Under the Surface (15 page)

Chapter Fifteen

Emilie

“Maggie, I really am sorry,”
I say again into the phone.

“Emilie,
sweetheart, how many times do I need to tell you to stop apologizing? You’re
sick. Probably worse than last night when I took you home early. Please stop
apologizing for not coming into work tonight. No offense, but a feverish
waitress is not the kind of person someone wants to order food from.”

She’s right.
Last night when I was doing my shift I kept stepping into to the back to cough
and sneeze. My hands were completely dried out from the amount of times I
washed them in between hacking up a lung and taking a customer’s order. Maggie
saw me during my break, hunched over the table in the back, and told me she
would take me home. She couldn’t stand seeing me working when I felt so ill.

I tried to fight
her on it. I can barely cover my bills, with a few personal expenses, off the
paychecks I make. There aren’t a lot of employees at the diner, so finding
someone’s shift to cover is a rarity.

“
Fine. I won
’t come
in. But if anybody is looking to give away a shift can you please let me know?
You know I run on a tight budget, and I can’t afford to miss a lot of shifts.”

“I’ll find
something for you to make up for tonight. I promise. Now get some sleep and
call me if you need anything.”

“Thank you,
Maggie, and I will.”

“I’ll see you
in a few days.”

I hang up the
phone and reach for the glass of water on my nightstand. Looking at it I think
about Ren. How I was curious enough to snoop through his things. A complete
violation, but for some reason he had no problem with it. He only promised to
get a peek at what I had in my side table in the future. That will never
happen. I’ll need to remember to move all potentially embarrassing items out of
the drawer and into a less conspicuous location.

I should text
him soon. I haven’t seen Ren in person since the day after the party. That was
three days ago. He’s been checking in on me; I think because I broke down in
front of him. But he’s done nothing to make things awkward. His texts are as
normal as ever, but just more frequent. As if to remind me that he is in fact
there and caring about me.

Concern
. That’s the part that’s so difficult for me to wrap my head
around. Yes, I understand people worry about one another. But I never
experienced the kind of concern Ren felt for me before. I was shocked that he
apologized for what happened, even though I blamed none of it on him. He was
there for me, following me back to my apartment after I left the party to make
sure I was okay, which I obviously wasn’
t. I don
’t even want to think
about what would have happened if he didn’t show up.

And then when
I cried. He just held me, assured me that I wasn’t alone anymore. Twenty-one
years of facing life without a person by my side, no one giving a fuck about
where I was, if I was okay. But now, now I have people. It’s odd, only because
it’s still feels new, but I never will take it for granted.

I quickly
drink down the contents of the glass. The cool water feels good against my
scratchy throat, but does nothing to cool my temperature.

I’ve had a
fever since last night. I started feeling sick during my human development
class, and it only got worse as the day went on. It was a blessing that Maggie
was able to take me home. I don’t know if I would have had the energy to
continue my shift.

My entire
body aches. I painfully lift myself out of my bed and walk to the kitchen. I’m
in need of some ibuprofen and cough drops.

I swallow two
red tablets and open the last honey flavored lozenge. I want to go to the store
and get more, but I really can’t today. I’m just too sick.

I remember
when I was a little kid and got sick. My dad of course never did much about it,
but one time he brought home honey cough drops, and they made all the
difference.

The sweet flavor
melts into my mouth, and I hope, at least momentarily, that it will help me
feel a little bit better.

After leaving
the kitchen and going back into my room, I lay my body down onto my bed. I’m
too hot to get under the covers, even though I tend to sleep better when I have
a blanket on me. At the moment, I could not care less.

As soon as I
feel the comfort of my bed my eyes begin to close. I pray for sleep so I can be
apart from my aching, sick body, if only for a few hours.

* *

I can feel my phone
buzzing
next to me on
the bed. I left it on vibrate to get some sleep, but the feel of it still wakes
me up.

The screen
reads Ren’s name. Why is he calling me so late in the middle of the week?

