Evening at Mr Morales' Place

It was currently sometime in the evening, and a couple of minutes before the time Mr Morales said he’d return. My first day staying at his condo wasn’t anything special. In fact, I’d go even farther and say that this day was greatly lesser than average.

What did I do all day? Nothing, because there wasn’t much to do. I spent most of the day on Mr Morales’ balcony, overlooking the city of Tronito. I could’ve used his TV to watch something, but it felt wrong to do so — I mean, it’d be pretty rude to use it without his permission. Besides, even if I chose to, I wouldn’t know how to operate the TV or any of the complicated-looking boxes connected to it.

I was currently sitting on the balcony, but I went inside. I looked to the kitchen and noticed a garbage bin near the dining table. In that garbage bin was the packaging for the food I ate for lunch earlier. What did I have? Tofu — I didn’t cook or do anything fancy to it, I just ate it raw. Even if I seasoned or cooked the tofu, I'm sure the other taste still would have persisted. Nothing special was in Mr Morales’ fridge, just commonly owned things like milk or bundles of vegetables. The tofu was only decent but was far from being the tastiest thing there. I chose the tofu because it seemed that Mr Morales had more of it than anything else.

I walked to the living room and sat on the couch.

I was… bored — this feeling was scary.

I lowered my arms beside me and… Oh? What’s this? There was something in the pocket of my hoodie. Did Mr Morales stuff something in there when I was asleep? It was paper-like. I pulled it out of my pocket to examine it. It was a stack of bills. Money? Hm… Wait, this came from last night, didn’t it? It was… oh yeah, Mr Morales gave it to me when I was sitting on the street. I stared at the stack of bills. Hm…

…

Suddenly, I heard the door unlock. That’s Mr Morales, right? I psyched myself up and put on a big smile — I must act excited because no one wants to deal with a sulking person.

I rushed to the door to greet him and posed with my hands together behind my back and my torso leaned forward.

“Welcome home, Papa!♡”

Internal screaming.

“Hello Camryn, I’m back.”

“Hey, great job at work today! But now it’s time for you to relax and unwind. Would you like me to maybe give you a massage? Anywhere, anyway!”

Mr Morales shook his head.

“Thanks, but I will pass.”

I never wanted to do that, so that’s actually great for me.

Mr Morales took off his shoes and walked towards his bedroom.

“W-wait, Mr Morales. Um… Would you like a bath? I can get it ready for you.”

I wanted him to say yes. I wasn’t acting all lovey-dovey, and I didn’t plan on doing anything crazy like jumping in and joining him — I just thought it’d be relaxing after a hard day at work when it’s supposed to be a day off.

But he still shook his head.

“Thanks, but I’ll pass.”

Oh, I see. Do you maybe have more work to do?

“However, Camryn, do you want to take a bath?”

Huh?

“Oh, s-sorry, Sir. Do I smell?”

“Yeah.”

Boy, what a charmer you are — obvious sarcasm.

“Other than that, Camryn, your hair is greasy and there are small dirt patches on you. You are uncomfortable and you have not taken a bath in a while, right? You should take a bath?”

If he wants me to take a bath, I shouldn’t disobey. He is providing me with a place to stay after all.

“O-oh. Sure, I’ll take a bath. Although, I don’t have anything to change into.”

Ever since I threw my suitcase away a few days ago.

“That is fine, you can borrow some of my clothes. But some of them might not fit you.”

Oh, I know, Mr Twice-My-Size.

“While you bathe, I’ll wash your clothes in the washing machine and prepare dinner.”

“D-dinner? N-no, that’s fine, I’m not entirely hungry.”

That wasn’t an entire lie. I wasn’t so hungry that it was painful, but I could still eat something.

“Oh, okay. That is fine, but I will prepare something for you anyway if you change your mind. It will take around an hour.”

I nodded my head.

“Y-you don’t have to, but thank you…”

…

I sat in the bathtub soaking myself. I should really quicken the pace, but since this tub is filled with water, I shouldn’t waste it. The warm water felt great on my bare skin.

I sighed. The shampoo and body wash that I’m using were both really standard — they did great jobs at cleaning and killing bacteria, but they severely lacked scent.

I turned my head to look at the pile of clothes that Mr Morales provided me with. In it was the smallest tee-shirt and pair of sweat shorts that he could find; I tried them on and they weren’t too big on me. He also gave me a pair of socks and briefs — I’ve actually worn briefs once and they didn’t feel all too different from women’s underwear. Of course, Mr Morales didn’t have a spare bra, so I’ll be wearing mine again after it’s quickly hand washed.

I leaned my head back. None of this is right. Staying in a condo with a beautiful view of the city, access to a nice bathtub, food? Why, what did I do to deserve this? Nothing… That’s why it’s so wrong. But… I’ll make it right. And I’ll do that by compensating Mr Morales. What I’ll propose may be trivial, but it feels significant to me.