A Towel

“Come on in.” Sofía presented her home as we entered the front door. “It’s not much, but it’s comfy.”

We took off our shoes and looked around. It was a decently sized apartment. There was a sizable kitchen with everything you’d need, a roomy bathroom with a wide tub, a living area with a very cushiony L-shaped sofa. Most impressive was the large flat-screen TV. In comparison, a lot of my appliances are modest or old.

“Wow!” Imani was amazed at everything. “The ground is so fluffy.”

Sofía chuckled. “It’s a carpet.”

Our home doesn’t have carpets, but we do have some mats and rugs laid about. The rest is either wood or tile.

“A carpet!” Imani fell to the ground and started rolling on it.

“Imani what are you doing?” I looked down at her with bewilderment.

“It’s carpet Carmine!” Sofía joined Imani in the rolling.

“You’re both being really silly.”

“Come on, join us!”

“I’d rather not get rug burn.”

“Lame!” Sofía pointed at me and Imani copied her.

“Hey! I’m the one who carried the groceries in.”

They both stood up, disappointed in me for not rolling in the carpet.

“We should probably get cleaned up.” Sofía patted herself down. “Don’t you feel gross after the run? You can use my bathroom.”

“Papa stinks.” Imani pinched her nose.

“Yea I could use a bath— wait what?” I stiffened up and looked at Sofía with disbelief. “Me? Bathe in your bathroom? I don’t even have any spare clothes.”

Sofía nodded to confirm. “I thought you might say that. luckily, I’ve got a hobby that will come in handy.”

“Hobby? Don’t you already do this cosplay stuff? I’m not wearing a costume by the way.”

“The cosplays are my own personal thing, this other hobby is more like a small business endeavor. I got a website where I sell anime merchandise, especially clothing.”

“Huh, wait you sell clothes as a hobby?”

“A lot of it is already handled by third parties. I just make the designs in collaboration with some artist friends.”

“Right, so the clothes?”

“I get sent back some failures and prototypes from time to time and recycle them as scrap fabric for my costumes. There’s a few boxes of men’s stuff I was planning on giving away sitting in my closet. Here I’ll go grab em!”

When Sofía walked away to her room, I sniffed myself out of curiosity. “Do I really smell?”

As Sofía searched her room, Imani climbed onto the sofa and started to hop around while I checked if the kitchen had the right cookware. When looking through the cabinets a lot of things were very meticulously organized, plates and bowls were sorted by size, there were color coded labels, all sorts of stuff that screams OCD. Makes me scared to touch anything.

“Here!” Sofía carried over a box. “There’s a mixture of clothes in here.”

“Let me see.” I take the box and place it down on the counter.

“Oh well hold on there—“

Before Sofía can finish, I dig into the box, grabbing a shirt out to take a better look. I’ve seen plenty of strange designs for shirts, and I know there’s a market out there for the kind with half naked women on them. But this shirt, this was different. It had one of the anime girl characters on it, but she has this very distressed to almost crying face, and her derrière, which was very large, took up a majority of the shirt design.

Sofía snatched it from my hand and held it behind her back. “Yea, those are really popular, but maybe choose something else.”

“I don’t remember saying I would wear it. Even if there was nothing else, I’d rather go shirtless.” I look inside and grab a pair of pajama pants.

The design wasn’t so bad. Just black with big bold Japanese lettering down the sides. They probably said something indecent, but none of us can read it, unless Sofía also goes as far as to learn Japanese.

“These aren’t so bad. They’re also the right size. I can wear them.” I fold the pants into a square.

“Oh yes, they’d be perfect.” Sofía added with a grin, possibly knowing something I don’t.

I pull out a pair of underwear with more strange faces. Just at the crotch region is a girl with her mouth open wide and her hand is making an ok sign around it. Again Sofía would take it away from me, and I was glad she did. The rest of the clothes were fine, although the shirt was way too big on me.

Sofía clapped. “You’re all set. I’ll go take a bath first and get out of this cosplay into something more comfortable.”

“Right.”

It was hard to conceal how delighted I was when I heard that eventually I’d get to see a fresh and casual version of Sofía. The costumes were fun, and they suited her no matter how strange, but the image I built in my mind of her dressed in something simple with her natural hair just made me flutter. To keep myself distracted from fantasies of Sofía being normal, I sat on the sofa with Imani to keep an eye on her in case she starts wrecking the place.

"Papa." Imani called to me, after mounted the back of the sofa like she's riding a horse.

"What is it? Also stop jumping around. You'll hurt yourself."

Imani climbed down and flopped on the couch as if dead. "Why aren't you bathing with Sofía?"

