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“I didn’t come out ‘untouched.’ Kimmie thought I was dead, and the jolt jimmied her out of her depression enough to commit suicide.”
Dennis sat back in the bench as if he were going to argue, but thought better of it. “You’re right. But I’m right, too.”
Brian brought out their fries, and as if by mutual agreement they ignored all the uncomfortable things they’d left unsaid to talk about last night’s football game and the upcoming game on Sunday until it was time to go.
Levi dropped Dennis off at his house, and they settled on a time to go back for his car. On the rest of his drive home, all Levi could think about was that Dennis was his sick friend. Worse, had he thought of Kimmie as his sick wife? And was he thinking of Mina as his sick girlfriend?
Was he the sick one?
* * *
LEVI COULDN’T GET out of bed when his alarm went off on Wednesday morning. A million little nails weighed him down, poking into his skin at the same time.
“I should have gotten a flu shot,” he said to the emptiness.
Only his room wasn’t empty, because a voice responded back. “You didn’t?”
He turned his head to face Mina, too tired to turn the rest of his body toward her. “I meant to.” Then the back of his throat tickled, and the mountain of nails couldn’t stop his body from curling up as a cough beat its way through him. Mina rubbed his back, maybe making the cough worse, maybe making it better, but he didn’t want her to stop.
The fit finally over, his head fell back against his pillow, his body more exhausted than it had been when the alarm went off.
“Let’s get you to Urgent Care.”
He closed his eyes. When he exhaled, his breath came out like a groan. Uncomfortable plastic chairs. Face masks because it was flu season. Probably a needle. There was always a needle. “I don’t need to go to Urgent Care. Give me five minutes, and I’ll be out of bed,” he said. Maybe the wheeze would hide the lie in his voice.
“Okay.” Mina’s voice was light, offering him something, and he was immediately suspicious. “Tell you what. I’ll reset your alarm for ten minutes. Notice that I’m being generous and giving you extra minutes. I’ll go make coffee. If you are in the kitchen, seated, with your hands around a coffee mug in fifteen minutes—I’m setting my alarm, too—then no Urgent Care.” She patted him on his back, and he winced. “Do we have a deal?”
Talking felt too much like work, so he nodded and grimaced at the headache that accompanied the movement.
He was never going to make it out of bed.
“Good. I’m setting the alarms now. You’ve got fifteen minutes.”
A cool breeze slipped under the covers as she slipped out, taking both her warmth and the magic she carried with her out of his bed. He didn’t open his eyes to watch her put a robe over her sexy body.
I must be sick.
The alarm going off ten minutes later jolted him awake. The jolt kicked off a coughing fit. And even though he managed to get out of bed—under his own power, thank you—get his pajama bottoms on and get down the hall to the kitchen, the time he’d spent coughing and the time he’d spent recovering from coughing meant that he was late to his seat. Two whole minutes late, according to the alarm on Mina’s phone, which she didn’t turn off until he’d wrapped his hands around the warm mug and shoved his face into the steam.
“So, Urgent Care?” He didn’t have to lift his head to know there was an arch to her eyebrow.
“I hate Urgent Cares. And ERs. And doctors’ offices.” As stupid as it sounded, even in his own mind, he’d rather be sick.
“But you went with me. Echo would have taken me.”
That was enough to make him look up. “I’m not a jerk.”
“I’m not a jerk, either, which is why I’m going with you.”
Something was off in her thinking, but he couldn’t concentrate long enough to point it out. Instead, he shoved his nose back in the steam.
“Do you want a bowl of hot water?”
He took as deep a breath as he could. The moist air didn’t smell like anything. He took a sip. His coffee didn’t taste like anything, either. This sucked. “No.”
