Page 17 of The Heartbreak Hex

“C’mon, Vlad,” I say louder, shaking his shoulder again. “You’ve got to get up. I want to take a shower.” And relieve myself, but I’m not going to say that.

My words are like magic. “I’m up, I’m up,” the vampire says, opening his eyes. They take a moment to focus, but then they find me and a smile grows on his face that puts the sunrise outside to shame.

“‘Morning, sweetheart.”

My heart goespitter-pat. I like ita lotwhen he calls me sweetheart. More than I should, because I’m sure that he doesn’t mean anything by it. He’s just a flirt and can’t help being charming.It doesn’t mean anything,I remind myself.

“Good morning,” I reply instead, keeping my hammering heart to myself.

“You said something about a shower?” he asks, sitting up. The blanket falls down his body and I get an eye-full of his bare chest. Then he stretches his arms above his head in a deep stretch that pulls on my wrist and makes me see all the delicious movement of his muscles in his arms and pecs. Those muscles make me think decidedly unfriendlike thoughts about the vampire, so I look away.

“Yeah, I didn’t get to take one yesterday because of . . . well, you know. I’m starting to feel grimy and want to rinse off.”

“Do you think that we can, with this?” he asks, holding up his wrist.

“It’ll stretch it to its limit, but I think we can manage. When I changed in your bathroom yesterday, I was almost in your shower anyway.”

“Alright, let’s get you showered, then,” the vampire says, climbing towards me on the bed, so that we can both get off the same side together and not pull on the string. But seeing him crawl toward me on a bed makes my brain short-circuit for a moment.

Friends, I repeat desperately in my head,just friends.

We make our way to the bathroom and I enter and close the door behind me. Using the toilet briefly, I then pull off the rest of my clothes and step into the shower. It really is a stretch and my left arm has to stay out of the stall or I can’t make it all the way inside. It’s a super awkward shower, but I make do, even though my left arm can’t get under the spray. Outside of the door, I hear Vlad humming. It's a pleasant, mindless tune that I don’t recognize, but he has a nice voice.Everything about him is nice,a rebellious little thought says in my head. And the thoughtistrue, but it's also true that as soon as I figure out how to break the curse, we’ll probably go back to being just friendlyacquaintances: a customer and a shopkeeper. The thought is a little depressing, so I shove it to the back of my mind and finish rinsing my hair. I have to use Vlad’s shampoo and conditioner and now I smell faintly like him, which I like more than I should. Man, my crush is just getting worse and worse.

Once I’m done showering, I step out and do a little drying spell, making my hair and body bone-dry in an instant. Then I pull out another hair and summon an outfit from home. If this hex is going to go on much longer, I really need to get some of my stuff to leave here; summoning stuff every time I need something is a pain. Getting dressed, I look up and see an invisible finger writing in the steam in the mirror, “Welcome, Gertrude,” with a little smiley face. I smile. It seems the housedoeslike me. Or at least enough to welcome me and not pelt things at me at least. Finishing up with my outfit, I resolve to stop thinking romantically about Vlad. Ijustgot out of a relationship and I’m clearly a mess. The glowing red string on my wrist tells me that. I should get my shit together before I try to pull a perfectly nice vampire into the mix.

With a nod to myself, I go and knock on the door, like Vlad did last night. “I’m coming out,” I say and open the door. Vlad is right there as it opens and I get another eye-full of his chest. His very,verylickable chest.

No, bad, Gertrude,I chide myself.Very bad, Gertrude.

“Do you need a shower?” I ask, trying not to think of the mental image those words create.

“Sure,” he replies. “I feel bad making you wait outside for me, though.”

“It’s not a big deal,” I say. “You did it for me. I’ll just wait here.”

“Okay,” he agrees. “But remember, the mansion is alive and has a mind of its own. You might see something spooky.”

That makes me laugh. “I think I can handle ‘spooky.’ Besides, the house likes me. It’ll be fine.”

Vlad chuckles in return. “Alright, I’ll just be two shakes of a bat’s wing.”

He closes the bathroom door and I lean against the wood to give him the most room possible with the string. In moments, I hear the shower going and relax into my lean. This is good. Safe. Taking turns with the shower feels like something roommates would do.

As I wait, the door behind me occasionally quivers like the shutters did last night. It shakes against my back, like someone trying to get my attention.

“What is it, house?” I finally ask. “What’s up?”

Without warning, the door suddenly opens behind me and I tumble backwards, landing on the bathroom floor in a heap. Looking up, I see the door swing shut by itself and hear a click as it locks. What the hell?

“Gertrude?” I hear Vlad behind me ask, the shower turning off. “What are you doing in here?”

Immediately, my hands are covering my eyes. “The house is playing tricks I think. It opened and closed the door, trapping me in here. I didn't mean to interrupt your shower. I’m so sorry!”

“You have nothing to be sorry about,” the vampire says, sounding amused. “I told you the house has a mind of its own. I wonder why it wants to trap us here together, though?”

“I don’t know,” I say truthfully, still with my hands over my eyes.

“You can open your eyes, you know,” Vlad says, still sounding amused. “I’m in my robe.”

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