by Joyce Jordan
“Goodnight,” he said as he ended the call.
Well that was easy Moira said as she placed the empty cup on the bedside table and lay down on her pillow.
Friday morning was torture for Moira. Her limbs were on fire. Getting out of bed was a struggle. She made it to her bathroom and after her shower she felt better. She made tea and filled her travel mug. She left the apartment with Sam as he was on his way to the airport. “Have fun,” she told him as they parted ways at the door.
By 8am Moira was sweating and she knew she needed to go home and rest. Her head was now aching too, so she took some ibuprofen. She called Stu on her way home and he told her he would take care of the rest. By the time she got home her bones were so weak that all she could do was fall into bed. She only managed to kick off her shoes before she was fast asleep.
She woke to someone banging the front door. Nobody knew she was home except Stu and her co-workers. Maybe Stu had come to check in on her. But it was barely noon, and Stu had said he would call her later in the day. Moira opened the door wanting to rip the door banger to shreds. The last person she expected to see on her door step was about to make another banging noise and had a large scowl on his face.
“What are you doing here?” she asked.
He didn’t answer her. He placed his hand on her forehead and swore. “You’re burning up,” he said as he entered the apartment.
“What are you doing here?” Moira asked again.
“When was the last time you ate? You have lost weight,” he said and ignored her question again.
“What are you doing here?” she asked again like a broken record.
Now he had moved to the kitchen and was opening the fridge and drawers, he pulled a pot from the cabinet then looked at her. “Well, I am waiting?”
“For what? I asked you a question three times and you are yet to answer.” Just that outburst and Moira was already tired.
“I heard you were sick so I came to check on you when you didn’t answer your phone. Now I am making you some soup. Why don’t you sit down before you fall on your feet?”
“I can make my own soup. You need to leave,” she told him as she moved closer to the kitchen. Moira could feel her bones weakening again. She moved closer so she could hold onto the island any maybe sit on a chair. She managed to just make it to the island before she crumpled down.
As she fell down, it was like she was seeing a movie in slow motion. She heard Conrad swear and run to her side.
Chapter Thirteen
“Fuck!” Conrad swore as he ran to catch Moira. He made it just in time and then carried her to the sofa in the sitting room.
After calling Lucas looking for Sam, he almost threw the phone when he found out he had gone out of town and since his phone was going straight to voicemail, he assumed he was in the air.
He heard her teeth chattering and realized she was shivering. He carried her from the sofa to her bedroom. Fortunately the first room he opened was hers. He placed her in bed then pulled the covers. When he didn’t get a reponse to his question about meds she was taking he went to her bathroom and found the opened bottles of DayQul, NyQil and ibuprofen. Conrad had seen her doctor’s name on the fridge, so he called him only to be told he had gone out of town on a family emergency.
“Lucas,” he said on his next call.
“I’m in a meeting, can I call you back?” Lucas asked.
“No, this is urgent. Moira is sick. I need a doctor. Can you have the one you use at your hotel come over?” he asked.
“How bad is it?”
“I don’t know, but looks pretty bad. She is shivering and I don’t think she has been eating,” Conrad responded.
“Okay, sit tight. I’ll call you back,” his friend said. “Oh, and text me the address.”
Conrad hung up and found a letter in the sitting room, then he sent the address to Lucas. He went back to the bedroom and found Moira was all wet with sweat. “Jesus Moira! Baby.” He placed his phone down then fought with her to get her clothes off. He found a pair of cotton pyjamas in her drawers and helped her into those. When she started shivering again, he took off his shoes and slept next to her, then pulled her into his arms.
When his phone rang, he had to reach over Moira to get it from her sidetable where he had placed it. He answered Sam’s call, and decided not to beat around the bush.
“How long as Moira been ill?”
“Why? She was feeling fine today when she went to work,” he answered. “And why are you asking?”