If I was drinking something at the time, I'd have ruined this couch and fluffy carpet. "Because that would be... I can't."

"Why not?"

"Because it would be bad."

"But you bathe with me all the time."

I had to think for a moment on how to tell Imani about our relationship and how it's different. She doesn't understand the perverse nature of bathing with someone who isn't related to you, and even that doesn't take into consideration the type of relation and circumstance. A bunch of different explanations were firing off inside my head and none of them felt right.

"Listen Imani. When you grow up, you'll have to bathe alone, in fact, you're getting close to that age where you can."

"Alone?" Imani looked scared.

"No, not alone." I spoke quickly to avoid upsetting Imani. "Just with privacy."

"Priwashy?"

"Yes, just you time. Eventually you'll want to have it."

"Me time?"

"It's time that you get to be by yourself. Sofía is currently having her own private time, because when you're older, bathing is part of private time. If I were to join Sofía in the bath, that would be invading her private time, which is very bad."

"Eat worms bad?"

"Even worse than that."

"Worse than eating worms!?"

"Yes, so don't invade people's privacy, and don't let anyone into your privacy."

Imani nodded her head. I was relieved that I got through it all without any issue. These kinds of talks are meant for a different time and place, and I’m still getting used to giving life lessons. I’m not old and wise, I’m still twenty-five, there’s things I might need guidance for that I’m just not aware of, but I have nobody to rely on for that kind of thing. Hopefully even when I’m lost somewhere down the line, I can find my way alone.

We waited quite a while for Sofía, thirty minutes to be exact, which felt like forever because the discomfort in being unclean was starting to get to me. I had the itch to stand up and knock on the bathroom door, but held back as it felt rude every time I played it in my head. Stuck in thought on what to do, I was caught off-guard by the slow caress of a hand across my chest, followed by another. It made me freeze in place, like a horror film where a ghost was trying to grab my attention. Two arms were around me like a necklace, and as they drifted down my chest, the sensation of a cushiony object pressed against the back of my head and neck. I knew it was Sofía, but still I flinched, then was soothed by her sweet, candy-apple fragrance.

Sofía squeezed in closer. "Guess who!"

"Sofía!" Imani happily answered, standing up on the sofa.

"Yes Imani, but I was playing a game with your father."

Imani put a hand over her mouth and sat back down.

"So, Carmine. Guess who." Sofía spoke in an alluring and quiet voice.

I found this game to be pointless. Whatever reason she had to play it, must have something to do with her usual teasing. Instead of following through as expected, I felt it was necessary to play her in her own weird little game.

"I don't know." 

"Awe come on. It's obvious."

"Give me a hint."

"Really?" Sofía sighed. "Fine. They just finished taking a bath."

"There's a lot of people who probably just took a bath in the world."

Sofía pinched my chest.

"Ow! Why did you do that?"

"Every time you get it wrong, I'll pinch you."

"But I haven't even guessed!"

"Every five seconds you don't guess, I'll pinch you."

"You can't make up the rules in the middle of the ga--" She pinched me again. "Sofía-Sofía it's Sofía, stop!" I take Sofía's hands and pull them off.

"Say it again, I didn't hear you."

"Sofía."

"Guess what."

"What?"

"You win!"

"Right, now can I go take a bath?"

"Of course! Go on ahead." Sofía released me from her arms and the weight on the back of my head and neck were lifted away.

I stood up with the borrowed clothes in hand and prepared myself for what I was going to see. The casual, no, the Sofía, just behind me. How exciting! I pivoted on one foot and faced her, my eyes ready to digest every inch of this miracle. When she came into view, my eyes widened at such a beautiful sight, and I took a quick breath just to hold in my words. 

Tightly wound to the form of her body was just a towel, which only covered her from the armpit down to above the knee. She was truly straight out of the bath. Her hair, a dark brown, was still wet, and it reached just below her shoulders. Her eyes, a captivating amber brown, broke apart the barrier which imprisoned the air in my lungs.

"Wow..." My breath escaped me.

"Hm?" Sofía raised a brow.

"I mean, woah!" I readjust the position I held the borrowed clothes to crotch level. "What are you doing? Put on some clothes!"

My body had caught up to the what the eyes were registering, and the blood started to rush. 

"Relax. I'm covered up. You don't need to be so tense. Never been to a beach?"

"This is different!" I rushed past her toward the bathroom.

"Papa is getting priwashy!" Imani shouted from the sofa as she watched me enter the bathroom.

I quickly shut the door behind me and pressed my back against it like I was hiding from a killer. My heart was pumping as if there was no tomorrow, and I took deep breaths to settle down.