I'll take a shower

You step into the bathroom and undress yourself. You examine yourself in the mirror and notice how tired you look. There are bags under your eyes, and your mind is heavy. You push away from the sink and turn in the shower.

The water comes out cold, and you wait a full minute before it’s warm enough for you to enter it. The day was spent jogging in the snow, so you don’t get much grime off your body. Instead, you feel the soreness fade, and the winter melts from your shoulders. The sweat from your toes is soaked out of your feet, and suddenly your mind is clear. And with that clearness…is peace.

It takes a moment to realize why this is, but when you conclude that it’s probably because of Astrid, you open your eyes and find yourself in a new bathroom— well, now a locker room. You’re standing in an open shower wearing swimming shorts and have the familiar scent of pool cleaner swimming around your nostrils. You’re still damp, but now your mind is fixated on searching your surroundings. Scarlet and all other past irritations vanish without much effort.

The locker is nothing to admire, but when you step out, you find a luxurious pool with sapphire water shimmering in summer-like heat on the top of a skyscraper! You’ve been here before, but this is the first time you’ve witnessed the sunlight here. You examine the city below and gasp— it’s still lively with moving vehicles and foot traffic, but there’s much more of it now. It’s an endless stream of cars, trucks, buses, men, women, and children!

“Hey!” Someone shouts behind you. You know immediately it’s Astrid because you don’t get startled by her sudden intrusion. “Care for a dip?”

I turn and see her. Her hair is still tied in a ponytail, but all you can see of Astrid is that. Her pale angelic face and sugar blue eyes as they look up at you at the edge of a pool.

You recoil and smile. “Oh, hey! It’s been a while!”

She smiles, too, now. “You’ve been hard to get a hold of.”

You apologize and walk over to her. Outlines, but also obscured, is her body beneath the gentle waves of the pool. If Astrid was anything but an angel, the sight might have aroused you, but you felt pretty controlled under these circumstances. You slowly sit down, going legs first to join your angel. She watches contently; her lips curved in a friendly smile. “You’ve been busy, and I can’t control that.”

“Have you made an effort to?”

Astrid looks somewhat offended that you’d even ask. She nods and turns away from you before she answers. “I’ll admit that I didn’t suspect you to do the things you did recently with Alexandra. That was, uhm, different. I guess you could say.”

“Was it the wrong choice?” You ask, submerging entirely in the pool. There’s shocking coolness that you have to accustom to, just relaxing warmth.

Astrid turns to face you again, her eyes unreadable to you. “I don’t know,” she says. “You’re the author of the book I’m following. Was it the right choice?”

“I try to go in the direction of my readers,” you grimace, not yet ready to beg or ask for the questions ahead. “Any advice?”

“No,” she smiles, standing in the pool to expose her top half to you. “I trust you.”

Your throat tightens, and your eyes dart down to her breasts, looking slightly larger than usual as they are pressed firmly to her top. Astrid catches your glance, and she gives off a radiate white smile. “What is it?”

“What’s up with the swimsuit and weather? It was winter-like, not long ago,” you try to convince her of innocent intentions, but she giggles and swims closer to you.

“It’s your mind,” she says flirtingly. “You wanted something hot, so you got it~. Is it everything you wanted?”

You know she isn’t talking about the clear sky or warm weather. Though you wouldn’t call Astrid hot, exactly, she did look incredibly enticing to the eye. You give a boyish grin that makes you look a few years younger.

She pushes your face back playfully with her hand and splashes you around. “I certainly didn’t do this one purpose,” she laughs.

“However,” she trails off, looking everywhere beside your eyes. “I’m not picky with what you decide to do either~.”

Astrid puts on a seductive tone that excites you. You consider your options and look away, scared the color of your cheeks might give away the provisions in your head. Astrid draws closer and guides your chin so you’re on her as you try to recover from your stupor. “What would you like to do while you’re here?”