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He took his keys out of his pocket and tossed them on the counter. “You’re not going to undress at all. We’re both getting in dressed. That way we can rinse out our clothes, our skin, and our hair at the same time.” He tested the water to check for warmth and stepped inside. Must have been warm enough. He stood under the main nozzle and tipped his head back.
It felt weirdly intimate to see him standing in the shower, water running down his bare chest. It was going to feel even weirder to step into the shower with him, but her only other choice was to go down to the kitchen and use the sink to rinse out her hair, and if she did that, she’d still have paint all over her arms and legs. She’d have to take off her clothes and rinse them out in the sink, and that seemed like a worse idea—to stand naked in front of the kitchen sink while he was in the house.
So, the shower it was. She climbed in and was greeted by the spray of hot water. The shower had two nozzles, one in the normal location and one hanging from the ceiling. She wasn’t sure why anyone needed both but was glad that rich people liked this feature. She stood under the one from the ceiling, shut her eyes, and let the water drench her.
“Paint isn’t good for pipes,” he said. “We’ll have to let the water run for a long time to make sure the pipes don’t get coated with it.”
“Ok.” She opened her eyes. He was combing his hands through his hair to get paint out. His chest glistened. It felt wrong to stare at him, and yet now that she’d opened her eyes it was hard to tear her gaze away.
She ought to be doing something besides admiring his muscles. She poured some shampoo on her palm, then handed him the bottle.
He examined the label. “Am I going to smell like a girl if I use this?”
“Sorry. I forgot to bring manly-scented shampoo with me.”
Her body wash was rose-scented. He probably wasn’t going to like that either. He lathered up his hair and smirked at her. “I wish I could take a selfie of this moment. No one from our class would ever believe Olivia Travers was in the shower with me.”
“Yeah, they wouldn’t believe it, because you never talked to the honor students, let alone me.”
He tilted his head back to rinse off his hair. “No, they wouldn’t believe it because you never did anything wild in high school.”
She was still working shampoo through her hair, making sure to get the ends. “What do you know about what I was like in high school?” He’d never paid any attention to her.
“I grew up with you. We all knew what everyone was like.”
“We all knew which cliques we belonged to. That’s not the same. You didn’t really know what I was like.”
He poured some body wash into his hand and went to work on his shoulders. “I know that for no apparent reason, you disliked me enough to get me suspended from football.”
She coughed in disbelief. “No reason? You stole my service project and then gloated about it.”
“Your service project?” he repeated as though he didn’t think such a small thing should matter. “Giving pencils to the poor was that important to you?”
He hadn’t understood back then, and he still didn’t understand now. “Not just pencils. There were students in need at our school.” She rinsed off her hair, glaring at him. “I worked really hard on that presentation. I’d already talked with community organizations about partnering with them. The school would’ve chosen my idea, but no.
You mocked it in front of everybody and then, off the top of your head, you came up with the bleacher idea. You’d never said two words in class before, but on that day, the whims of the football god were aroused. You decided to hate my project and turn everyone against it.”
He scrubbed a hand across his face and sighed. “It wasn’t like that. I’m sorry about the work you put in on your project, but I was getting a D in social studies, and the teacher said she’d raise my grade if I started contributing in class. So I contributed an opinion.”
She blinked at him. “Your opinion was that we shouldn’t help needy students?”
“I wasn’t trying to sabotage your presentation. And it wasn’t my fault everyone liked my idea better. I had to raise my grade, or I’d get kicked off the football team. Which is ironic because once you reported my party, it didn’t matter anyway.” He dipped his chin. “Wasn’t costing us the state championship a bit much as far as revenge went?”
She bit her lip. As fast as her anger had flared, it was replaced by guilt. “I didn’t mean for that to happen and wouldn’t have even called if you hadn’t made fun of my father.”
Carson looked at her like she was crazy. “When did I ever do that?”
“You said in front of everybody—and this is a quote; I know because it was burned into my soul—‘Hey, you should come to my party too. I know how you love alcoholics.’”
Carson’s head snapped back. “That wasn’t a comment about your father.” The light of understanding dawned in his eyes. “I didn’t know your father had a drinking problem back then. When Matt started working for me, he mentioned it, but I assumed it was a recent thing.”
The air in her lungs hitched, caught in her throat. Carson hadn’t known? She couldn’t quite believe it. “Everyone knew about my father. When I was in junior high, he got fired from his job for drinking. Then he was banned from parent-teacher conferences for drunk and disorderly behavior. People were always talking about my father.”
“Well, no one talked to me about him.” Carson held out his hands in frustration. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know. I was just inviting you to my party. You know, offering an olive branch. I added the part about you loving alcoholics because…” He shrugged. “I was seventeen and thought I was being funny.”
She stared at him. Even with the hot water running over her shoulders, she suddenly felt cold. He really hadn’t known. He’d been inviting her—her—to his party. He’d been trying to be nice, and she’d called the police and gotten him suspended from football. All of their bad blood and drama—it had been for nothing. The anger at her and her ostracization—none of it needed to happen.
“Okay,” she said slowly, still processing it, “then I guess I’m doubly sorry that I got you in trouble.”
