Her hand raised, and my eyes slid closed, the muscles in my body relaxing a little when I felt her cold fingers on my burning skin.
“Maybe a couple days ago?” I mumbled. “It wasn’t this bad at first, I didn’t realize I was getting worse. I thought I could handle it on my own.”
She growled. “Fuck, Howard! You had your front door open and you’re this bad! You live in a relatively safe neighborhood, but that was still reckless. If someone had come in here, even if they were unarmed, they would have just walked away with what they wanted, and who knows what they would have done to you.”
I looked up, blinking at her in confusion. “What? It’s open? Since when...”
Did I open my door? I hadn’t stepped out since I got sick. I hadn’t left the apartment a couple days before I got sick. The last time I opened it up for anything was lunch yesterday when I’d ordered food delivered from some restaurant instead of cooking. Don’t tell me... my door had been open since yesterday? I shuddered. Zoe was right. The area was pretty safe, or something definitely would have happened to me. I didn’t have the kind of strength to fight anyone off.
Zoe groaned. “You’re hopeless. It’s a good thing I came here, who knows what could have happened to you if left to your own devices for long? Anyway, if you’re done here, let’s get you back to the couch.”
Her arms wrapped around me and tried to lift me up. I helped by pushing myself to my feet, then wrapped my arms tight around her, burying my face in her shoulder. She was stiff for a second before she relaxed.
“Howard?” she said, voice soft.
I buried my nose in her shoulder and breathed in her scent. I felt terrible, but having her there with me made me feel ten times better. My eyes stung with tears, and I squeezed them close so they wouldn’t spill. When was the last time I cried? Back in high school when I got injured playing. I broke my arm,
It’s probably because I’m sick.
“Sorry,” I murmured, voice trembling slightly. “I’m probably disgusting, you can have a shower later, but let me hold you like this, just for a little bit.”
It was delayed, but Zoe was finally here, of course I would feel happy. My eyes stung, and I sniffled, but I refused to cry. I didn’t want her to worry, and I didn’t want to appear so weak in front of her, though I had a feeling I’d already failed in that.
Zoe sighed, and I felt her hand in my hair again, her other hand rubbing soothing circles into my back. “You can hug me as much as you want, but can I get you to the couch first? I’ll need to clean up in here, and you might want some water.”
With some coaxing, she got me to release her. We walked over to the sink where I rinsed my mouth out, and she led me to the couch and pushed lightly until I fell onto it, then she walked away. I watched her, wanting to call her back, but I realized she was in my apartment now. As long as she didn’t walk out the front door, I would see her again.
Feeling my body start to shiver, I pulled my blanket around me, and waited for her to come back. I heard the toilet flush, then Zoe went into the kitchen and came back with a glass of water for me.
“Here, drink this. If you can keep the water down, I’ll see about making you something to eat. If you can’t keep even water down, then I should probably take you to a hospital.”
“What time is it?” I asked.
“It’s late, or I would have insisted on taking you to the hospital right now. If your fever doesn’t go down, I’ll at least go to a pharmacy to get you some meds. Now, come on, drink the water.”
I took the glass she handed to me, and quickly gulped down its contents, only then realizing how thirsty I was. I almost asked for more, but my stomach still felt funny, and I decided against it. She had her hand outstretched to take the glass, but I set it down on the table instead and took her hand in mine, tugging her until she sat down next to me, and wrapped my arms around her again, dragging her under the blanket with me.
“I’m so happy you’re here,” I murmured into her shoulder.
She grumbled. “You’re hot, Howard, and sweaty. You should probably take a hot bath.”
“Later,” I insisted.
“Even if I offer to join you?”
I hesitated. The idea of Zoe helping me in the bath was a good one, but I really didn’t feel like moving anymore.
“Later,” I said. “You were gone for so long. I was worried you wouldn’t come back. I just want to hold you for a bit.”
“Why on earth would I go anywhere?” She said, chuckling. “I’m sorry I didn’t speak to you for the past few weeks. I went to visit my grandmother, she lives in Montana.”
“But my calls, texts, voice mails... you could have answered at least once to let me know you were okay, even if you didn’t tell me where you were.”
“Sorry I ignored you,” she said with some guilt. “I just had some things to think over, but I’m done thinking now. I need to talk to you. It’s important, so can you let me go?”
Reluctantly, I released her. She settled with her legs curled up beneath her on the couch, facing me.
“Before you say anything, did Kayla tell you that I contacted her?”
She hesitated, then nodded. “Yeah, she did tell me that the two of you met. And she told you about the job proposal I got from Brandon Taylor.”
“She told me. What I do wish is that you’d been the one to tell me instead of running off.”
Her eyes flitted away. “It wasn’t that simple.”
“But it’s the job you’ve always wanted,” I cut in. “You’ve told me over and over how much you want that job. I should have figured out that something like this would have happened. It doesn’t matter if regulations say you can’t date a player on the team. Just take the job and I’ll look for another team.”
“Don’t you dare,” she growled. “I want you to play for this team, Howard. That hasn’t changed. We’ll work something around it, but that’s not the problem. There’s something else that’s more important.”
“So, tell me,” I said.