1.
Izzy thought that she might start paling from all the water she was drinking. She drank cup after cup until she felt like she couldn’t get anything done because she was only peeing. She was drinking so much water because she had read somewhere that it would make your complexion clearer. *Water is beauty* it had read. She didn’t feel beautiful. She felt tired, bloated and sad.
2.
“Two eggs, one cup of water and two cups of flour?”
“Right!” Mindy assured.
“Two eggs, one cup of water and two cups of flour?”
“Yes!”
She broke apart the two eggs spectacularly and measured out two cups of flour perfectly. She then measured out two cups of water and added it into the mix, subsequently ruining the recipe in one easy pour.
3.
Mindy had said to be at the bar for 9pm, but Izzy was running late. Her hair wouldn’t cooperate, and nothing seemed to fit right. She was now speed walking trying not to break a sweat or worse, a heel. The bar was about a block away when she heard a huge roll of thunder and she felt the air instantly change. “No, no, no, no!” She mumbled to herself, but the drops were already starting by the last no. By the time she arrived at the bar Izzy was soaked.
Mindy took one look at her when she approached the table and burst out laughing. “Izzy, this is what happens when you’re late!” Everyone laughed, but Izzy didn’t have it in her to even fake it.
By the time she had somewhat dried off she was four gin and tonics in, and her hair looked worse then it did in the morning. She was loosening up and her frown was almost turning into a smile. She went up to the bar after she finished her fourth drink and began to order another, but a guy interjected and said he would pay.
“You’re not paying for my drink, I don’t even know you,” she pushed a twenty closer to the bartender.
“But I’d like to get to know you, as cheesy as it sounds. Can I at least give you my number so I can buy you a drink next week?”
She looked nervously around, was he for real? She had seen what she looked like in the foggy basement bathroom mirrors, and it was far from attractive. She couldn’t come up with an excuse not to so when he gave her his cell with the contact name “Caught in the Rain” she typed out her digits. She flashed him an uneasy smile and left the bar, not even saying good-bye to her friends.
4.
She’d seen all the girls wearing dark red lipstick. Not red as in cherry red, but red the colour of dried blood. She knelt down in the drugstore trying to compare the colours on her hands. None of them looked right, and she wanted to look good for her date. She heard a crash but didn’t look up, she just saw the water sliding down the aisle, pooling around her feet.
5.
She turned the taps straight to hot but nothing came out. She was supposed to be going on a date with the guy from the bar in two hours. She needed a shower. Her neighbours weren’t home, and Mindy and the rest of her friends lived across town. She panicked and grabbed her phone.
*Mac, sorry to cancel but need to postpone. Is tomorrow okay?*
*Sounds good, same time same place?*
*See you then :)*
6.
She added lemons to her glass of water. It tasted fresher than just plain tap water. She gulped it and let it sit in her mouth for a second before swallowing it. This, this is going to give me lots of cankers, she thought. She dumped the rest of the water down the sink. The lemons fell into the strainer with the remnants of her salad.
7.
He had drawn her a bath, thinking it might be a romantic gesture. He was asking her to bathe herself, and he was going to watch.It had only been a week since their first date, but sometimes when you meet someone new it seems like you’ve known them forever, and this was the case with Izzy and Mac.
“Okay I think it’s ready.”
His voice startled her, she slowly removed her towel and stepped into the water. It was the most perfect temperature. She put one foot in and then the other lowering herself all the way down. The bubbles settled in around her.
Mac sat down on the closed toilet seat and faced her.
At first it felt nice, romantic even, and then she just felt conscious. This was a little too intimate for a third date. “Maybe you should go,”she heard herself say. Mac looked confused but didn’t move.
She let herself slide all the way under the surface. Under the bubbles she couldn’t see him anymore. All she saw was bright lights from underneath her eyelids. She stayed underneath until she couldn’t hold her breath any longer, and she felt hands grab her and pull her back up.
She no longer felt weird about the situation.
8.
“So, what went so wrong after knowing the guy for just one week?” Mindy asked getting closer to the mirror with her red lipstick in hand.
“I pretended to fake drown! I asked him to leave and he didn’t, so I stayed under water until I couldn’t breathe!” Izzy got the story out as quick as she could. “He told me after that he had a sister that drowned when she was four.” She turned on the tap and scrubbed her hand harder, as if trying to wash away the embarrassment.
“You pretended to fake drown within a week of knowing a guy who’s sister drowned when she was four. You’re sick.”
“I’m so ashamed. I can’t ever speak to him again.”
“I’ve done worse,” Mindy assured.
9.
She hadn’t spoke to him since the night he filled her bath, but that didn’t mean she hadn’t thought about him. Since that day she could never seem to get her bath the perfect temperature. It always started as too hot, and just seemed to cool right off into freezing cold. This was no exception. It seemed to Izzy that she had sat down in the too hot tub and in no time at all it was time to freshly add hot water to the tub. She leaned forward and put the hot water tap on full blast and leaned back, letting the hot water wash over her. It felt so good. So good that she just let it go, she reached down between her legs and made that part of her feel read good too.
Maybe she had been too quick to judge him for doing that. He wasn’t that weird for wanting to watch a naked girl in the bath. Maybe he was just a man who new what he wanted, and who doesn’t want a guy that knows what he wants?
10.
Two weeks. That’s how long it took before she caved and called him back. She knew that her phone call was a little past due, so she gave it all she had, “Mac, it’s Izzy. I should have called. But I was just in a weird place. Maybe we could have a bath at your place this weekend?”
And they did. She went over to his place Saturday night. He undressed her slowly, while looking at her with careful eyes that seemed to take every bit of her in. He made her get in the water first and then he followed sitting across from her in his giant tub.
“You’re really beautiful like this, you know that?”
“I drink a lot of water.”
annie j. wright 