“I picked your front door lock when you didn’t answer the door. You really need a security system in this place. I got inside in like less than ten minutes.”
Is he kidding? He broke into my house? I must be dreaming this. I close my eyes and count to five. When I open them, he’ll be gone. One. Two. Three. Five.
He’s still here.
“Take these.” He hands me two pills and holds a glass of water to my mouth. “You don’t look good.” I swallow the pills and hand him the glass of water. I really hope that was my prescription I just swallowed and not some crazy pills he’s giving me.
I let my head fall back onto the pillow. “Thank you.”
“I’m going to make you some tea. I brought you soup, Gatorade, cough drops, flavored water, ice cream, sherbert…”
“Storm… you can’t be here.”
He’s already on his way to the kitchen lugging all the grocery bags. “Too late,” he yells from the kitchen. “Just sit there and be quiet.”
I can’t believe he is here, in my house, making tea, and putting groceries into my kitchen. I don’t know if I should be pissed off or grateful. I think I will settle for both right now, as I feel so crappy I can’t even muster up the strength to tell him he has to leave. And of course, here I am looking absolutely horrible with no makeup on.
He strolls back into the living room with a cup of tea, hands it to me, and then pulls something out of his pocket and holds it up. “Look what I got! For Halo.” It’s a tiny fuzzy mouse. “Look what it does.” He pokes it with his finger and it lights up. “I thought he would like this. It’s interactive.”
“He will love that. That’s really cute. He’s sleeping, but put it next to him, and he’ll probably play with it when he wakes up.” He gently places the toy next to Halo and then sits on the floor next to the couch. My heart swoons. A rock star just gave my cat a toy. Seriously, what could be cuter?
“Drink the tea, you’ll feel better.”
The tea is made perfectly with honey and just a tiny touch of milk. It feels like heaven on my throat.
“Thank you… What are you doing here?”
He pushes his hair out of his face and tucks it behind his ear and grins at me. “You were alone. And you sounded pretty bad.” He shrugs. “I thought maybe you shouldn’t be alone. I know you get nervous.”
I nod slowly at him over my tea cup, breathing the steam up into my nose. I’m not sure what to say to him. I feel like we keep being pulled back to each other, and I’m not entirely sure I don’t like it.
“Do you want me to leave?” he asks me. “And think about all the good stuff I just bought you before you say yes. I even bought you those really soft tissues. And like five different kinds of cough drops.”
I shake my head no. “Evie, I’m not good at talking about my feelings and shit, but I kind of feel like I should take care of you. Can I just hang out here until tomorrow? Otherwise, I’m gonna sit around and worry about you, and I’m tired. I’ll just crash here on the floor.”
I can’t help but wonder if his feelings of wanting to take care of me stem from what happened to his wife. That is not a territory I want to tread into at all.