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for a moment. I breathed out a long slow breath and turned the old fashioned lock with my fingers, satisfied with the click it made. I turned around and eyed the old claw foot style tub. It looked really inviting for a bath but I didn’t dare impose like that, instead I started the shower.
    It took me a minute to get the shower going. There seemed to be more knobs than I was used to. I was used to hot and cold and pull up on the thingy, but this had three knobs. The center one is what started the shower. I got out of my wet clothes and folded them neatly on the closed lid of the toilet rather than leave them in a sodden heap on the black and white tile floor. The bathmat was cushy beneath my bare feet and I stepped over the high edge of the bath tub, the shampoo, conditioner and sliver of soap clutched in one hand. I set them down and unbound my hair.
    The small vials of hair product smelled like white citrus which wasn’t so bad, but were barely enough to get the job done with as thick and long as my hair is. I used the sliver of soap until it was gone. It too smelled like white citrus. Usually I used bath soap that smelled like lilac but I hadn’t thought to grab any of that out of the apartment… Just clothes and some other sentimental items.
    I washed my face, then everything else twice, using the sliver of soap until it was gone. I was sure I would never be able to shower off my sheer revulsion at Jerry, and Lord knows I would never be able to scrub that image of him with that other woman straddling his lap on my couch. His bare cock disappearing deep inside her… I heaved again and did my best to banish the image from my mind. It was my number one prerogative to get into a clinic as soon as possible and get tested for every STD known to man.
    I washed up quickly, despite Dray’s admonition to take my time and still felt just as dirty as when I’d stepped into the shower. I dried myself completely, dressed in my pajamas which I was now ridiculously self-conscious in, and set to doing the best I could at getting all the water out of my hair. Satisfied that it was as good as it was going to get I dragged the mass over my right shoulder and braided it swiftly, efficiently, and tightly, reusing my hair tie to bind it at the end.
    I stood in front of the fogged up mirror, my reflection pale but indistinct. I looked down at myself. I wore a black ribbed tank top with a racer back and a pair of men’s blue and white striped boxer shorts. I looked down at my pale pink chipped toenail polish and sighed, taking in a deep breath, holding it in before letting it out slowly and completely. I gathered my things and the towels and opened the bathroom door uncertainly.
    “Um, Dray?” I called out softly.
    “Kitchen.” Was his terse, one word reply. I rounded the archway leading from the small hall into the living space and looked right into the open kitchen. Dray stood at the stove and I blinked at his profile.
    He was naked from the waist up, his lower half clad in a pair of loose fitting black cotton lounge pants that were low slung on his hips. He was muscular, the definition in his arms as he stirred a pot on the stove spectacular, as was the muscle definition along his back and ribs. He turned his head to the side and his dark gaze landed on the dirty clothes and towels in my arms.
    “Go ahead and ditch those in the hamper.” He jerked his head towards the small mud room behind him. I skirted around the counter and put the towels in the proper receptacle and found an empty plastic grocery bag on top of the recycling bin. I put my clothes into it and tied the top as I reentered the kitchen. The tile was chilly under my bare feet and Dray was watching me.
    His upper arm on the side closest to me was taken up by a black and white tattoo of a life like human heart wrapped in barbed wire. The valves of the heart seemed to morph into cold steel pipes which belched flames, hovering above the image, seemingly suspended in the