With bated breath, she waited for the click of the lock. The minute she heard the clumsy snap of metal against metal, she was tearing through the cubicle towards the taps. Hygiene was still key to health, after all. She shoved her hands under the automatic tap—
—Only to be met by a few seconds of awkward air hanging time.
If one photoshopped her out of the toilet, Amber swore that she would have looked like a damn joke. Thousands of internet trolls would have placed her with golf clubs and hockey sticks. Her hands slapped together and reaching out in an exaggerated prayer, with her ass sticking out behind her.
Damn it, technology. She cursed under her breath and tried the next one, but to no avail.
When she finally figured out the mechanics of automatic taps, she was met with the sweet, sweet bubbly flow of water and she furiously rubbed her hands together. The water droplets spewed outwards, spraying all over her thick, baggy black hoodie. She was pretty sure she'd gotten at least half the water stream onto her jacket by the time she was done.
She was ready to make a run for it. Ready to escape the depths of male secrecy and take this adventure to her grave only for a deep baritone to emit from the dreaded cubicle.
"Hello? Is anyone there?" He asked and for a brief moment, her mind blanked, unable to register his words. "Sorry," he cleared his throat nervously letting out an embarrassed chuckle, "but could you pass me some tissue?"
The voice was low and crisp. Thick and husky from sleep. It was the kind of natural deepness that made it difficult for Amber to guess his age by his voice alone. Especially with her mind frantically switching to its Korean filter.
Amber swallowed.
Her mind was spinning. It begged her to escape. Leave this man, it said. Let him suffer in his toilet paper scarcity. It was an achievement in life to have to take the walk of shame back to your hotel room with shit stained underwear. It would just be another bad day for this poor sucker.
But her sympathetic, benevolent and charitable feet were already moving towards the cubicle. Her fingers involuntarily pulled out wads of tissue from the dispenser. She knelt, reaching into the cubicle with her hands outstretched.
Mentally, the scaredy-cat side of her was cursing her for her stupidity, because staying any longer in this toilet might get her a police complaint for harassment. The other side of her was singing angel praises for her bravery and kindness towards this poor bare-assed stranger.
No one liked to poop and find out there was no toilet paper. That was just horrible. The person on the other side would have agreed to this statement because he took the whole wad from her quickly, like the squirrel from Ice Age chasing after his acorn.
Fast.
"Thank you." The guy said sweetly with a voice like dripping honey in a cup of roasted black coffee. Amber was a bit too frazzled to give a detailed food description of his voice but that didn't deny its velvet beauty. Or the things it did to her exhausted body.
What she didn't expect was for the toilet door to suddenly pull wide open. What a fast ass-wiper, her traitorously weird mind commented.
For a second, her vision was engulfed by someone tall. Her eyes met with a wall of colours and skin. He was dressed comfortably—a soft white cotton shirt and black track pants, a silky bathrobe over his shoulders. She spun away quickly, intending to leave, only to be hit by his smell.
No, it was not the smell of shit nor was it the smell of artificial air freshener. It smelled—Amber swallowed, her skin tingling at the scent—good; so good it was delicious.
Above that delicious scent was the soft warmness of his body soap, subtle floral sweetness with berry notes and a woody undertone. But under all that was something she just couldn't quite put her finger on.
It was musky and masculine. Deep and spicy. It was something she'd never smelled in her entire life and she could only describe it as the flare from a Sichuan peppercorn, the sweetness of pine and maybe the aroma of roasting tea leaves.
God. Whatever the hell it was, it was easily one of the best scents she'd ever smelled in her entire life. She wanted to bottle that smell, take long sniffs and sell it by the dozens. Seriously, whatever that perfume was it was damn, fucking good.
Amber blinked feeling a little dazed, and also a little stupid because her mouth was flooded with saliva from his scent. And she was so embarrassed. So embarrassed that she couldn't bear to look at the guy.
She shook her head, trying to get rid of her damn need to press her nose on his skin and inhale. Was she becoming a cannibal or something? Why the hell was she salivating over a man?
Against her better judgement, because it was three AM and she was stupid; her idiotic mouth opened and she asked a really dumb question that probably revealed her gender.
"What did you use to make yourself smell so good?" Her Korean was a little out of practice and her voice cracked, dipping at places which thankfully must make her sound like a prepubescent boy. It probably did because the stranger didn't react in angered shock.
Instead, there was a pause and a low smooth chuckle. The kind that was crisp like a warm fire, and rich and spicy like Manuka honey. A chuckle that sent her head swimming and her face was heating up because it just sounded that good to her horny body.
The sound burned and twirled into a fire that sunk well below her waist. It tingled and pooled between her legs. Invisible hands were ghosting over her body, coaxing parts of her to life. Parts of her that had never been touched by any other hand, save for her own.
"Body Soap?" The faceless male figure replied. Faceless because Amber was still staring downwards away from his face.
It was not good to stare someone down, especially if one looked extremely girly and one was standing in the man's toilet. It did, however, give her an excuse to openly ogle at the happy trail on his hard, muscular belly.
Then he blurted out a familiar brand that Amber knew should smell of lavender and should explain the floral sweetness that masked the original delicious scent.
Amber dazedly watched as he turned to struggle with the tap, swiping his hands under the sensor over and over. His long limbs definitely made his awkward poses much less ugly as compared to how hers must have looked minutes ago.
She couldn't help it.
Part of her, kind and loving, urged her to take a step forward to help him. The other part was eager for another sniff. Just one more before they parted ways and never met again. So she stepped forward and quickly took his hands, moving them to the perfect spot under the metal tap.
What happened next was nothing she ever imagined.