Roads That Cross...

... with Interruptions (Part 1)

This chapter's a little weak but I hope you like it anyway. And hey, it took less than a month! Yay me.

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Simón was very surprised by the fact that towel warmers existed.

It turned out that what he thought was just a regular towel hanger was actually a radiator. He was fascinated when he brought the towel to his body and felt it deliciously warm. This invention had to be one of the most useful things he had ever seen in his life.

Ámbar, of course, acted as if it was a typical thing.

"It is a towel hanger, but it's heated so the towels remain warm and dry," she explained. "Actually, it's more a towel warmer than a radiator. If I had a full radiator, the whole bathroom would be warm right now," she half stated half complained. "I have one in my bathroom in Cancún."

Simón decided not to mention that in his house in Cancún, if they wanted warm towels, they had to warm them with the hair-drier or put them in front of the heater. And his bathroom was like a third of hers. Actually, he suspected that his room in Cancún was the size of her bathroom. Ámbar really was from a different world than him.

Before walking out of the bathroom, Ámbar grabbed a small plastic box from the countertop of the sink. Inside there was an arrangement of small pills, most of them white, some in color. She took one and swallowed it with some water.

Oh. It was those pills.

Simón recognized them because his older sisters had them too— clearly not from the one sex-ed class he'd had in high school. Now that he thought about it, he had never seen Ámbar take one even though he spent most of the day and all nights with her. He should've been more attentive to that. But it made sense now. They usually took turns to use the bathroom in the morning so, that was why he hadn't seen it.

He felt a little bad. Ámbar was the only one worrying about them not becoming parents. It wasn't that he didn't want to be a dad someday, but now was definitely not the time. Should he buy condoms? They weren't exactly necessary since he was sure neither of them had anything transmissible and the pills had them covered, but he felt like it'd be the fair thing to do.

He asked Ámbar as he finished drying himself off in her bed bench. She had just put on a robe and smiled sweetly at him.

"No, it's fine, don't worry about it." She took off the towel wrapped around her head and pulled out her hairdryer. "I really don't mind. And you want to get a new place with the guys, right? Save your money, it's not necessary."

She began blow-drying her hair so he assumed that was the end of the conversation. Well, as long as she was comfortable with it, he guessed it was okay.

Simón rubbed a towel on his hair to dry it a little and started dressing up. He had to put on the same clothes as the day before –minus his underwear which was still on a wet heap on the bathroom floor— because, with the whole Sharon and Luna thing, he had forgotten to fetch new ones and just gone directly to Ámbar's room to sleep. She was already under the covers with her eyes closed when he walked in, so they hadn't talked about Sharon's appearance. From their conversation in the tub, Simón had confirmed once again that Ámbar's relationship with Sharon hadn't been a good one. He decided not to ask about the topic unless she brought it up. It was probably hard to speak about.

Ámbar was done with her hair by the time he finished tying his shoes. Or, well, done drying it, because it certainly looked like a lion's mane. He stayed sitting on the bed, looking at her with a smile. She looked beautiful anyway.