Page 42 of Drawn Together

“I was just joking. You look adorable when you’re sick—your cheeks get all red from the fever.”

I hit him with a pillow, although I think it hurt me more than him.

“Can a tattoo seriously make you this sick? I told you, you don’t put a bumper sticker on a fucking Ferrari. You tried to go against nature, and now it’s paying you back.”

“Shut up.”

“Can you at least tell me what you got done? Because I could understand if you got a tattoo that saysI love Liam.”

I rolled my eyes, sat up, turned my back to him, and lifted my shirt.

“Very cute… Even though you can’t really make out the ballerina right now.”

“Is it that bad?”

“It’s pretty bad.”

I put the pillow over my head. Karma strikes again.

“Not to change the subject, but,” he began, pulling the pillow away, “your bodyguard is out there in the living room looking super worried. He always has such a stick up his ass, but this time I think you’re the one who stuck it there. Did something happen between you two?”

“What are you talking about?” I said, playing dumb. “We don’t get along well, that’s all.”

Liam was about to open his mouth when we heard the buzzer. A few seconds later, someone knocked on my door.

“Come in.”

It was the doctor, accompanied by Sebastian. Instead of taking a break like I’d asked him to, he stood leaning against the door, watching me the entire time the doctor examined me.

“You still have a fever, but at least it’s under control now. You need to drink plenty of liquids, take the antibiotics, and apply the ointment. The fever is likely to spike in the evening. If that happens,” he said, looking now at Sebastian, “repeat what you did last night: Check her temperature every hour and place cold compresses on her forehead to make sure it doesn’t go above 104.”

I said goodbye to the doctor and lay back down.

The tension in the room was immediately palpable. Liam was staring at Sebastian, who was staring at me. Neither of them blinking.

“You spent all night putting cold compresses on Marfil’s forehead?” Liam finally spoke.

Sebastian ignored him, his eyes still boring into mine. “I’ll make you some food,” he said, then he left the room, closing the door.

Liam looked at me suspiciously. “Tell me you didn’t hook up with him, Marfil.”

I tensed but shook my head. “We didn’t hook up. We had a fight over something dumb, and now he’s even colder than usual.”

“But he took care of you all night? So now he’s a nurse, too?”

“What did you expect him to do? Leave me lying here, burning up? He just made sure I had everything I needed.”

“Right…”

I didn’t want to talk about Sebastian, so instead, I asked Liam to get out my laptop and pick a movie on Netflix.

A little while later, Sebastian came in carrying a bowl of soup with bread and butter. I could tell it irritated Liam.

Sebastian placed the tray on the bedside table and stood over me. “Eat this.”

I nodded grudgingly. That must’ve been enough for Sebastian because he shot Liam an icy look, then left.

“Why do I suddenly feel like I’m not wanted here?”