“Well?” she said.
“Well what?”
“A shower. Are you going to have a
shower?”
“Yes, right.” He turned to the shower.
“Are you going to—“
“Look away? Ewww, yes. Of course.” She
turned around to face the same corner as he had. “I’ve got my eyes closed.”
He removed his coat, decided not to ask
her to place it over her head as she had done to him, and hung it on a peg on
the wall. Then he took his shirt and jeans off and self-consciously folded his
boxer shorts inside them. There was nowhere to put them.
“Would you hold my clothes?”
She nodded and held out her arms.
He flipped the lever that started the
water. It was lukewarm. The soap was in a push button dispenser and he quickly
covered himself in lather. He shivered. “Takes a while to warm up, doesn’t it.”
“You only get one shower for your
euros.”
“Oh, thanks. Vital tip that.”
“You were the one that jumped in.”
He tried to keep his back to her. “This
is getting bloody cold.”
“Hey, you have a scar.”
“I thought you had your eyes closed!”
“I can’t stand here all this time with
my eyes closed. It’s not normal. How did you get your scar?”
“Fell out of a tree and tore up my
shoulder when I was young.”
“No, not the one on your shoulder. The
one on your bu—“
He crunched up, covering himself. “Do
you mind?”
“I was only trying to make
conversation.”
The water was freezing now. The overhead
fan was still blasting away. He could feel his skin prickling with the cold. He
swept a blob of shampoo through his hair and rinsed it away immediately,
thrashing his hands to clear the soap off his body. He snapped the tap to off
and ran his hands over his body to wipe off the water. “God, I’m cold.”
“Turn on the dryer,” she said.
He pressed the button and nothing. He
pressed again. Then he thumped and banged it. Nothing happened. He was
shivering uncontrollably. “Oh, god. One shower, one run of the dryer.” He ran
his hands over his body, trying to ward off the cold and flicking more water
onto the sopping wet floor.
She leaned over to the sink and pulled a
handful of paper towels from a dispenser. “Here.”
“Are you closing your eyes at all?”
“Will you stop being a wimp?”
She juggled the towels in her hand and
backward-passed them to him. At the same moment his clothes fell out of her
other hand.
He dived to grab them from the wet
floor. She did the same. Their heads cracked, his eye socket against the back
of her skull. A storm of twinkling lights erupted in his vision and darkness
threatened to overcome him. He slid down and sat on the floor. “Oh, god, why’d
you do that?”
She picked up his clothes from the wet
floor. “I didn’t do it on purpose.”
He grunted and held his head in his
hands.
“Wow. You’ve got abs,” she said.
He sighed. “Everyone’s got abs.”
“Yeah, but not ones you can see.”
He drew his knees up to his chest.
“That’s because I’ve got no clothes on.”
“I meant—“
There was an insistent knocking at the
door followed by Little’s high-pitched squeak. “You two are wasting time.”
Piers rolled his head forward. “Oh,
shit.” The twinkling lights swam around in circles.
“Go away,” said Sidney, “we’re busy.”
“So I can hear. You two lovebirds might
be having fun, but you’re wasting time. Get out here.”
“Oh, god. Give me my clothes,” said
Piers. He heard a burst of schoolgirl sniggers from outside.
