moment wondering if she was serious.

"Don't panic, this isn't a medical, not yet anyway." She smiled as she spoke and I realised she was serious. I removed the plain white tee shirt I was wearing and wondered what else she was going to ask.

"Now your sweat pants please" Natalie said. Her tone sounded like she had told hundreds of people to remove their clothing in the past.

I hesitated again, I was feeling a little uncomfortable at this point. She looked at me over her glasses and felt like I was a child again and being told off by a teacher.

"Now please Mister Thomas, chop, chop." Natalie must have sensed how I was feeling and she really did sound like a teacher.

I slowly dropped them as ordered revealing the padded pull up pants that I had on. To make matters worse, I had used them before Natalie had appeared on my doorstep so they needed changing soon.

"Hands on your head please Mister Thomas" Natalie said, her tone not changing.

I did as she asked, the intensity rising as the time passed. I felt my heart beating faster in my chest and more embarrassingly, I felt more aroused.

Natalie seemed to revel in my embarrassment and squeezed the padding feeling just how wet the pad was.

"Would you say you were a little bedwetter?" she teased, breaking the business like tone for a moment. I blushed a little, wishing I had known she was going to turn up at my door.

"No, I don't wet the bed" I said sarcastically, "I can control my bladder."

She looked at me over her glasses once more then started slowly walking round me prodding at my stomach, my sides, my back and my thighs with her pen. I shivered at the attention and tried to breathe deeper to control my head which was starting to spin a little.

She stood in front of me and made a point of writing some notes. This time I could see what she noted. She spoke the words as she wrote "needs further medical investigation."

"You may pull your pants up Mister Thomas" she said and as she left the room, she added "follow me."

She walked across the hallway in to the kitchen diner. Another long rectangular room that ran the length of the left of the house. Sink unit and cupboards under the front window and plenty of storage space above and below the work surface which ran down half the kitchen area. A large American style double fridge freezer separated the kitchen area to the diner space. More cupboards ran the rest of the length of the room with a six seater wooden table and chairs in front of them. Another set of double patio doors led out to the garden at the rear of the room. I stood in the doorway watching as Natalie opened each of the cupboard doors. She stopped and opened the fridge freezer taking note of the contents before returning to her clipboard and making more notes.

I stood there with a bemused look on my face, I found it bizarre what she was doing but was also strangely turned on by it too. I had always loved the idea of being interrogated but I never thought I would feel like this as someone rifled through my cupboards.

I tried to get a feel of where her mind was at by asking "is everything ok?" This was met by a look from her over her glasses and more notes being written. The only vocal sound I got from her was "hmmmm"

Natalie stopped in the doorway, she looked me directly in the eye saying "shall we continue?"

"Please do" I replied with a smile, still bemused at the whole scenario that was playing out.

"Show me the upstairs please Mister Thomas" Natalie's voice back to the same business like tone as before. I turned, walked across the hallway and up the stairs. I opened the door to the bedroom saying "Master bedroom" and let her walk in. I was really thankful that I had made the bed and vacuumed through that morning, am sure it would have looked bad on my assessment otherwise!

I watched as she walked round the decent sized room with a double bed against the far wall and a chest of drawers opposite. A large window at the back made the room light and airy. She pulled back the duvet on the double bed and looked at the sheet. She pulled up the under sheet and prodded the mattress a few times with her hand.

I couldn't help but ask "can I ask what you are doing?"

"I need to check if you are indeed a baby bed wetter" she replied, teasing me further.

I blushed profusely and said softly "I am not a baby."

She left the bed side and went in to the en suite. When she came out, she opened a few drawers, made a few notes and moved to the built in wardrobe running the width of the bedroom behind the door.

"Hmmm" was all the wardrobes contents was worth apparently, more notes.

She walked out of the room, along the short walkway to the next bedroom, one I was using as a store room. Store room was more a relative term, junk room where I put things I didn't know what else to do with at the time was more appropriate.

Opening the door actually made me blush, I was sure that something sarcastic would be said about the state of the room. I had been meaning to go through its contents but always got distracted by something so hadn't gotten around to it yet.

Other than piles of boxes, a large dog cage and a dog bed, there wasn't much else to see in the smaller single room. Rays of sunlight bounced off the boxes from the large window at the far end of the room. A double built in wardrobe sat behind the door and the sunlight bounced off of its mirrored doors.

I moved further in to the room to allow Natalie in, presumably to "inspect" it.

She made a bee line for the wardrobe and peeked inside.

"Oh" she exclaimed, "I wasn't expecting that" she said after looking through its contents.

"What have you found?" I asked her, my interest definitely peaked.

"All will become clear Mister Thomas" she said with a wry smile as she took yet more notes.

Natalie walked out of the room and headed towards the other two remaining rooms yet unexplored. She was clearly getting in to the role and I suspected she had done assessments like this many times before.

A quick look round the main family bathroom and Natalie was off to the last bedroom. I followed her round like a lost puppy dog waiting in the doorway while she inspected it. My heart was racing although I had no idea why. I hadn't asked for the assessment and I was going to make sure Natalie answered the question of how in the world she knew where I lived! She had evaded the question till now but she wasn't leaving till she filled me in.

Natalie opened the wardrobe and chest of drawers in the room before making some notes on her clip board and leaving the room. She looked at me with a smile, knowing I was completely confused. I followed her downstairs and she opened the door to leave. She turned to me saying "one last thing, the assessment asks about forms of transport and how you get around. I assume the car is your only form of transport?"

"No, actually it's not. I have a motorcycle in the garage. Do you ride?" I replied.

"No chance" she answered quickly "In my line of work, we refer to them as donor cycles."

I was shocked at her answer but each to their own I thought to myself.

"Thank you Mister Thomas" she concluded, "the assessment was very informative. I will be in touch to discuss your results."

I was completely stunned, Natalie had appeared at my door, looked through every wardrobe and cupboard and now was expecting to just walk out the door without any explanation.

"So, I think I deserve an explanation?" I asked her, still in shock.

"About what? My turning up at your door unannounced?" She replied, her tone the same business-like manner as before.

"For one thing yes, are you some kind of stalker or something?" I asked, my tone a mixture of irritated and surprised.

"Don't flatter yourself boy" Natalie said, her tone getting colder by the second. "I see potential in you but you aren't that special. If you must know, I do regular visits to the care facility at the end of the road. I saw your car parked up as I was passing. You have a personalised plate so it wasn't exactly hard to miss."

I have to admit I felt a little stupid at this point. My car did have a recognisable plate and the road I lived on was the quickest route to get to the care home. I felt my face flush red and I wanted the ground to open up and swallow me.

"And about the assessment?" I asked meekly, trying to change the subject. My face burning at this point.

"As I said, I will be in touch" she replied. With that, she turned and walked toward what I assumed was her car, leaving me standing on the doorstep utterly speechless.