“Look, I am not the enemy here. Right now lets focus on Moira. She went to work but I heard she left about 8 or so because she was feeling crappy and could hardly keep moving around. I’m not even sure how she made it home because when she opened the door for me, she could hardly stand straight. The next thing she was falling at my feet and now I think she has a fever because she is alternating between shivering and sweating…Hold on, I think the doctor is here.”
Conrad walked over to the door and met the doctor Lucas had sent over.
“Dr. Walter Ryan. Lucas asked me to come here. He said you have a patient.”
“Conrad King. Thanks for coming,” he said as he led him to Moira’s bedroom.
“Can you tell me when it started?” Dr. Ryan asked.
“I have no idea, but let me put her brother on speaker. Hey Sam, I am putting you on speaker. I have Dr. Walter Ryan sent over by Lucas. You probably have met him before, but he needs to ask you some questions.”
Conrad was swearing a blue streak when he found out that Sam didn’t even know when Moira had started to feel crappy. Fotunately he had Serena’s cellphone and she seemed to have all the information they needed. With the promise to call her as soon as the doctor was done, he let her go. Sam tried to get a flight back but unfortunately all the flights were grounded. The weather had become even worse that it had been when they landed. Sam told Conrad of how their flight had been diverted before being allowed to proceed to New York.
Before Dr. Ryan left, he gave Moira an injection which made her fall into an easy sleep. Her left a prescription for her and instructions to have her take as many liquids as possible. He called Janet who came and filled Moira’s prescription and did the grocery shopping he asked for. By the time Lucas stopped by with an overnight bag for him he had made some chicken soup, ready to be heated when she woke up.
“What did Sam say?”
Conrad laughed before he told Lucas the three way conversation with Sam and Dr. Ryan. “Right now he is stuck in New York. Bad weather. But I figure as soon as his sister is well, he will probably punch me.”
“Let me know when and where, so I can have a front row seat,” Lucas said as he laughed.
“Some friend you are,” Conrad muttered. The open door alerted Conrad that Moira was awake when he heard her trying to get up.
Moira froze when she saw Conrad and Lucas in her bedroom. “Oh God! You are still here?” she said with a frown to Conrad. “Hi Lucas,” she turned her attention to his friend and smiled. However, her smile quickly vanished when she tried to get up and found her limbs were too weak to carry her.
“Moira, you need to remain in bed,” Conrad said as he pushed her back to lie down.
“I need to use the bathroom,” she said wearily. And no sooner had she uttered the words, than Conrad had picked her up and taken the few short steps to the bathroom. Before she realized his intent, he had pulled the pyjama pants down and sat her on the toilet seat. “Wait outside,” she said to him.
After he refused and they fought, he finally agreed to turn around. Moira wiped herself clean, all the while hoping that this was a dream and tomorrow she would wake up and laugh about it. She almost fell when she tried to get up and pull her pants up. The look from Conrad was enough to make her hold her tongue.
“There is nothing wrong in asking for help you know,” he said to her as she was washing her hands. “And next time, don’t hide your symptoms from your brother.”
Because Moira knew she had
been wrong she didn’t answer. She simply thanked him when he sat her on her bed, tucked against pillows as if she were a baby and could topple down any minute. Granted there was some truth in that, seeing as how weak she felt. Conrad left and she heard him in the kitchen. Lucas pulled a chair to seat closer to her. He made her laugh but had to leave when Conrad came back holding a tray with a bowl which she assumed was soup.
As he leaned down to kiss her cheek, he said, “Don’t be too hard on him,” then left.
Moira would have preferred to feed herself, but that didn’t sound like an option. If her stomach hadn’t rumbled, she would have just forgone the soup. So she graciously accepted his feeding. She tooks the pills Conrad placed in her palms and because she was so exhausted, she didn’t argue when he suggested she try and sleep again.
Conrad left Moira sleeping and went to work on his laptop in the kitchen. For the next two hours he fired off instructions to Janet before he shut his laptop and made something to eat. When Moira woke up again a few hours later, he fed her more soup before she slipped into sleep again. For the next several hours he sat in the chair Lucas had vacated and watched her sleep. Already she seemed to be improving. That was one stubborn woman he thought to himself. Why he was even bothering with her, he didn’t know. Except that he felt a pull towards her that he couldn’t explain to himself.
