“I suppose anything’s possible,” he said.
He fell silent for a while as he mulled over the idea.
Once it looked like he’d finished cleaning his body, I noticed that his hair looked a bit greasy. Although I was still hesitant to offer such personal help, I suggested casually, “Your hair looks like it might need a wash.”
He reached into his hair and felt it. “Yeah. You’re right.”
He sank down into the bathtub, submerging his head. I looked toward the cabinet beneath the sink, where the shampoo was kept. Leaving the bath side for a moment, I pulled out a bottle of two-in-one shampoo and conditioner before returning to my seat.
“Would you let me?” I asked, holding up the bottle. “I like messing with hair.”
He rolled his eyes. “All right.”
He sat up again and turned himself so that his back was facing me. I ran my fingers through his hair and soaked his scalp with shampoo. It was actually true that I liked messing with hair—since I was a kid, I’d always wanted to play around with my mom’s long hair, and I’d mess with Hazel’s and Victoria’s too whenever they came round for a sleepover. Perhaps if I hadn’t joined the League and I’d lived in a world that was far different from our own, I might have even trained to become a hairdresser…
I finished lathering his hair before instructing him to dip into the water again. I rinsed it off, giving his scalp a massage at the same time. When he sat up, although he still looked awfully pale, he appeared quite relaxed. Certainly less tense than when I’d first come in here.
As I examined him now, it looked like there was only one more thing to be done. His beard. It was still looking rather unkempt, and if we were to stay in a hotel, we needed to attract as little attention as possible. It was about time for him to have a shave, anyway. Feeling bolder now that he’d allowed me to wash his hair, I moved to the shelves and took down a new razor and a jar of shaving foam. I placed them on the edge of the bathtub.
To my surprise, he chuckled. “Okay,” he said, reaching for them. “I can take a hint. Drop the caveman look.”
I smirked. “I do think you’ll look better without it.”
As he started opening the jar of cream, I quickly fetched a handheld mirror and held it up to him. As he began to shave, I watched closely. His beard slowly came off. I marveled at the transformation, and once he was finished, I was practically gaping.
Wow. What a difference a shave can make. He looked so much younger. His features were also more pronounced—his jawline was harder, stronger than I had thought beneath his hair, and his cheekbones were also sharper. I spotted a faint dimple at the end of his chin, which was actually kind of cute. His lips also looked different: wider, fuller.
I realized that I was looking at him more than he was looking at himself when he frowned at me and said, “What?”
“You look, um… awesome.” Handsome was the word that had almost slipped from my lips.
He looked back at himself in the mirror and widened his eyes. “You’re easily impressed, then.”
I wasn’t about to start arguing that he was better looking than he was willing to admit. Instead, I just smiled faintly and pursed my lips.
Now that he had finished shaving, I wasn’t sure what other business he had to do in the bath. He seemed to be ready to get out, too. I stood up, planting my left hand on the left side of the bath and my right on the right side, to gain a grip. Then I lowered myself—until my face was rather uncomfortably close to his—and gave him permission for the second time. “You can put your arms around me.”
His cool, damp arms reached around my neck. As I began slowly easing him up, my right hand slipped from the edge of the tub. I’d underestimated how slippery the water had made it. I found myself falling… he was falling too… I was falling on top of him. The next thing I knew, we were both in the bathtub. Our faces were squashed together, our noses touching. And his laughter was loud in my ear.
“Oh, my God!” I gasped, scrambling to raise myself off of him. “I’m so sorry! I’m so, so sorry!” Grabbing hold of the tub’s edges, I leapt out of the bath so fast one would have thought he had given me an electric shock.
But Josh didn’t seem to mind my mistake in the slightest. He was still shaking with laughter.
Well, at least somebody’s entertained…
He could laugh, but I was supposed to be a professional. How could I have made such a stupid, clumsy mistake with a patient?
“Are you okay?” I feared that I had hurt him. Although he didn’t look hurt, I could have damaged him somehow and he might not even feel it.
But he could barely answer me through his chortling.
At this, I couldn’t help but crack a smile. “Finished making fun of me yet?”
“Not quite,” he managed.
I glared down at him in mock admonition, until he calmed down.
“Dare I suggest we try that again?” he asked, a grin still splitting his face.
Smirking, I reached for a towel. Before gripping the edges of the tub this time, I made sure they were thoroughly dried. And then for good measure, I handed the towel to Josh so that he could dry his arms and hands.
Then we tried again. This time, thankfully more successfully.
I placed down towels on his seat before I raised him out of the tub and lowered him back into it. I handed him two more towels so that he could dry himself completely. Eyeing me in amusement, he handed one of the towels back to me. “Looks like you could use this just as well as me.”