The name of her company wasn’t Alice’s idea. She’d wanted to call it Class A Cleaners, adding the ‘s’ to make it sound like it was more than just her. But her friends had said that was boring and that she needed something more eye catching - so Sweeping Beauty it was. She almost put her foot down at the drawing of the sexy pin-up style girl her friend Becca drew of her, but they all said it was great so she went with that too.
Her parents had struggled with the idea of her setting up her own cleaning business. Not because they thought it was beneath her (their wealth had come from a small business they had started), it was because Alice was known to be messy - not dirty, she was meticulously clean, but her room did make her mother wonder if she’d been burgled. Not that her friends were much better - there were always bras and dirty knickers on their bedroom floors too.
Alice had struggled to know what she’d wanted to do when she left school. She had enjoyed her time away at the all girls boarding school and the education had been excellent, but she couldn’t decide what she wanted as a career. That was until her father had told her to do something she enjoyed, and despite her bedroom often looking like a tornado had ripped through it, she did like to clean.
When she was in the sixth form at her boarding school she would get up on a Saturday morning and clean her dorm room to within an inch of its life. There was something therapeutic about it, relaxing, and if she was honest, a little sexy. But that could have been because she always cleaned in her pyjamas or her underwear. She would put in her AirPods and go to town on her room and bathroom, enjoying the feeling of being in just her bra and knickers or the freedom of her boobs swinging free under her thin PJs.
Then when she was finished she would jump in the shower and release all those sexy feelings under the warm water. She’d even done that while her friends sat on her bed waiting for her. They didn’t know what she was doing, of course. They were aware of her weekend cleaning routine, waiting until she’d finished before descending on her dorm room. But what they didn’t know was that while they were waiting for her to shower, she was in there touching herself. Not that they didn’t do it too, she was sure; lying in their beds or baths exploring with fingers, shower heads or maybe hairbrush handles.
Some of her friends even had vibrators, but she didn’t. She’d had her own credit card, which her father paid for, but he also saw the bill each month, so there was no way she could order anything from Ann Summers or another online retailer without him and her mother seeing it, so she had to make do with her fingers. But they had been enough for her.
She did think about boys though, wondering what it would be like to have sex, but she didn’t want her first time to be a one-night stand, a sticky encounter with a spotty boy from the local town a few miles away. So she’d been happy to wait.
Her interest had been piqued when a new teacher had started at her school. Mr. Chambers was younger than the other male staff, fit and good looking, but he had joined the school only a term before she left so she hadn’t seen much of him.
When Alice had received her first booking for Sweeping Beauty she’d been so excited, skipping around her parents' huge house waving the email she had printed off. She wouldn’t print them all off of course, always supposing there would be more; that wasn’t environmentally friendly, but this was her first one - she wanted to frame it.
That first morning she’d turned up on time in the little van she had bought with a business loan from her father - they were both adamant that it was a loan, not a gift. Wearing her new t-shirt printed with the name of her business and its sexy logo and all her cleaning equipment, she blasted through the house of the elderly couple who’d hired her.
She was so happy she’d barely noticed their grandson, a nervous looking young man a little older than her nineteen years, who seemed to be in every room she went in to.
At the end they’d paid her with his help using her online banking and made a regular booking. She was over the moon, singing all the way home.
When she’d arrived home she’d found the email from the couple with the regular booking and another booking for another customer. She was ecstatic.
The following week Alice jumped out of bed, stripped off her pyjamas, hopped into a sports bra and thong and pulled on her t-shirt and a pair of grey leggings before tying her blonde hair back into a ponytail.
Alice walked up to the front door and knocked. A few moments later the door opened, but instead of seeing one of the elderly couple she was greeted by their grandson. He still looked as awkward as he had the previous week and he smiled shyly.
‘Hello,’ Alice said, smiling. ‘I’m here to clean.’ She held up the plastic box she used to hold her supplies.
‘Yes,’ the young man said nervously, stepping back to let her in.
Alice picked up her vacuum cleaner and stepped through the door into the big house.
‘My grandparents are away on holiday,’ the young man said. ‘I’m housesitting.’
‘That’s nice,’ Alice replied. ‘I’ll make a start. I’m Alice, by the way.’
The young man nodded, his eyes darting around, not wanting to make contact with her. ‘Leonard,’ he replied. ‘If you need anything I’ll be in the kitchen.’
Alice wiped her forearm across her brow and fanned her t-shirt.
I might need to re-think this sports bra in the warm weather, she thought as she picked up her box of cleaning supplies. She was making good time; she only had the bathroom to go and she was looking forward to getting outside to cool off.
Leonard hadn’t appeared again since letting her in but she thought she’d heard him go upstairs a few minutes before. Leaving her vacuum cleaner by the front door Alice ascended the stairs and walked down the hallway past closed bedroom doors towards the bathroom. She didn’t clean bedrooms unless people requested it. She had discovered, doing her research, that people generally didn’t like someone going into their bedrooms, so she made it clear on her website that they could be added to a clean on request.
As she reached the bathroom she could see that the bedroom door opposite was open and she looked to her right through the open door. Leonard was in there putting something into a wardrobe.
‘Hello again,’ Alice said brightly. ‘I’m almost finished.’
The young man shuffled nervously and nodded, making a sound to indicate he understood.
Alice shrugged to herself. He was obviously shy so she decided not to bother him any more and walked into the bathroom. Everything already looked quite clean but she decided to give the taps and tiles a going over. She fanned her t-shirt as she looked around, turning as she heard a noise behind her. In the bedroom opposite, Leonard quickly turned away.
Had he been watching her?
Alice caught sight of herself in the long mirror behind the sink. Her blonde hair was tousled, with strands falling over her face, clinging to the perspiration, but she had to admit her bum looked good in her leggings. She fanned her t-shirt again and confirmed that doing so exposed her flat stomach. Another sound came from the bedroom opposite. Alice turned slowly to see the young man step behind the open door.
He had been watching me, she thought. At first Alice was a little freaked out - this strange young man watching her. But he seemed quite harmless and years of playing hockey at school and using her parents' home gym had keep her in good shape - she was pretty sure she could outrun him if she had to. But he seemed more nervous than dangerous.
I wonder, Alice thought, suddenly feeling a little excited at the prospect of a young man looking at her. Stepping behind the door she lifted her t-shirt, tying a knot at the front, exposing her tummy before stepping back out and bending over to pick up her bathroom cleaner and cloth. There was another sound from behind her. Alice fought the urge to turn around, instead pretending to look for something in her box. She could feel the sports thong rubbing against her and she was sure her position was giving Leonard a good view of her bum. She stood slowly and walked over to the mirror, reaching to the top, the action exposing her waist and her ribs as she reached higher. She was certain she could hear breathing coming from the bedroom and she lifted one leg onto the vanity unit, stretching her leggings even tighter over her bottom, sure that the view from behind left little to the imagination. The sound of breathing from the bedroom was now accompanied by shuffling.