Bubblegum pink bubbles stick to the white porcelain sides of the tub,
but I don’t move an inch. I haven’t told him yet
that it’s him I am interested in.
I sometimes wonder what it would’ve changed if I had?
“Ryker?” There is a voice through the door.
I take a minute to make sure my voice
is strong enough to speak. “Yeah?”
He clears his throat, “I was just wondering, um.”
I am sitting naked in the bathtub, tanned summer skin
contrasting with the soapy white all around me. “How was your day?”
I lean my head back against the tile of the shower wall,
closing my eyes. “It was better than yesterday,” I tell him.
He is quiet for a long moment, and I am just starting to
become cold again in the lavender light of the bathroom.
Silence lapses between us again, and I think maybe
he has walked away, until: “Do you know that my mother
told me how much she loved you the other day?”
I smile now. I start getting out of the tub,
and feel a repressed shiver build up.
“Well, I might hope she at least likes me a little bit.” I chuckle as I dry off.
“It has been three years, after all.”
“Yeah,” I hear.
I recognize the drifting sound he is hiding in his voice.
A spike of concern jumps through me, and I open
the door to face him, only realizing what I have done a second too late.