They spent the rest of the afternoon and evening that way, with Ian working and Kate not feeling well enough to do much of anything but watch daytime TV. He checked Kate’s temperature around dinnertime and discovered it had risen to one hundred and three. He gave her more Motrin, and she snuggled on the couch next to him while his fingers tapped on the keyboard. He was wearing his glasses, and Kate decided it was definitely a look she preferred. A while later someone knocked on the door.
“I ordered Thai online,” Ian said, setting his laptop on the coffee table. “Do you think you can eat something?”
She shook her head and then burrowed back into the blankets. Around ten, Ian convinced Kate to go to bed. He picked up the box of Kleenex and followed her to the bedroom, setting it down on the nightstand while she crawled underneath the covers. She ached, her head was throbbing, her chest hurt from coughing, and she could hardly hold her eyes open.
“I’ll be right back,” he said.
When he returned, he had Kate’s comforter and he covered her and made sure it was tucked in tight. The last thing she thought of was hoping Ian would turn everything off on his way out.
She slept until almost nine the next morning and awakened feeling a little better than when Ian had put her to bed, which meant she probably wasn’t going to get any worse. He’d left a glass of water and two pills on her nightstand with a note that said “Take these as soon as you wake up.” She swallowed them, aware that the ache in her body was still present but that it had lessened considerably. A hot bath would do wonders for alleviating some of the remaining pain.
In the bathroom, she poured in a generous amount of bubble bath and brushed her teeth while the tub filled. I don’t look too horrible, she thought as she pulled her hair into a high ponytail. Her face wasn’t quite as pale, and the hot water would pink up her cheeks a little more.
She undressed and lowered herself into a cloud of bubbles. After she soaped herself, she leaned back and sighed. Ian crept into her thoughts and she smiled. It had been a long time since a man had taken care of her like that. Stuart had hated being sick, so Kate usually quarantined herself in their spare bedroom until she got over the worst of whatever illness she’d come down with. The way Ian had swept into her apartment and taken charge, and the genuine concern he’d shown, made Kate pine for him in a way she knew was dangerous. He wasn’t the kind of man who stayed in one place too long, and she doubted any woman would ever be enough to make him want to settle down.
Kate closed her eyes and allowed herself a daydream in which she and Ian were a couple. He would walk in the door at the end of the day and kiss her senseless. Then he’d undress her right in the kitchen and carry her off to the bedroom for a round of hot, steamy sex. Afterward he’d pour them a drink and they’d eat dinner in front of the fireplace. They would cuddle and have round two on the living room floor. She felt certain Ian would be an excellent lover: Confident but not selfish. Tender but not boring. As she pictured his large, capable hands stroking her breasts, her fingers drifted toward her chest. She was still awfully worn out, but she wondered if she might possibly find the energy to touch herself while pretending it was him pleasuring her.
Ian shattered her reverie when he walked through the door of the bathroom. “Your couch is incredibly comfortable. I was sleeping so deeply I didn’t even hear you run the bath. You took the pills, I see. That’s good. You need to stay one step ahead of the fever.”
Speechless, her mouth hung open. I am naked, and Ian is in my bathroom. I was contemplating touching my own breasts.
“I know you’ve alluded to my boundary issues,” he said, sitting down on the edge of the tub. “And this is probably a shining example, but I wanted to make sure you were okay. Passing out in the bathtub or shower is one of the leading causes of death while bathing. And I can’t see anything because of all the bubbles. Actually, that’s a blatant lie because I can pretty much make out your entire left nipple. The suds are a little disparate in that area.”