The message is received—he leaves me alone, finally. I do my best to steady my breathing. As peace is almost within my grasp, Reid walks over and adds his dish to the sink. He throws a towel over his shoulder and smiles. “I’ll dry.”
“We have a dishwasher.”
I’m being a bitch and I know it, but I also can’t seem to stop.
“Okay fine, I’ll put them in the dishwasher then. I’m very good at putting things in dishwashers.”
He is, in fact, subpar when it comes to loading the dishwasher, but we’ll be setting off for a six month road trip tomorrow, and I don’t want to kick it off with fighting. We’ll be in separate vans, but we decided to sign up for all the same events so that we could ‘be a team’ as Reid says.
For the third time, a cup he placed falls on its side. He chuckles. “Ok, I lied.”
“No shit. How about I do the dishes while we’re on the road.” I can’t help but laugh too.
We’ll have to do the dishes in my van anyways—his doesn’t even have a kitchenette. Reid’s van is a piece of shit, and that’s putting it kindly. He nicknamed it the ‘shaky shanty’. The name is spot on. Half of the time, I’m not sure how it still runs. Wetried to get him to work on it more in the off season, but he wasn’t interested and he wouldn’t let Damien buy him a new one either.
My van, a brand new Mercedes sprinter, is pretty fucking sweet. Reid affectionately named it ‘Willa the Wagon’. It took almost a year to design, and half of a year to assemble. I hired the best of the best to work on the heating, cooling, and general design. Somehow, they managed to cram a shower in there—it doubles as a bike wash station. The kitchenette is full service too, with a stove, mini fridge, and even an espresso machine.
Reid proposed that we travel together, and he would do all the gross maintenance on Willa in exchange for letting him use my shower. It made sense, it really did. I guess it still does. Two friends teaming up to make life on the road a little easier and a lot safer. I don’t think I’d have the courage to leave the driveway if he wasn’t coming along.
Damien is a big fan of the plan, but Delaney knows exactly why I’m worried. My crush has been simmering for the better part of my life, and now this road trip is about to fan the flame.
We silently work on the dishes together until I reach into the sink and realize there’s nothing left. Reid brushes his hands together, looking satisfied with himself. “What’s your strategy for tomorrow?”
“To not crash.” I’m not even trying to be snarky, that’s the extent of my strategy right now.
He nudges me. “Come on, let’s go soak and we can talk about it.”
The absolute last thing I need right now is to brush knees with Reid in the hot tub, but I nod anyways. I’ve always had a hard time saying no to him.
Staring at myself for too long in the mirror, I notice the nasty bruise across the lower half of my rib cage. I took a bad fall a fewweeks ago—my tire rolled over a root the wrong way and my torso rammed into my handlebars.
I’m annoyed it still hasn’t gone away. Maybe Damien is right, and I really am too breakable for mountain biking. Reid’s cuts and bruises seem to evaporate overnight.
My favorite robe won’t make it into my luggage for the trip. It’s objectively a waste of space, but I will miss it. I so wish I could be one of those carefree girls who could go weeks and weeks without a shower but I did, unfortunately, inherit my love of the finer things from my parents.
Mud and dirt don’t bother me one bit, but I appreciate a steamy hot shower to wash it off after a long day. You’d think that is to be expected, but some people in the outdoor world pride themselves on their ability to lack basic hygiene.
So I like soft shit—sue me.
The robe feels so good on my skin, and I don’t want to take it off. There’s this silly sense of grief clouding me over having to leave it behind.
I hope I can get in the hot tub before Reid, that way I don’t have to undress in front of him. He never does me the decency of looking away. It always makes me feel like my body is unimpressive compared to what he’s used to, so boring that my curves have no effect on him.
To my dismay, he’s already in the hot tub, with his big arms sprawled across the hard sides. He’s chugging a giant mason jar full of slightly blue liquid, probably electrolytes. I approach the edge slowly and try to ease into the warm water while shrugging my robe off of my shoulders. About half of it is soaking wet now.
Reid is laughing at me. “Why didn’t you take it off before you got in?”
Letting myself sink all the way up to my nose, I splash water at him with more force than necessary. He scoots himself overcloser to me, bumping my leg with his. Shivers trail up my spine, and I squish myself as far into the corner of the hot tub as I can.
“I was just going to offer you some electrolytes.”
“You know I don’t like the brand you use.”
“Oh Addie. So, so needy.” His smirk is diabolical.
I splash the fucker again. “I didn’t ask for any!”
“You have to hydrate for tomorrow.”
