Jill rushed out of the room, leaving Claire to turn and survey herself in the mirror. In the picture of Brad Cruise, he’d had a serious case of five o’clock shadow going on. Claire now had that case herself. Curious, she lifted a hand and ran it over her cheek and chin, grimacing at the scrape of short hair against her fingers. Man, this was so weird…but kind of cool.
“Here.” Jill hurried back in and started to hold out a picture, then pulled it back. “Wait, first try to do it without the picture.”
“Without it?” Claire asked with surprise.
“Well, sure. I mean it is your body. Just close your eyes and concentrate on being you again. Just think ‘I want to be me,’” Jill suggested.
“Isn’t that a song?” Claire asked with amusement.
“Will you concentrate,” Jill said with irritation. “Just try to change.”
Sighing, Claire closed her eyes and concentrated on being herself. She didn’t have a picture to think of; she didn’t need one. She had lived with her face and body for years.
“Ooops.”
Claire blinked her eyes open as she felt a soft towel being wrapped around her.
“I guess the clothes you were wearing really were you,” Jill said with a shrug, holding the towel together until Claire reached up to take over the task.
Jill had wrapped a bath towel around her shoulders. Claire shifted it under her arms and wrapped it around herself sarong style. She was completely and utterly nude under the towel, which meant that the pink T-shirt and blue capri pants, the black satin dressy outfit, and the man’s black suit had been purely her. That seemed kind of weird.
Both women stiffened at the sound of the front door opening.
“I’m back! Claire? Jill?”
Claire was the first to break out of her surprise. Suddenly aware of her nudity, she quickly pushed the bathroom door closed.
“Hello?” Kyle apparently heard the door close, his voice now came from somewhere in the hall.
“Yes?” Claire called. “Hello.”
“Claire?” Kyle asked, his voice now right outside the door.
“Yes.”
“Are you okay? What are you doing?”
Hearing the worry in his voice, she said quickly, “I’m fine. I’m…I’m in the bath.”
When Jill’s eyebrows rose at her choice of activity, Claire gestured to her attire. She was in a towel and her clothes were in Jill’s bedroom, Claire could hardly tell Kyle she was just using the loo. He might wait in the hall until she came out so that he could see for himself that she was okay. He seemed terribly worried about her, and had every right to be. The destabilizer had affected her after all.
“Bath?” Kyle sounded surprised, then asked, “Where’s Jill?”
Claire’s eyes widened on her friend.
“She’s…er…”
“At the store,” Jill suggested in a whisper.
“She’s at the store,” Claire said dutifully.
“Damn it. She was supposed to watch you,” Kyle sounded irritated. “What if something had happened?”
“She only went a minute ago…to the corner store. She’ll be right back,” Claire assured him. “She could hardly watch me in the bath any more than you would.”
“Right.”
Claire heard Kyle’s sigh through the door. Silence followed, then he cleared his throat and said, “Maybe that’s for the best. I wanted to ask you something.”
Claire and Jill raised their eyebrows at each other.
There was more throat-clearing, then Kyle said, “I was wondering…”
“Yes?” Claire prompted when he hesitated, and found herself taking a step closer to the door as she waited.
“Look,” he said abruptly. “Would you go to the reunion with me tonight?”
Claire froze, sure her heart briefly stopped, then she swallowed and asked, “So you can watch me? Or as your date?”
There was a moment of silence, then Kyle asked, “Would you be interested in being my date?”
Claire hesitated, afraid to say yes and then learn that it wasn’t what he’d intended.
“You don’t have to answer that. It isn’t fair when I haven’t given you any indication of my feelings,” he said before she could decide how to answer him. “Look, I really suck at this kind of thing. I’m great with beakers and bunnies, but personal relationships are just kind of beyond me in some ways…But…Claire, I like you. I’ve liked you for the longest time. Since we were twelve years old and you were pestering me about the science kit my parents bought me for Christmas. I even almost asked you out in high school, but you were dating that football guy.”