Chapter 15

The next morning I felt like crap warmed over: my head ached, my throat was dry. I had the presence of mind to recognize it as my first hangover and as I thought back to how I’d behaved the night before, staring at Alice, asking for a hug, I felt ashamed to boot. I was in no condition to cuddle with Timothy as we had the other morning, and moreover when I looked over at the clock it was surprisingly late, almost 6:30.

I lay staring miserably at the ceiling for a few minutes, hoping Timothy would wake up. Finally I got up, grabbed the towel Alice had given me, pulled on the previous day’s underwear and walked out into the hallway, gently closing the door, and into the bathroom. I closed the door - there was no lock - started the shower and washed the grime off. Even though it was still hot in the apartment, the hot water felt good, and I decided to wash my hair.

Suddenly the door opened. Initially I thought it must be Timothy but I was shocked to see, through the transparent curtains, that it was Alice who’d walked in — and even more shocked to see that she was stark naked. Alice looked straight at me but seemed entirely unperturbed. “Oh, hi Rob. Sorry, I assumed it was Timothy in there.” I wondered - was she in the habit of just walking in, naked, on Timothy when he was in the shower? But she didn’t back out or apologize further, but simply walked over to the toilet and sat down with a sigh.

I simply could not believe what was happening. The shower curtain was not designed well and didn’t reach all the way around the tub — fortunately the relatively anemic spray didn’t reach out the end. With only the sink between the tub and the toilet, I could see Alice’s face and breasts, and was uncomfortably conscious of the fact that she could surely see me as well, at least out of the corner of her eye; she was facing forward. I tried not to look. I closed my eyes and rinsed my hair; when I opened them again, I saw that Alice had turned towards the tub and was staring straight at me.

She saw me notice and, to her credit, looked embarrassed. “Sorry, Rob. Didn’t mean to embarrass you. We’re family now, right?” It seemed like an odd thing to say. Family — and I was thinking of course of my parents; Lily was something else entirely — were the last people I’d expect to be seeing me naked in the shower. I tried to maintain my aplomb and muttered, “Sure.”

Alice got up off the toilet, wiped her front, threw the tissue in and flushed. I yelped in spite of myself as the water suddenly ran hot and Alice apologized: “Oh geez, Rob, I’m sorry. I always forget, Timothy gets so pissed at me.” I said, “It’s OK, I was done anyway,” and turned off the water. I don’t know what prompted me; perhaps it was just wanting to match her nonchalance, but I pulled aside the shower curtain and clambered out, dripping.

Alice stepped over, picked up my towel and, without even asking, began to dry me. She rubbed my hair vigorously with the towel, spinning me around so I was facing the door, then dried my back, then finally gently took my shoulder, turned me back around, and began to towel my chest. I was looking straight at her nakedness, and she of course was looking at me, and I think it was only the hangover and perhaps the sheer unexpectedness of the situation that saved me from embarrassing myself with an erection right then and there. Finally, she said lightly, “you’re good to go! Go wake Timothy up, you guys are going to be late.” Numbly, I put the towel in the laundry bin and walked back to Timothy’s room, forgetting my underwear on the bathroom floor.

Timothy was already awake and I whispered to him, “hey, listen, your mom...” He looked at me curiously. “She, she came in when I was taking a shower.” I didn’t mention the rest of it. He looked puzzled. “Yeah?” I said, “Isn’t that a bit...” He shrugged. “Did she flush the toilet while you were in there? I hate when she does that, she always forgets that it makes the water get hot.” I laughed. “Yeah, that’s what happened.” “Well ... sorry if you got burned.” “No, no, I just wasn’t expecting her to come in, you know...” I realized he didn’t really understand what I was getting at. I elaborated: “I mean, my parents would never come into the bathroom when I was, when we were...”

As I said it I realized how dumb I was being; we had three bathrooms in our apartment. Timothy said, “oh, yeah, well, Mom never really asks; we go in all the time when the other one is in there. She probably just forgot you’re not me.” I laughed. He got up and said, “speaking of showers, I’d better take one.” I could hear that Alice was in the shower herself and wondered whether he was going to barge in on her, but he hung around for a few seconds until Alice called, “Timothy, I’m almost done.” He walked out, stark naked, and headed straight for the bathroom.

As I got dressed I could hear him and Alice talking in the bathroom and surmised that he was using the toilet while she was finishing her shower. I pulled on my fresh underwear, jeans and T-shirt and walked out into the hall. I noted without much surprise that the door was open; Alice was just stepping out of the tub and Timothy was stepping in. I shrugged, went and sat at the kitchen table.

Presently Alice emerged, a towel around her head but otherwise naked. She looked fresh and clean. She came over to the table, leaned over, and whispered, “Rob, I realize I probably embarrassed you in there before, and I’m sorry. Timothy and I don’t really worry that much about privacy; it’s hard in a small apartment like this. One bathroom, and we both have to get ready in the morning. He and I have lived, just the two of us, for so long that I tend to forget that some of our ways might be a little off-putting to anyone else. And we all got so comfortable last night, I almost forgot that you’re not part of the family.”