She woke again needing a to use the bathroom, but refused food. As soon as she was in bed, she was fast asleep. A good thing too since Dr. Ryan had said lots of sleep is what she needed. But then the shivering started again. Conrad undressed and got into bed with her. He held her against his chest and it seemed to help a little, but her teeth wouldn’t stop chattering. And when he thought she was out of it, the sweating began again. Before long, Moira was drenched in sweat and her pyjama’s were sticking to her as if glue had been used. When the spell was over, he quickly removed the soaked pyjama’s and shifted her position on the bed. Conrad realized it was too soon to change her bedding because this cycle would likely repeat like earlier in the day. And sure enough the cycle repeated itself for half the night until she finally fell into a restless sleep, which was better than the shivers and sweats. Conrad cleaned her up with a wet washcloth, then finally changed the bedding. He always wondered how nurses did that with bed patients, and realized it wasn’t easy, but at least they did it in pairs.
Moira woke slowly feeling herself snuggled to a warm body – a naked warm body, with a hand keeping her prisoned against the warm body. The events from the day before flashed through her mind and the only conclusion she came up with was that could only be Conrad’s hand. It being Sam’s hand would be weird, especially as it started moving and grabbed hold of a breast. Moira froze and went utterly still as if an officer had come through the door and uttered those words. Unfortunately her body started moving in reaction to what the hand was doing to her breast. She tried to hold still, she really did, but her traitorous body had a mind of it’s own – and truth be told, she was enjoying it. Way too much! Way, way too much! If Sam walked in here right now, the roof would blow off and maybe the windows would shatter too. That thought brought Moira back to her senses.
“Conrad?” she whispered.
No response.
Again. “Conrad?” she said a little louder.
No response.
Moira gingerly took his wrist and tried to lift it off her body so she could climb out of bed and hopefully get a robe before Conrad woke. Except the hand wouldn’t budge. Maybe held a little tigher than before, or was that a reaction from the pills Conrad had shoved down her throat yesterday, or maybe the day before?
How long has she been out of it? Did Sam know? Was he on his way back? Well at least he wasn’t here yet, by the looks of it, so she needed to be respectable before all hell broke lose. Moira didn’t want to be in the middle of that storm. Even if she survived, she would wish she didn’t.
So she tried again, only to get the same results. So maybe it was time to try something different.
“Conrad!” Except that what she meant to be a shout, came out more as a croak. Damn.
“Yes, baby. You okay?” he asked as he lifted his head and kissed her shoulder. He moved his head behind her ear and peered around her.
“Why are we naked? And in bed together?”
“You don’t remember?” he asked surprised.
“I don’t know what I remember and what I don’t remember. Just tell me we didn’t…Umm,” she ended on a whisper.
Conrad rolled over to his side, grabbed a glass of water and held it up to her lips. He placed a couple of pills in her palm which she threw into her mouth then gratefully she took a couple of sips, and swallowed. She heard the mattress move as he then placed the glass back on the bedside table. When she thought he was going to get up and move away, he surpised her by claiming his original position and pulled her back to his body.
“What’s going on Conrad?”
“Relax baby. You are too sick for what I want to do to your body. I nearly lost you yesterday, so just give me a moment,” he replied.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea. Not that I am not grateful.”
“Please. Just give me a moment,” he said softly.
Moira froze, then relaxed. She would never have believed Conrad was capable of asking. Giving commands - ultimatums, yes; demanding, yes; but asking, no. So they lay like that for a minute which turned into two, turned into five, ten, fifteen and finally Moira lost count as she fell asleep again watching her bedside clock red numbers change a minute at a time.
