Millionaire Hero (Freeman Brothers 4)

“Are you having sex?” she asked.

“No,” I said. “Not in a little while.”

“And you said it’s has been going on for about a week and a half?”

“Yes,” I said.

She nodded. “Well let’s do a pregnancy test anyway just to rule it out.”

I nearly threw up right there. “I’m positive that’s not it,” I said. Thinking back, it had been at least three months since I’d last slept with Justin. I’d have known if I was pregnant by now right?”

The doctor gave me a cup and directed me to the bathroom. My hand shook as I held the cup and deposited my sample. After a few tense moments in the exam room, the doctor came back in. “Well you aren’t pregnant.”

I nearly wept with relief. Not that I didn’t want to be a mother someday, but this wasn’t how I’d wanted to go about it.

She continued. “There’s been a particularly nasty stomach bug going around this season. We’ve seen a couple of people every day dealing with it. It looks like you might have gotten a bad case of it.”

“Okay,” I said. “Is there anything I can do about it? Any medicine I could take her anything?”

“Not really. It’s a virus, so there aren’t any antibiotics or medications like that you can take. With things like this, you usually just have to let it run its course. What I recommend is making sure you get plenty of rest and are staying hydrated. I know that’s not always easy when you’re sick to your stomach, but not having enough fluids can actually make you feel sicker. If water doesn’t appeal to you, or you find you feel queasy after drinking it, try ginger ale,” she said.

“How long is this going to last?” I asked.

“There’s no guarantee one way or another. For some people, it only lasts a few days. For others, it can take a couple of weeks to get through. You will recover from it faster if you get plenty of rest. Eat if you have an appetite but focus on foods that are gentle and easy on your body. Toast, rice, pudding. Things like that. Avoid extra spice, oils, fats. All those things can make you feel worse.”

She told me to go home and rest, gave me another warning about getting dehydrated, and said to call back if I wasn’t feeling better within a couple days. I left the clinic with a recommendation to try electrolyte drinks and protein shakes if I was having trouble with solid foods.

I went home and took the doctor’s advice to try to eat while I had the chance. Nick had sent me home with a lot of the leftovers from the lunch I had at his office, but I couldn’t bring myself to heat them up. The idea of the smell already made me feel nauseated. Instead, I picked out the dishes with the least amount of spice and sauce, grabbed a fork, and headed into the living room to eat them cold.

I managed to eat a fairly decent amount before starting to feel tired again. Work deadlines were looming over me, so I knew I couldn’t just curl up on the couch and go to sleep. As much as that sounded like the greatest thing in the world right now. Instead, I got my laptop and dragged it to bed with me so I could work from there.

Setting up my computer, I went back into the kitchen and grabbed an armful of electrolyte drinks and bottled water. I climbed into bed and tuned out the world for a while as I worked. The project I was working on that week wasn’t especially interesting. That made it more difficult to keep myself awake while I fought against the exhaustion pulling down on me.

As I worked, I forced myself to keep up with my hydration. It felt exceedingly silly to set the alarm on my phone and take a few sips every time it went off, but eventually it became like a game. I was hoping my dedication to getting enough fluids would convince my body to not be sick anymore.

That wasn’t the way it worked out. I had gotten a couple of hours’ worth of work behind me when the telltale rippling started in my stomach. I closed my eyes and drew a couple of breaths to try to get rid of the feeling. It didn’t go away, and I pushed my computer aside and repeated my morning scramble to the bathroom.

The wave of sickness was a rough one, and I ended up sprawled on the bathroom floor for almost an hour before I could move again. When I got up the energy and stability to go back into my bedroom, it was only for long enough to grab a pillow and a blanket. I made myself a little nest on the floor and stayed there, clutching a bottle of water, until I fell asleep.