You rub your hand through your hair, bringing it back to your nose and deeply inhaling. The sweet herbal nature of the shampoo just smelled so good and your hair definitely felt smoother after using it.
You wonder if it's just because it's an actual shampoo rather than a 3 in 1 business as you clean up your plates and head back to your room, only noticing now that the shower turned off. You glanced at your watch noting the time and it's been about 30 minutes that Josh had the water running. "Hey!" you yell, bashing on the door "Don't use up all the hot water and electricity bill, the costs will be huge this month otherwise".
"Sorry" Josh chimed back, "Just kinda zoned out there for a bit". The door opening and the steam rushing out, along with the overwhelming scent of shampoo. Josh stood there with his towel wrapped around his waist, using his hand to push back some of his hair to the back of his head. did it look darker than usual?
You notice the lack of beard and though that he must have trimmed it off before he took the shower.
"well, what do you feel like doing today?" you ask. As he sat there slightly zoned out before coming back to you. "yeah, I have to pick a few things up from the store, don't suppose we can go shopping?" that's a little odd you thought, usually Josh hated that kind of stuff and ordered from online stores where he could.
"sure thing" you say, "go get dressed and I'll meet you at the car". You head back into your room and grab a bag and a jacket as it's still chilly outside, heading down to see Josh leaning up against your car, wearing the same tighter jeans, and a tight black tshirt this time and a large jacket. Smiling at you when he turned to see you approaching. Your heart fluttered a bit at the smile, which you quickly caught feeling slightly awkward at the initial reaction.
Driving to store, Josh seems a bit zoned out, and, well, maybe a bit happier than usual. Getting out, he headed with an almost beeline to the fitness store, seemingly needing to get a few items. As you browse around some of the shoes you see Josh sorting through some of the compression wear. Namely the 3/4 pants as well as some shorts. Disappearing inside the change rooms you see him come back out and join you over by the trainers as he shows off a few of the fits, the leggings and shorts leaving almost nothing to the imagination. The skin tight spandex had a slight sheen to it, seemingly enhancing the curves around his upper thigh and butt, with the shorts showing off his clearly shaved lower legs. wait, was that right? Since when did he shave his legs?. Feeling slightly embarrassed about checking out his friends legs he looked back up at his face, with Josh clearly waiting on a response to a question you'd missed.
Clicking his fingers in front of your face and giving you a slight shove he asks "and I thought I was feeling a bit distracted this afternoon. You ok? Which one do you think is better? The black or the white ones? Or do you think I should go for some colour?"
"Ummm, I'm not really sure Josh. I think go with whatever you feel like" a smile beams across his face as he heads back to the change rooms. He's quickly out and up to the counter with a number of items before mentioning "you know I usually have to go with a large and even those are a bit tight, but today it seems the medium was a better fit. Maybe the sizes have been increasing a bit."
Ok the way out back to the main mall area you spot the same store you found the shampoo in and mention it to Josh, who looking excited heads over to the shop to see what else he could find. It doesn't take long before you see him chatting with the old man at the front of the store who directs him over to one of the shelves.
You head back over to the bins yourself, looking through the items before finding a small interlocking set of very thin leather collars with a small bell hanging from the centre of both. The clasps of the chokers have been tired together and seem to be almost a single unit. The leather is cool to the touch and incredibly soft and flexible. The white silver of the bell mechanism is exquisitely detailed and a clear sound coming from the bell as you shake it.
"seems your friend really needed some help there and is enjoying the product" the old man says, noticing that he's approached you.
"uh yeah, I mean it's scented great too, so can't complain". He eyes the intertwined collars. "interesting find, those 2 seem to be linked together, I'll sell you both for a big discount given you're not only a repeat customer, but are also bringing in new business" he waves his hand over to Josh who has seemingly found some more bottles and is loading them up on the counter. "I'll give those to you for $5" he says as he starts to walk over to the counter as you think about putting them back, but something about them just feels comfortable to you.
You head over to the counter where Josh has unloaded some of the same branded hair product as a conditioner, as well as some body lotion and a stronger XX powered version of the supplements. "hey, I mean it's already working well, so why wouldn't I go with the complete set?" as you roll your eyes. He looks over to see the collars and give you a slight raised eyebrow "definitely can't be judging me if you're getting something like that!" as you both hand over your money and leave the store.
You make it back to your car and see that Josh has the other products out trying to read the text as he sits in the front seat, but also playing with the collars as he runs his fingers across the leather feeling it between his thumb and index finger. "damn this is some high quality leather, how much did he charge for this?" "probably less than what you spent on the rest of that stuff tbh, what did you need all this for?' you ask him back.
Still fiddling with the collars, he looks back at you showing the back of his head with some clearly growing dark hair strands, contrasting slightly with the dark brown hair on his head, though not as much as you would have thought it should. "the stuff works, I mean if I can get it to work better, ofc I'll try. I mean it's not like you've had to worry about your hair at all."
You look into the mirror with your slightly light brown hair now reaching to your ears. It looks a little different to what you remember, but nothing too out of the ordinary. Definitely not thinning like Josh in any case.
" I get it, just don't go completely overboard with this stuff yeah?" he looks back at you fiddling with the clasps on the chokers as you drive back home.