Chapter 30
Lucky unlocked the door to his apartment and hurried inside. Liz followed, looking around the room.
“I’d say I like what you’ve done with the place, but you haven’t done anything!” she said.
Lucky just shrugged as he opened the closet. “I’m not staying here forever, so why bother decorating any more than it already is? Here, this should fit you.” He pulled out a polo shirt and tossed it to her. She caught it with her right hand.
“Thanks,” she said, looking it over to see if it would work. Lucky grabbed another shirt for himself and a pair of jeans, then headed for the bathroom.
“Go ahead and change out here, I’m going to take a shower. Now that the soap is drying, I feel sticky.”
“Sure, I’ll just lock the door behind me when I’m done. Oh, do you have a hair dryer?”
“Yeah, why? Your hair’s not really wet.”
“True, but my pants are soaked. I doubt I’d be able to wear any of yours, so I’d like to try to dry them a little before I go back downstairs,” she explained.
After dropping the clothes on his bed, Lucky dug around in the cabinet under his bathroom sink, then came back out into the living room and handed it to her. “Here.”
“Thanks.” She plugged it into an outlet in the kitchen and turned it on while he shut himself in the bathroom.
Liz tried drying the pants while they were on, but it wasn’t working. She glanced at the bathroom door for a moment, trying to decide what to do. The water was still running, so she quickly took them off, thankful that her shirt was long. She stood at the sink and continued to dry the pants. Her shirt was still soaked, but after Lucky had gone into the bathroom, she realized that she wouldn’t be able to put on his shirt without help. Since her arm was in a sling, she had been wearing button-down shirts, which were much easier to get in and out of one-handed. She decided to wait until he was out of the shower and ask if he had any shirts that buttoned all the way, instead of one that had to be pulled over her head.
The pants were taking a long time to dry, and she found her mind wandering to Lucky, every now and then picturing him n the shower. She would shake herself out of it and silently scold herself as soon as it happened, but the mental image was already there, and she couldn’t stop it from popping into her head.
She was so busy fighting with herself, and the hair dryer was so loud, she didn’t hear the shower cut off. A few minutes later, she turned the dryer off, figuring the pants were as dry as they were going to get. Just then, the bathroom door opened, and Lucky walked out, a towel wrapped around his waist, rubbing his hair with another towel. Since the towel was covering his face, Liz saw him before he saw that she was still in the room.
“Oh my,” she mumbled, watching how the muscles in his back rippled as he vigorously dried his hair. At the sound of her voice, he stopped and spun around, letting the towel fall around his shoulders. His hair was all mussed and damp, which she found incredibly sexy. She silently scolded herself for the thought as Lucky found his voice.
“What are you still doing here?” he asked, his eyes widening as he saw that she was only wearing a shirt. “Um, and why aren’t you wearing any pants?”
Liz gasped and looked down, forgetting that she hadn’t put them back on yet. She blushed and grabbed them off the counter, holding them in front of her. “Hey, at least I’m wearing something!”
Realizing for the first time that he was wearing nothing but a bath towel, Lucky cleared his throat nervously and grabbed the pile of clothes off of his bed. “I left my dry clothes out here,” he explained, then hurried into the bathroom to change. Liz sighed and put on her pants as quickly as she could. She was almost done buttoning them when he emerged from the bathroom. This time, he was fully clothed, and his hair had been combed back.
“You’re still here,” he said, sitting on the bed. “And why are you still wearing that wet shirt?”
“Well, I forgot that since I’ve got this shoulder injury, I can only wear button-down shirts. At least, those are the only kind of shirts I can put on without help,” she answered.
“Oh,” he said, getting up to look in the closet. “Well, I didn’t bring a lot of clothes, and since I only wear those kinds of shirts when I’m getting dressed up, I didn’t bring them. I’m on vacation, remember?”
“What about the Bachelor Auction? You had on a suit that night, didn’t you?”
“Yeah, but I borrowed it from Nikolas.” He picked up the polo shirt and examined it for a moment. “Wait, this has buttons, isn’t that good enough?”
Liz shook her head. “It still has to go over my head, and that’s what causes the problem. I have to take off the sling to change, so any little movement hurts like hell.”
Lucky thought for a minute. “Well, what do we do then? Do you want me to leave so you can blow-dry the one you’re wearing?”
“No, those pants took forever, and the shirt’s kind of dirty from the floor. Either we can be adults about it, and you can help me, or you can go downstairs and see if Charisma’s still there, and send her up here.”
They studied one another for a moment, weighing the options.
“Get Charisma,” Liz said.
“I’ll be right back,” Lucky said at the same time, heading for the door.
~*~
“Well, anything?” Charisma asked impatiently.
“Shh,” Luke whispered, leaning closer to the door. “Why don’t you get your own glass?”
“It would take too long, besides, it was your idea!”
“Ooh, wait, the hair dryer finally shut off. Now we’re getting somewhere,” Luke whispered excitedly. He felt sort of foolish standing outside his son’s apartment, holding a glass up to the door so he could listen to what was happening inside, but he just told himself it was for Lucky’s own good in the long run.
“Well?” Charisma asked again. Luke shushed her, his eyes dancing as he listened to the conversation on the other side of the door.
“Okay, from what I’m gathering, Lucky was taking a shower, he came out either naked or in a towel, and Liz isn’t wearing any pants.”
Charisma covered her mouth to keep from laughing out loud, then grinned. “Oh, to be a fly on that wall!”
Luke continued to listen, telling her that they had stopped talking. He motioned for her to keep quiet when the voices starting up again. “Okay, it sounds like Liz can’t change her shirt with that sling, and Lucky doesn’t have the button-down kind she’s been wearing....ooh, this is good, she’s going to need help. Uh-oh, hurry, around the corner!” He pushed her away from the door and they both ran down the hall, hiding around the corner as Lucky came out of the apartment. He hurried down the stairs and looked around, checking the kitchen and the courtyard outside.
“Damn,” he muttered, stomping back up the stairs. “Of all the times for them to leave us alone!”
“Don’t tell me....” Liz started to say as Lucky came back into the apartment by himself.
“Yep, they’re both gone,” he said, sitting heavily on the bed. “I guess that means either we’re going to have to be adults about this, or you’re going to wear a dirty shirt for the rest of the day.”
Liz sighed and stood up from the kitchen table. “Okay, we can do this, right? I mean, we’re both 22 years old - you’re 22, right?” Lucky nodded. “We’re not in high school anymore, this shouldn’t be that big of a deal.”
Lucky stood up reluctantly. “You’re right, we can do this. So, what do you need me to do first?” he asked nervously.
She turned her back to him, then looked back over her shoulder. “Could you help me get the sling off? It’s kind of tricky.”
“Sure, no problem,” he answered, happy to be starting with something so innocent. He fought with the various buckles for a few minutes, then finally got it all unlatched. “Man, this thing’s worse than a straight-jacket!”
Liz chuckled slightly. “Well, they wanted to make sure I couldn’t move my shoulder, so it had to be tight.” She started to slide it off, hissing in pain as her arm moved.
Lucky watched helplessly, not sure what to do. She finally got it off and dropped it on the floor, then turned to him, her arm hugged across her waist. She grabbed the polo shirt and tossed it to him. “Okay, I can take this one off by myself, so turn around until I say I need your help.”
“Okay,” he said, turning his back to her. As he waited, he could feel his stomach jumping, and realized that this was not going to be as easy as they thought.
