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“Everything I could think of that might make you feel better. There’s some medication, electrolyte water, some chicken soup, and some muffins.”
He made a slightly sour face. “As much as I love those muffins, I’m not sure my stomach could take anything right now.”
“I thought that might be the case, but they’ll keep. You don’t have to eat right now, but this way, they’ll be here for you when you’re ready. Now scoot. Go back to the couch.” I motioned over to the couch where he’d obviously made himself a nest of blankets, pillows, and a whole pile of used tissues.
I shushed him with my hands before bending over and picking up the bags. He plopped back down on the couch and let his head drop back while I made my way to the kitchen counter to unpack everything.
“I can’t believe I got sick,” he said, moaning.
“And why’s that? Do you have some kind of hidden superpower I didn’t know about that made you immune to viruses?”
“Of course not. It’s just that I made it all the way through flu season without getting sick, and now this.”
I put the containers of chicken soup in the fridge, grabbed a bottle of electrolyte water, and made my way over to the couch carrying the entire bag of medicine with me.
“I wasn’t sure if you have a preference for which medication to take, so I just got an assortment. And I know everyone hates the smell of this stuff.” I held up the little jar of menthol rub. “But my mamaw swears by it.”
“It smells horrible, that’s true, but there’s no denying that it works,” he said. “We recommend it to patients all the time. But Tanya gave me some medicine before I left, so it’s not time yet for me to take anything.”
“How about if you take a nap? We’ll revisit the idea of food when you wake up.” I sat down on one end of the couch and grabbed the remote for his television.
“I feel like I could sleep for a week.”
“Maybe, but for starters, a couple of hours will do. Now go ahead and stretch out here and make yourself comfortable.” I patted my upper thigh. He looked a little hesitant at first, but finally, he lay down on his side and put his head on my thigh. I grabbed the afghan off the top of his pile and put it over him.
“I’m not going anywhere. I’ll be here to take care of you when you wake up, so just rest.” I ran my fingers gently through his curls, hoping the effect was relaxing and not distracting. Apparently, I was successful because it didn’t take but a minute for the rise and fall of his chest to become slow and steady, a sure indicator that he’d dozed off. I turned the sound down on the television and searched through the channels for something to watch. Lucky for me, there were a couple of movies I’d been meaning to watch but hadn’t had a chance to see yet, and one of them was available to stream.
Considering how quickly he snuggled in and went to sleep, I was guessing he felt as bad as he looked. He was normally so full of energy it was hard to get him to be still at all, but it seemed this virus had sucked all the energy out of him.
Before I knew it, a couple of hours had passed, and he started to stir. I reached down to soothe him, running my fingers through his hair, and I realized he was burning up. Whatever Tanya had given him at the clinic had obviously worn off. I left him there for just another few minutes to see if he would settle back into sleep, but he grew progressively more and more restless. I gave up and shifted out from under him until he actually rolled over and looked up at me.
***
Spencer
I woke up slightly disoriented and both hot and cold at the same time. My head hurt, and my neck hurt, but to be honest, pretty much all of me did. Then the fingers were there, cool and soothing, as they ran through my hair.
Nash.
I shouldn’t have let him in. I canceled the date because I was sick, yes, but also because I was contagious. Of course he hadn’t listened and showed up anyway. With medicine, muffins, and soup maybe. I think he said something about soup. Truth was, I wasn’t angry at all. I wasn’t thrilled because now I’d exposed him to what I had, but the truth was, I was glad he was here.
“You’re burning up, cutie. I think it’s time for you to take something.”
“I took something at the clinic before I left,” I mumbled, pushing myself to a sitting position and running my fingers through my curly hair. I must look like crap. I’d never been one of those people who could wake up pretty, and that was on a good day. I quickly ran my hand across my mouth to check if I’d been drooling on his leg while I slept. Thankfully, it came away dry. There was that, at least. I took a deep breath and started to tell him thank you for coming by, but the inhale triggered a coughing fit.
By the time I got that under control, I just wanted to flop back down on the couch and go back to sleep. I was still trying to recover when he placed an open water bottle in my hand.
“You need to get some fluids in.”
I nodded in agreement and took a drink. I hadn’t even realized how dry and sore my throat was until I felt the relief of the cold fluid.
“Have you had anything to eat today?” he asked.
“I ate breakfast this morning, but nothing since.”
“Let’s get you some food then.” I made a move to get up, but he gently pushed me back down. “You stay right here. I’ll bring you some soup.”
I collapsed back and grinned. I’d thought I would spend the next couple of days here on the couch feeling sorry for myself because I was sick, but instead, I had Nash here taking care of me and treating me like I was special. I still didn’t trust that Nash wouldn’t wake up someday and realize I wasn’t enough for him, but things like today made it really hard not to hope this time would be different.
