@Tsar Gatto@paragloan@Eviledd1984Things were not going okay. Erik scowled as the readout on the treadmill told him that he had run a full ten seconds slower than his average time on the machine than normal. He looked around the room, making sure that there were no other occupants on the inside and quickly erased the measure from the machine.
At least no one was around to see this. The clock near the water fountain let him know that about an hour had passed since he had started working out. The water, at the bare minimum of expected quality for any residence in his opinion, was cold. He slurped it down greedily, always careful to ensure that he was always hydrated and in perfect health. His body was, as people said, a temple after all. He moved back over to his room and for the second time today grabbed his bathroom kit. It had been long enough since this morning that the hot water was running again in the shower though after Erik was done with it, little remained. He tossed on a new outfit: high quality denim jeans and a long sleeved olive shirt that brought out the color of his eyes. The sleeves on the olive shirt were somewhat larger than normal and these pants had the largest pockets of any he owned. It was a good thing for he would need the storage space, and he silently complimented himself for his own cleverness.
He looked around his room and found that at some point Maddie had gone through and cleaned it again. He ran a finger along the top of his desk and found it to be spotless.
'I see Maddie had come back around again. This is an excellent start to her apology.' The letter from his mother still remained atop his desk where he had neatly placed it, most likely the reason it had not been carefully dealt with in the cleaning. In any case it was about time for dinner, so Erik headed downstairs to ensure the chore board was correct. It was part of the rules that everyone was given chores to do after their classes and simply put the majority of the activities were simply beneath him. He always made sure that he switched his chores for somewhat less menial ones if the board was incorrect. Tonight he had been assigned to set and clear the table, one of the few activities that Erik did not particularly mind. He possessed a sense of style and decorum that could not be found by the staff here at Ebott House. While others may simply toss napkins and placemats haphazardly, Erik took time to make the table arrangements look almost more appetizing than the food. With a few more quick folds, he finished the stately napkin arrangements like one would find at a 5 star restaurant exactly as his mother had taught him.
While clearing the table would not usually be nearly so spectacular, tonight it would work to his advantage for his rendezvous with Teres. With a final thought he grabbed one of the small flowers one of the nurses tended to on the mantel place by the window and pulled it out of the pot. Quickly stripping it of its leaves and the majority of its stem, he pulled a pen out of his pocket and wrote on the inside of the petals.
10. Window at the end of the hall. Wear something warm. He placed the flower message in the arranged napkin on the right hand side of his intended seat so that the flower would fall out once the napkin was moved.
He looked around the room and at himself in the mirror searching for any potential flaws, but no doubt due to his highly polished skill, could find none. The nurses began to bring in dinner in covered platters on stainless steel carts whose wheels squeaked from time to time, in that strange pace that made the squeaks almost unpredictable. Erik had learned to ignore it, and sat down at the table waiting for Teres to arrive so he could rise and offer her the seat. He called out down the hall,
"Dinner!"