Work in Progress, or WIP, posts are excerpts from open writing projects.  All writing is my own and in the rough draft phase. Take it (but don’t actually take it, copyright me and all that) for what it is! 

I have been enamored with Adam and Sam’s story as of late. See the first two excerpts here and then here. Below is the latest!

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Sam filled the tub in her apartment, the better to soak her achy body in, and added some lavender essential oils to it, the better to calm her nerves. With her hair up in a messy bun, her book in hand and her cell phone in the other room charging, she had the perfect recipe for unplugging.

After a few minutes she climbed into the tub, feeling the warm waters touch on those places that got a little too much sun and work their way under her skin. She exhaled a heavy sigh as she twisted a towel up tight, wrapped it behind her neck and inclined, using the towel as a pillow/neck hammock. Instead of picking up her book, she ran through her day in her mind, seeing bits and pieces like they were being projected on a wall having been captured on 35 mm film reel. Chicken with her nephews, tossing everyone’s children around in the pool, chatting with Linda and the moms, cooking with Lala and that brief, blissful moment in the car with Adam.

“Was he right?” she thought. Had she ruined this symbiotic relationship the two of them had going with her not-well-planned revelation of her feelings?

“No, no, no,” she closed her eyes as she said it to herself three times. “Do not let his perception of the situation invalidate your feelings.”

Sam’s mind was racing, and ripping apart Adam’s logic one limb at a time. “He only thinks this thing is working because he’s taking all of these things from me and I’m letting him! I’m sure I’d be thinking ‘let’s not mess up this good thing’ if I had a guy fawning over me and another guy to date.”

“The relationship as is, is not a healthy place for me. Bottom line: I have to do whatever it is I need to do to recover and heal; and that’s nothing he gets a say in.”

Having rationalized the situation, Sam’s mind began to quiet. She still didn’t have the mental capacity to crack open her book as she had planned, but instead she just enjoyed the moment of relaxation and solitude in her bathtub. Then, Adam’s voice popped into her head “Thinking about me in the bath tub, huh?”

“O, brother,” she thought, as she laughed out loud and then sunk her head under the water.