Always Him (Always #1)

Chapter Thirty-Eight

     The next day, I made progress with doing things on my own again.

Without waking Jasper, I was able to move myself to the wheelchair, wheel myself to the bathroom, turn on the shower, and get in. All on my own. I couldn't believe how much I'd missed doing something on my own, even something as simple as getting into the shower on my own.

I wasn't able to stand, but I was able to sit and swivel from the chair to the edge of the tub to the chair that we had to put inside the shower for me. My breaths were heavy when I finished, but the pride in my chest overwhelmed the heavy breathing. I did it. I smiled to myself as the water rained over me. I got into the shower by myself, and I was able to clean myself. The hair was a struggle as my left arm still ached something fierce now and then, but I managed.

Getting out of the shower was a bit trickier due to being wet. It was then I realized I'd forgotten a towel; I'd been in such a rush to try and do something on my own, I forgot the towel and some clean clothes to get dressed with. Lucky for me, though, I had a boyfriend who was a light sleeper who was willing to help me whenever I needed him to.

Jasper was looking at me with a mixture of emotions. There was happiness, there was confusion, there was awe, there was worry, but through it all, pride shone through the most. I blushed at his intense stare. "You did it, Sades. Told you that you could."

He had said that—many times. When I'd doubted myself, Jasper had been my number one supporter.

"Thank you."

He stepped closer with the towel, stepping back to let me do things on my own again.

When I was dry, I did the swivel and turn motions until I was at the edge of the tub where Jasper now held clean clothes.

His head dipped down in question. Do you need help?

I shook my head once. No, I had to do this. I needed to do this. I could do this.

Putting on the underclothes was the hardest. It took a lot of twisting and pauses with my arms, but I managed. Taking the shirt and jeans from him and putting those on was much easier a task. Jasper only had to help me stand so we could pull the jeans up to where they had to be.

It was weird how comfortable I was around Jasper now, no matter if I were clothed or naked. Or if he saw the stump that was my leg. Besides the initial first notice the other night, I'd been comfortable with Jasper there, with him seeing it. He never had the repulsed look on his face when he saw it; he had a sort of look of admiration there. I felt more confident with him nearby. He was my rock, and I needed him. I'd always need him. I realized that now.

When I was back in the chair, Jasper began to push me out of the room. "Where to miss?"

"Did you just say a Titanic reference?" I twisted around to look at him. He shrugged in response. I laughed as I turned back around. "I want to say, to the stars' in response to that, but well, we can't exactly go to the stars. So, let's go to the living room. I need to talk to the school and stuff."

His low rumble laugh followed us to the living room. He pushed me to the kitchen table, placing my phone in front of me. As I reached for it, I noticed a stack of letters underneath.

It looked like junk mail as I sorted through it. One managed to catch my eye, though.

Jasper was cleaning up from the night before as I opened the letter. It wasn't an ordinary letter; it was an invitation—an invitation to a wedding.

Drew and Cindy's wedding.

"Hey, Jas." He turned with a slice of cake in his hands, taking small bites of it. My line of thinking was temporarily disrupted as I took him in. "You can't have cake for breakfast."