Page 44 of Tempted By Her

“What do you need?” I asked.

“Oh, I’m fine,” she said as she blew her nose.

“Have you taken anything?” I asked.

She shook her head and closed her eyes.

“Maybe you could make me some tea?” she asked.

I’d do better than that.

First, I went to take inventory of the meds in the bathroom. I brought her some cold medicine, along with a ginger ale to wash it down before I filled the kettle for tea.

Fortunately, there was a can of chicken noodle soup in the cupboard for just such an emergency, so I got it out to make.

“Have you eaten anything today?” I called to her.

“Um, I had a bagel this morning?” she said, but she didn’t sound that sure.

“I’m making you some soup,” I said.

Along with her lemon ginger tea, I added some honey and an extra squirt of fresh lemon juice to her cup.

“Try that,” I said, giving it to her.

Lark protested as I started to clean up the tissues, but I ignored her.

“Drink your tea,” I said, pointing at her.

She looked like she wanted to argue, but she sipped anyway. I gave her the bowl of soup with some oyster crackers once she finished the tea.

I found her some cough drops and then set up the humidifier next to her to help loosen everything up in her chest.

“Sydney, this is too much,” Lark said.

“Shut up and eat your soup,” I said.

“You know, you’d make a terrible nurse. Your bedside manner is shit,” she said.

“Good think I’m not a nurse, then,” I said, standing over her to supervise her with the soup. Lark added a few crackers and ate her soup dutifully.

“There you go. Now close your eyes,” I said, taking the bowl from her.

“I’m not tired,” she said and then yawned.

“Nice try. Close your eyes,” I said.

She glared at me briefly before doing as I asked.

Lark was asleep within five minutes.

“That’s what I thought,” I said softly.

* * *

In additionto throwing something together for myself for dinner and running over to the grocery store for more supplies (including soup), I washed Lark’s sheets and changed her bed, threw her pillows in the dryer to fluff, and cleaned the bathroom. There wasn’t really a way for me to avoid getting sick, but I still disinfected anything I could anyway.

Lark slept until after I finished dinner and started the dishwasher.

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