Chapter Fourteen
The next time Moira woke up she was alone. And truth be told, she missed his warmth behind her. She took the time to stretch and feel her body aches which seemed to be worse in other places and reminded her of the days she had tried going to the gym. Never again. She couldn’t understand why anyone would want to torture themselves at the gym, for more than an hour no less. Yeah, maybe if you were going to catch a hot guy, thirty minutes would do it. Because of that hate relationship she had with the gym, Moira tried to watch what she ate. Not easy at first what with working with food everyday. And worse when working with pastries and desserts. But she had learnt to control it, well mostly, except when she was depressed. Which thankfully hadn’t happened in several months now.
She jumped when she heard Conrad say, “Good. You’re awake.” And as if it were an everyday thing, he came to the bed and flung the covers down then picked her up as if she weighed nothing. Moira didn’t even have time to say the million things she wanted to say, or ask the trillions questions going through her mind before she was carefully placed into the tub filled with water and bubbles. Well at least ‘Thank God’ she would be covered by all those bubbles. Maybe she would hold whatever million things she wanted to say and the trillions questions she wanted to ask. The water felt divine against her body, she felt like she hadn’t bathed in months. So she said the only word that was appropriate, ‘Thanks.”
His response of ‘You’re welcome’, came from behind her and only then did she see the water being displaced as he sat down. Was that a…? Yes, he was naked, and that was a hard-on.
“What the hell are you doing?” she asked exasperated. She tried to turn and look at him, but he placed his hand across her chest and pulled her against his chest and kissed her neck.
“Giving you a bubble bath. Since you are still weak and cannot stand in the shower for long, I thought this would be a better option,” he told her matter of factly.
“Yes, it is. And I thank you for that. But why are you in the bath with me?”
“You still need someone to scrub all the sweat from yesterday’s fever. Besides, I have already seen you naked. And I am just giving you a bath, nothing more.”
Moira was already worn out with the interrogation which she realized she wouldn’t win with him, and not when she wasn’t at full functional capacity. She sighed and settled down. “I didn’t realise you were a full service nurse?”
“Fo
r you baby, yes. So how are you feeling?”
“Better, I think,” she told him.
“You look slightly better. But you still need to rest and eat. Clearly you haven’t been taking care of yourself well,” he said and literally growled the last statement. “No don’t say anything. I don’t want to fight with you right now. It was just a statement I threw out there.”
Hello? You throw out such a statement and you expect me not to respond? To fight back with words too? Now the trillion questions were adding up. What comes after trillion? Even thinking hard was tiring, so Moira let it go. For now.
When the water started getting lukewarm Conrad added more hot water, then took a washcloth and started washing her body. To say there was a part of her body that wasn’t washed would be a lie, a total lie. As humiliating as it was, Moira didn’t have the strength to fight for the washcloth. Not that she didn’t try. So she just pretended it was her mom giving her a bath. Except that she had to concentrate hard and really close her eyes tight. Yes even through the washcloth, it was arousing and her body parts were tingling. What would happen if he wasn’t this clinical in his bathtime duties? Thankfully the water hid how wet Moira was becoming with the prolonged body washing. She must have sweated until a cake was covering her body, if she were to go by the thorough washing she was receiving. Now she couldn’t tell if her skin was red because of that or due to embarrassment. Yes it was piling on every second.
Finally he seemed to consider her clean enough. Then he reached for her shampoo bottle and told her to hold still. Wow! Her hairdresser had never washed her hair and given those types of massages before. If he had, she would be at the salon every weekend. Everyday if she could afford it, financially and time-wise. He rinsed her and did another round with shampoo again. She didn’t realise she had sighed, contentedly too, until he chuckled. At this time Moira just didn’t care. Her head was tingling, in a very good way. And some of the tingles were moving down her body.
He rinsed her using the lose shower head, then poured conditioner and rinsed again. Finally she had to get out of the water. It was getting cold again. And yes, he dried her like she were a four year old. Thankfully he covered his groin because Moira didn’t think she would have been able to resist licking his thick hard-on. She had seen its size when he had climbed out of the tub and turned to lift her up before he wrapped a towel around his waist. And yes the four year old journey continued with him drying her hair. He opened the drawers until he found her dryer, but not before he met Mr. Rabbit. It all his naked glory.