Page 43 of Love at a 7-Eleven

"Do you want to go in?"

"Can we?"

"Yes. Do you have anything to wash?"

She grinned at him and then looked down at her lap before looking at him again. "I don't think so," she said, knowing he was joking. "I can't spare any of this."

"Come on," he said. He opened his door, and she followed him. They met up on the sidewalk and he reached out for her hand. She was happy and she skipped a step as they walked.

"Are you seriously happy about this?"

"Yes. I can't wait to go in here."

"It's probably not as glamorous as you imagine," he said.

"That in itself is glamorous, don't you think? What are we going to do? Just look around? Thank you, for doing this, Caleb. I'm excited."

"You're welcome," he said in an uncertain tone that made her laugh.

"I know it's weird of me to want to go in here."

"It's not weird. We should all want to experience new things. I'm just surprised that I get to impress you with easy stuff like this. I definitely know my way around these places."

He opened the door, which dinged. The attendant looked up at them, and Caleb gave him a nod and wave. He spotted a change and vending machine and went directly to it. He saw that there was a card reader on the change machine and on the washers, and that would have made it easy, but he wanted Lila to use cash and get quarters. He took a twenty dollar bill out of his wallet and handed it to her.

"Can you change this?" he asked, pointing at the machine.

"Just put the whole thing in there?" she asked with wide eyes.

"Yep, face up, like it shows in the picture." He pointed to the little slot on the machine. He dealt with putting his wallet away while she worked on getting change. She easily slid in the bill, and then she smiled at him as if she liked the sound of twenty dollars in quarters hitting the cup at the bottom of the machine. Suddenly, her eyes widened and she stared at him with a look of urgency.

"What?" he said.

"Why are we getting all this change if we don't have anything to wash?"

"We do have something," he said.

Caleb took the handful of quarters and put them into his pocket, and then he went over to the detergent vending machine. He put quarters in and chose some soap. He did all this with one hand while he held onto Lila with the other. He grabbed the detergent and headed to the washer. He chose one that was across from a bench knowing he would take her to sit there while they waited. There were five washers on that row, and none of them had clothes inside.

He went over to the middle one and stood in front of it. She was smiling the whole time like this was the most fun.How was the daughter of a world-famous athlete so entertained by going to a laundromat?This whole scenario only made him love her even more.

"What are we going to wash?" she asked, smiling expectantly at him, barely able to stand still. He reached for the bottom hem of his shirt and stretched it over his head. He had on two shirts, a tight, white, sleeveless fitted undershirt with a looser t-shirt layered over it. He took them both off at the same time, and she let out a little gasp.

"We're washing your shirt?" she asked.

She was glancing at him and also trying not to glance, and Caleb loved it. He had to bite the inside of his cheek to keep from smiling at her antsy reaction to his bare chest. Caleb enjoyed getting a rise out of her, but he didn't let himself hesitate. As quickly and smoothly as he could, he separated the two shirts. He tossed the small white undershirt in the washer before stretching the other shirt over his head again. He watched Lila as she watched him. He wanted to know what she was thinking. He could see that she was having fun.

Just like that, he was fully clothed again. He reached into his pocket and took out another handful of quarters. He held them out so that she could take them from his hand.

"Line them up in those little slots."

He closed the washer door while Lila placed the quarters in the machine. He showed her where to add the detergent and then they pressed the right buttons to get the washer started. There was one tiny piece of white fabric in the huge machine, and they watched through the clear door as it began to spin.

"Are we going to sit here and let it go through a whole cycle?" she asked, smiling like she hoped that were the case.

"I chose a short one, but yes. That's why we're here. We have to wait on our clothes, right?"

"Yesss!" she said excitedly.

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