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“Oh, they have bigger ones on the men’s side; when I walk around half naked for a while, they usually find one for me.”

Avery burst out laughing.

When it was time for the mud bath, a staff member led them out of the changing room and to the back of the spa.

“Youcanwear a swimsuit in the mud bath if you prefer, but I don’t recommend it,” she said to them. “I tried it out when I first started here, and I never got the mud out of that swimsuit.”

Taylor smiled and glanced over at Avery. She was also smiling, but she looked a little nervous.

“I’m fine without one,” Taylor said.

“Um, yeah, me, too,” Avery said.

The staff member threw open a door. “It’s through here.”

Taylor wanted to giggle when she walked into the room. The rest of the spa was all white linen, flowers, soft music, cucumber slices; this room was industrial, utilitarian, gray concrete. It made her feel like this was the old-school version of the spa, and she was into it. Whatever happened in this room, this was the real deal.

The floor was covered in black rubber mats, with buckets everywhere, and there were four huge, deep tubs, full of thick black mud. When she’d imagined what a mud bath would be like, she somehow hadn’t thought it would be this intense. Now she was even more excited.

“Taylor?” one of the women standing by a tub said, and Taylorstepped forward. “I’m Gloria. I’ll take your robe. Sit here right on the edge, and then turn around and lower yourself into the bath.”

Taylor lowered herself, very awkwardly, into the tub full of steaming hot, very heavy mud, as Avery did the same in the tub next to hers. Finally, she was all the way in or, rather, on the mud, at which point Gloria picked up a bucket and scooped more mud over Taylor’s whole body until she was covered from her neck to her toes. She turned to look at Avery, who was also now packed tightly into her mud bath. As soon as their eyes met, Taylor burst out laughing, and Avery followed suit.

“This is the most amazing thing I’ve ever done in my entire life,” Taylor said. She lifted her hand out of the mud and squeezed a handful of it. “This is like…when I was a kid, I used to love going to the beach and playing in the sand, especially when it was a little wet, and this is like the grown-up, much more expensive, and also much dirtier version of that.” She laughed at the look on Avery’s face. “Nonsexually dirty, to be clear.”

Avery giggled.

“I was about to say. This is so deeply gross and fantastic at the same time.” She lowered her voice. “Though, speaking of sex, I feel like I’m going to have mud in every single crevice of my body after this.”

“Oh, without a doubt,” Taylor said. She leaned her head back against the pillow at the edge of the tub and let herself relax into the sensation. At first, this had felt like a gimmick, but after a few moments of feeling the warm, heavy weight of the mud surrounding her body, in this cozy tub, with Avery right next to her, peace overtook her. She wasn’t thinking about the shower, about the bet, about what Erica said; all she was thinking about was how happy she was to be here, right at this moment.

She could have stayed in the mud bath for hours, but eventually,they had to get out, take very thorough showers, and move on to their massages. They were some of the last to leave the spa that evening, and then they drove straight back to Avery’s apartment and collapsed on the couch.

“So,” Avery asked after they’d ordered takeout. “Good spa day? How did you feel about your first mud bath?”

“I’m not sure if anything in my life has ever felt that good that didn’t involve sex,” Taylor said, which made Avery burst out laughing.

Taylor smiled at her.

“But seriously, thank you. For thinking of it, for arranging it for today, when you knew I’d need it, for everything you did for the shower—it was all perfect.”

Avery curled into Taylor’s side, and Taylor wrapped her arms around her.

“You’re welcome,” Avery said, and kissed her on the cheek.

Taylor could still feel the knot in her stomach from what happened at the party, and part of her wanted to call Erica now, ask her why she would do something like that, why she would root against Taylor’s happiness, why she thought so little of her. But she made herself push that aside. She had Avery’s silky-smooth body tucked against hers, and she was still slightly dazed from the mud bath and massage; she was too happy and peaceful to think about Erica and her bet right now. Plus, she had better things to do.

She put her hand on Avery’s thigh.

“You know,” she said, “even though that massage didn’t involve sex, that doesn’t mean everything today has to be like that.”

Avery nuzzled her neck.

“Mmm, I like the way you think.”

Taylor slowly pulled Avery’s dress up above her knees. Avery put her hand over Taylor’s and slid it up her thigh to her ass. Her bare ass.

Taylor’s dramatic gasp wasn’t even pretense.