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“Hello, Mr. Katin.” Her lilting voice was a decibel shy ofbeing too loud for such a depressing place. To Ian, she said, “I’m Courtney, your partner’s nurse tonight. Mr. Katin and I are already best friends. I’ve been in and out doing neuro checks all night, but he didn’t want me to wake you.”
She put the waters on the end table next to the head of Alek’s bed.
“Blagodarya,” Alek muttered.
Ian had no idea what that meant.
Courtney patted the top of the electric piano. “I scrounged this baby up from our Music Therapy department and I’ve never been so excited for a call bell to go off.”
Alek nudged his arm.Drink. He tapped his pen as if to tell him ‘now’.
Ian stood and picked up one of the pitchers. “Only if you drink first.”
Alek’s nod was nearly indiscernible.
Courtney pressed a button on the bed and a faint electric whirring raised the head of the bed until Alek was sitting completely upright.
Alek groaned.
“Any nausea or pain?” she asked.
“Ne.”
Liar.
Ian held the pitcher and guided the straw into Alek’s mouth.
Alek looked up at him with those pale jade eyes, wrapped his lips around the straw and drank. Trust Alek to make drinking water on his near-deathbed erotic. Ian cleared his throat and once he was sure Alek wasn’t going to throw up, said, “More?”
“Ne.”Alek pointed his pen to where he’d writtenDrink,as if to repeat the command.
Ian brought the same cup, the same straw that Alek drank from, to his lips.There was something very intimate aboutsharing a cup with Alek. Not in a sexual way. Just in anI haven’t kissed my boyfriend on the lips in three weeks and now we’re sharing a strawkind of way.
Ask for snacks, Alek wrote.
“I’ll eat after you’ve tried the piano.”
Alek huffed a sigh and wrote,Deal.
“Excuse me, Courtney,” Ian called to where she appeared to be checking the fluid inside Alek’s IV bags. “Could we try the piano now? As long as it won’t be too loud?”
“Too loud? No way! These glass doors block more noise than you’d think. You should hear all the dinging alarms outside.”
That was an unsettling thought.
Courtney wheeled a table to the opposite side of Alek’s bed, positioned it over his lap, and Ian placed the keyboard on top.
From the side pocket of her cargo pants, Courtney pulled out a piece of paper. “Sheet music. Just in case. Okay, well, I’ll leave you to it. Make sure you only use your left hand.” She narrowed her eyes at Alek in a surprisingly stern way and then left, closing the door behind her.
Alek rolled his eyes and then winced.
“I know you’re in pain. You don’t need to suffer. Do you want me to ask her to bring something?”
After I play.
Alek lifted both hands to the keyboard and rested his fingertips against the keys.
10
