Page 89 of Had to Be You

Laura woke up and looked around her room, which glowed with a golden ambient light. It was dusk. Or maybe it was sunrise. She honestly had no clue what time of day it was. Her limbs were heavy, and her thoughts were fuzzy.

Her memory was coming back to her now. She remembered waking up in Knox’s bed at the apartment at three in the morning, and her stomach had been upset. She decided to go home, take Dramamine, and sleep for a few more hours. She was sure she’d be fine. That had been the plan, but things had not gone accordingly.

She’d ended up barely making it home before she ran to the bathroom and spent hours on the floor sick. She’d thought about calling someone, but since her phone was in her purse, which she’d dropped on the way into the house, it had seemed like an insurmountable task, so instead she’d just gone to sleep.

When she woke up on the bathroom floor, she tried to get in the shower, but the next thing she remembered was waking up to Knox standing over her in the bathroom and then carrying her to bed. She remembered insisting he didn’t call the doctor, and, oh shit, had she told him that she loved him? No. That had to be a dream. Just like she was sure that the memory of Knox as a winged centaur and her saddled to his back riding him as he flew them through puffy, white clouds in the sky was a dream and not reality.

As she lay in her bed now, her bladder was screaming at her to use the bathroom, but she was scared to move. She feared that if she did, she’d empty the contents of her stomach once again. Not that there was anything left.

Deciding she was going to have to roll the dice on her upset stomach, she sat up in bed, and that's when she saw Knox sitting in the corner chair. Sleeping.

He’d stayed. Her heart definitely had feelings about that development, but she would have to deal with that later. Right now, there was a more pressing matter.

As quietly as she could, she shifted her legs over the side of the bed, and that’s when she noticed her phone. It was hooked up to her charger on her bedside table. She grabbed it on the way to the bathroom, and when she opened up her first text, she saw it was from Kennedy.

Kennedy:Forget the credit score; this is sexy.

Attached was a screen shot of a grocery list sent from Knox’s phone. It had Pedialyte, 7-Up, saltine crackers, and chicken soup on it.

Knox must have sent this to Kennedy to get for her.

Laura pushed aside the wave of affection that washed over her as she finished up in the bathroom. She wasn’t feeling amazing, but her stomach had calmed down. As she stood at the mirror to wash her hands and face, brush her teeth, and rinse her hair, her legs felt like noodles, but she managed to pull herself together.

She grabbed a pair of sweats that were hanging up on her towel rack and slid them on before heading out. When she emerged, she found Knox awake; he was sitting on the edge of her bed waiting for her.

His hair was a little mussed, and the scruff on his face was even scruffier than it had been when she’d shown up at his apartment; the sight was definitely one for sore eyes.

"How are you feeling?"

"Better, thanks for staying."

He nodded. "Kennedy and Ricky covered the shop today, and they have it handled for the next few days."

"Hopefully, I’ll be fine tomorrow." She could see from his reaction that he didn’t like that answer. "I’m really feeling better. You don’t have to stay. When I’m sick, I just like to veg out on the couch and watch rom-coms."

Knox stood. "Sounds good to me."

"Really? Rom coms?"

"I love rom-coms."

At first, she thought he was teasing her, but the look in her eye told her he was serious. Could this man get any more perfect?

The answer was yes.

After Knox got her settled on the couch with 7-Up and crackers, he warmed her up some chicken soup and put on Runaway Bride at her request. To her surprise, he had seen the movie before. He even knew some of the lines.

When the scene came on where Richard Gere was talking about his proposal to his first wife, Knox turned to Laura and asked,"How did you get proposed to?"

She looked over at him, a little surprised that he wanted to know. Besides the first night they’d been together, they hadn’t talked at all about exes.

"Um, the first time was at my ex’s family’s brewery. He threw me a surprise engagement party, basically. I walked in thinking I was going to dinner, and he was on his knee in front of all our friends and family."

"He must have been pretty sure you were going to say yes."

"We had been together since we were twelve and talked about it all the time."

Laura couldn’t be sure, but she thought there might be a little jealousy in his eyes. She was probably delusional from being sick.

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