#Chapter 37 – Care Package

The next thirty minutes are…the most indulgent of my life. I think I groan in pleasure at least sixty times as I soak my body in the steaming hot water, as I soap every inch of my skin, as I finally – finally – wash my hair with real shampoo and conditioner instead of that horrible stuff we were supplied with in the barracks, which stripped my hair of all its oils and left it dry. I find a little basket next to the tub that, like all the pillows outside, just shouts mom. There are lots of bath salts and scent bombs and oils – I mean, is this standard issue for new cadets, a gift from the Queen? Or…did mom somehow arrange for this to be waiting here for Rafe and Jesse, who honestly might not even notice it? Either way, I spend a good long time adding bubbles to my bath, pouring in some nice salts to soften the new callouses on my skin, and finally sniffing all of the bath oils and adding my own particular cocktail of scents so that my bath becomes a blissful, delicious haven. I rest