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“They’re meant to strengthen your self-esteem. Is that what you and she were onto? That you need to boost your self-esteem?”
“Uh-huh,” I admitted.
“Yeah, I agree.” Adam sounded serious. “We can add that to tomorrow’s program.”
“Will it be like today’s program?” I didn’t mind him teaching me about meditation and I enjoyed being in the forest, but he insisted that part of strengthening my personal boundaries had to do with my learning to be comfortable in my own company. The jerk had left me alone in the woods for almost an hour, and Max, the traitor, had gone with Adam to make it worse.
Since my sense of direction was poor, I’d had no choice but to stay and do the soothing meditation Adam had taught me.
“Did Onava say how her mother is doing? Or mention when she’ll be back?” I asked.
Adam squirmed in his seat and bent forward toward the wall, resting his elbows on his thighs. “Her mother died this morning.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” I said quietly.
“And that means,” he continued, “that Onava will have to stay for the funeral.”
I stiffened. “And how long will that take, you think?”
“I don’t know. She’ll keep us updated.”
I picked up my shampoo bottle next to the tub. “I’m stuck with you, aren’t I?”
Adam replied in the same dry tone. “Yup, looks like it.”
I took time to wash my hair with small circular movements that massaged my scalp, and when it was time to rinse I stretched to reach the large tin jug I’d filled with clean warm water and left close to the fireplace.
“Shoot,” I muttered, and water spilled out on the floor as I had to get up on my knees and reach for it.
How the hell did I miscalculate the distance this much?
“What’s wrong?” Adam asked.
“I can’t reach the clean water to rinse the shampoo out.”
“Do you want my help?”
I thought about it, but with all his nonsense about personal boundaries, I’d better do it on my own.
“No, thanks. I got it.” I stood up and placed one foot on the floor, leaning down to pick up the jug when my foot slid on the wet floor and I cursed. By a small miracle I regained my balance and returned to the tub, where I rinsed out the shampoo and took my five last minutes enjoying the warm luxury of the bath.
“Are you going to have a bath too?” I asked and waltzed past him with a towel wrapped around my body.
Adam didn’t answer me at first.
“Is the water still warm?” he asked.
“Eww… you wouldn’t bath in my dirty water, would you?” I asked with my nose wrinkled up.
“I would. What do you think people did in the old days?”
“Adam, that’s really gross and it kinda defies the whole purpose of the bath.”
“Why? Are you saying it would have been gross if we’d been in the bath together.”
I laughed. “Not possible. It’s far too small.”
“You get my point.”
