“Yeah?” His voice sounded from the other side of the door. Close but not like he had his ear pressed to the door close.
“Can I take a bath?”
“Sure,” he called out. “I think there’s soap in there. Stuff underneath the sink that you can pour in to make bubbles and shit.”
I walked into the shower area, leaving the huge glass door wide open behind me, and started filling it up with the perfect temperature of water.
I went back to the vanity, spotting a purple kid’s toothbrush next to a boring blue adult one.
“Ummm,” I called over the gurgle of water behind me. “Do you have any toothbrushes I could use?”
“The purple one next to mine is the one you used last night.”
I picked it up and got down to business, brushing and washing my face, while I waited for the bath to fill.
When I was done, I went in search of the bubbles he was talking about, and came up with another kid product.
Did he have kids?
Shit.
I’d just invaded the man’s house, and he’d have had to explain me to them when I was most heavily not at my best.
“Um, Romeo?”
“Yeah?” This time he was even closer, like he moved toward the door.
“Do you have kids?”
“Nope,” he answered. “The stuff in that bathroom is left over from my sister’s kids when they came to stay over Thanksgiving.”
“Oh,” I breathed a sigh of relief. “I was hoping that I didn’t make you sleep with a stranger while you had a kid in the house.”
He chuckled. “No. But do you mind if I come in? I want to brush my teeth and use the bathroom before I head outside and clear the area for Brawny to get out and pee.”
Brawny!
I’d forgotten all about him.
What a horrible dog mom I was.
“Oh, let me hop into the bath really quick.”
He grunted something I didn’t hear because I was making a mad dash for the bathtub with my kids’ bubbles that supposedly smelled like green apple.
I hopped inside, groaning at the feel of the water, and dumped way too much bubble bath.
Luckily, the bubbles formed quickly, because the bathroom door creaked open and Romeo said, “Ready?”
“Y-yes,” I stuttered.
He came farther into the room fully clothed, this time in the flannel that I’d seen him wear the first day that I’d seen him over a black Henley.
He had everything on but his boots and socks.
Yum.
“Is flannel your thing?” I wondered aloud.
