Alex never thought that she’d ever get excited about a new appliance. It seemed like the most mundane thing to her; an inanimate object that at most could improve your quality of life by shaving a few minutes or hours off of a task. She’d seen her mother get excited about a new washing machine, and she’d seen her father get excited about a new automatic air pump for car tires, but she never thought that she’d ever see herself getting excited about a new washer and dryer being installed. There are a lot of moments that make you realize you’ve become an adult; getting your driver’s license and having your first alcoholic drink were merely tiny stepping stones compared to getting excited about a new household appliance, which was the real sign of being a mature and independent person.

When the washer and dryer were delivered and installed, Alex couldn’t wait to take them for a spin. She only did laundry once a week on Saturdays, but she couldn’t wait that long. So, in went a load of laundry that was barely worth the use of a Tide pod, and once it was done, she tossed the damp clothes into the dryer along with a single Snuggles dryer sheet. She turned the dial to the appropriate setting and excitedly smashed her finger against the start button. So excitedly, in fact, that it took her a couple of presses to actually hit it.

‘Beep!’ Once she hit the button, the tumble drying began. She couldn’t wait to feel the warm towels against her face and to smell the fresh fragrance of the dryer sheet she used. But that was still an hour and a half away. She waited patiently, mesmerized by the mix of polyester and cotton that tumbled over and over again.

Reaching the point where you become excited about an appliance also meant reaching the point where you get frustrated and annoyed at the customer service hotline when that appliance eventually broke down. “They don’t make 'em’ like they used to!” Alex’s father would say, “Our washer and dryer from when you were little still work like the day we first bought 'em’.” Alex was jealous of her parent’s appliances. Sure, they were ugly and beige like everything in the 90s was, but they still worked even though the company that made them went belly up long ago. Alex wasn’t sure if she would be able to love anything beige in her apartment, but an ugly beige dryer that worked beat a pretty minimalistic one that didn’t.

“Hello there Ms. Marx, thank you for holding, I’ve scheduled your repair appointment with our technician and they should be over tomorrow at any time between noon to 2 PM. Does that work for you?” the voice of the kind lady on the Electrolux customer service line spoke. It was a great thing to hear after almost an hour of distorted piano music that sounded like someone had made a piano out of old beer bottles.

Alex, who had her head against the dinner table, was half-asleep, but when there was a voice, she jolted awake and very quickly responded. “Oh, no problem!” She lied; being on hold for an hour was definitely a problem. “Yes, yes! That works for me.” She said with a smile, pushing her head up from the table to look at her phone. The battery indicator was red, but that didn’t matter, the call was almost over now anyway.

“Perfect, our technician will call you on the day of service a couple of hours before they arrive. I am glad I was able to help you with this issue, is there anything else I can help you with while I have you on the line?” the lady asked.

Alex shook her head as if she were sitting face-to-face with the customer service agent, “No, no, that will be all, thank you so much.” The tigress cooed.

Alex could hear the agent on the phone smiling, finally glad that the call with her was over. “Thank you for trusting Electrolux for your home appliance needs. Have a great day.”

‘Click.’

The tigress let out an exhaustive sigh, picked her phone up off the table, and walked away to take a leak. While she sat on the toilet, draining her phone’s battery with Candy Crush, she wondered why the fuck they didn’t just have an app for dealing with warranties and repairs. Now that was a billion-dollar idea. She occasionally glanced up from her phone to look at the overflowing laundry hamper, thank goodness the technician was coming the next day.

“Soda Crush!”

Thank goodness.

The next day came and Alex sat around waiting for the technician to call. She went from the couch to the dining table, to the bed, and then back to the couch again. With her phone in hand and its ringer on maximum volume, she was ready. But the call never came.

The clock ticked a few minutes passed midnight and Alex was asleep on the couch as the TV played the episode of Modern Family where the family takes a lake vacation to watch a solar eclipse. She woke up to the sound of one of the gay characters, Cam, screaming as he fell off the boat and into the lake. It took a few seconds for her eyes to readjust to the light or lack thereof in the living room. When she realized it was dark, she panicked, pushed herself upright, and slammed her hands around for her phone. “No, no, no, no. Please don’t tell me I missed the call; I was only asleep for a few hours…” she said to herself. When she found her phone, she quickly pulled it up to see if there were any missed calls. Na-da. She let out a sigh that mixed in relief and disappointment as she sunk back into the couch and stared at the overflowing laundry hamper that she could see through the slightly ajar door to the laundry room. Her favorite red sweater was in there, almost all of her underwear and socks, and her boyfriend’s clothes, too. She grumbled and growled as she felt the basket of clothes staring back at her, almost as if it was taunting her. She had half the mind to write up a strongly worded email to the office of Electrolux’s CEO to complain about how she was stood up by one of their technicians, but the way the folds in her red sweater made a disappointed frown told her that she had much more pressing matters to attend to. Exhaling through her nose, the tigress pushed herself onto her feet and walked over to the laundry room. She kicked open the door, picked up the laundry basket, and grumbled. “Laundromat it is.”

The basket was heavy, but the laundromat was just a couple of blocks away, driving would have been a waste of gas. Alex came to regret her decision not to drive just as she reached the one-block mark. As she waddled her way down the street in her loosely fitting t-shirt and boy shorts, she felt drops of water fall onto her head. She stopped in her tracks to look up and make sure she hadn’t just been defecated on by a bird; then it started pouring. Raindrops the size of ping-pong balls began to fall and pitter-patter against the pavement. Alex ran as fast as she could through the blinding rain, soaking herself and the topmost layer of the clothes in the hamper in the process. “Fuck you Electrolux, fuck you Electrolux, I’m buying another brand next time.” She grumbled as she zipped through the falling water. She remembered watching an episode of MythBusters where they explained that running through the rain made you get wetter, but she didn’t have time to think about that, she just wanted to get to the laundromat and get her laundry done. Her paws splashed in puddles as she took long strides to get there faster. Once the bright LED sign for the Penguin 24-7 Laundromat was in sight, she let out a happy giggle before slowing down and stopping under the small roof area in the front to catch a break and a breath from the rain. She plopped the basket down on the ground and looked into the self-service laundry establishment that was mostly made of windows on the front. It was very dimly lit, but it was lined with rows of shiny washing machines and dryers. It looked empty, but that was to be expected when it was a little after midnight and raining out, it wasn’t the ideal weather to do laundry outside of your home. Alex looked at the wet clothes on her body, picked up the basket, and let out a sigh as she pushed through the glass doors with her back.

The bell that hung above the door jingled as Alex pushed it open and jingled again but softer when the door closed. She found it odd that there was a bell on the door when it was an unmanned laundromat, but the thought didn’t stay on her mind for long. Once she was inside, she ran over to the row of washing machines against the wall at the back. She left wet pawprints on the slightly grubby tile floor from the door all the way to the washing machine she chose to use.

“Here we go.” Alex plopped her basket on the top of the washing machine and took the plastic container of laundry detergent pods along with a thin box of dryer sheets and plopped them off to the side. She popped open the washing machine door, tossed in a single Tide pod, and started to throw the dirty clothes in piece by piece. The rainwater that had soaked her clothes and fur dripped onto the floor as the tigress unloaded her laundry from her hamper. She threw in shirts, t-shirts, trousers, shorts, jeans, sweaters, underwear, and socks. She was down to a few plushies and a few pieces of her boyfriend’s underwear and the large washing machine was already almost at capacity. She didn’t want to spend all night waiting for two loads of laundry, but then again if she put in too much, the clothes wouldn’t smell as good with just one detergent pod.