“Hi,”
I say, too tired and confused to think of much else.

“Emmy, where
are you?”
He sounds worried.

“It’s late.
I’m at my house. Where else would I be?”

“Did you walk
home from work?”

“No, I didn’t
go to work today. I’
m
sick. Maggie made me stay home.
”

“Thank fuck.
I went to go pick you up and you weren’t here. I asked that waitress Farrah
where you were and she had no idea. I was worried.”

I completely
forgot to tell him I wasn’t going to work tonight. He’s been nice enough to
come give me rides home when I work late shifts. I texted him yesterday and
told him Maggie was taking me back, but I forgot to tell him I didn’t go
tonight. Shit, he drove out there for nothing.

“Ren, I’m
sorry,”
I pause for a moment to cough. “I should’ve told you I didn’t go
in today. It would’ve saved you the drive.”

“You know the
drive is only a few minutes. It didn’t bother me. But you’re sick, you said?”

“I’m dying.
This will probably be the last conversation the two of us have. Like ever.”

“There’s that
sarcasm. I’
m coming
over.
”

“Why?”

“Because
you’re sick,”
he says, ending the call.

As much as my
vanity wants me to complain that Ren is about to come over and will see what a
mess I am at a moment, I couldn’t be more grateful.

If Ren is
driving over here I wonder if he’ll be willing to stop at a grocery store. I
text him.

Emmy: Could you do me a favor please before you come over here?

He responds.

Ren: Sure. What do you need?

Emmy: Could you please pick me up honey flavored cough drops?

Ren: On it.

* *

Ren comes into my apartment fifteen
minutes later.

“Hey, Emmy,”
I can hear him call from the front door. I’m still laying in my
bed. “Could you please try and keep your door locked? You live alone, and I was
just able to walk right in here.”

He joins me
in my room, sitting down on the edge of my bed next to me.

“I’m sorry, I
must have forgotten to lock it. I usually do.”

“It’s okay.
It’s just dangerous, that’s why I worry about it.”
He places a plastic grocery bag on the bed. “You look really
sick.”

“
Thanks,
”
I say flatly.

Ren smiles.
“You know I’m not insulting you. It’
s just, I
’ve never seen you looking so bad.”

“Oh god, the
compliments never end with you.”

Ren winks at
me. “How long have you been like this?”

“Since
yesterday. That’s why Maggie took me home. I was spreading my germs all over
the customers.”

“Gross. Well
hopefully the plague you’ve caught will go away soon. I brought the cough drops
you wanted. They’re lemon honey, instead of just honey. It’s all the
convenience store I went to had.”

“These will
do just fine.”
I reach for the bag and pull out a cough drop, immediately
sticking one in my mouth.

The lemon
taste added is even better than the just honey ones. “Thank you for bringing
these by. And for coming over.”

“It was no
problem, and I missed you anyways. I’ve been wanting to come by and check in,
but I didn’t want to push.”

“You don’t
need to check in on me. I told you before you left the other day that I was
okay.”

“Yes, you say
that, but I still worry.”
He pauses for a moment. “I ran into Danny
yesterday.”

That’
s a
surprise.
“I
hope you kicked that asshole’s ass when you saw him.”

“Believe me
that was my first thought. But when I saw him it looked like someone else had
gotten around to it. He had a black eye and a cut on his lip. He looked like
shit.”

“But it wasn’t
you who did that? Who could it have been?”

“It didn’t
take me long to figure it out. Danny tried to apologize for what happened, but
he didn’t sound sincere at all. When I asked him who did it he just ignored me
and said he had to get to class.

“After I went
home I told Mason about it, but he didn’t look surprised when I said it. That’s
when I remembered I sent him to give Danny his keys back. I asked Mason if it
was him, and he didn’t deny it. He said Danny deserved it, and he couldn’t
control himself when he went over there. He said Danny made a comment about
you, something about you lying about what happened, and he just hit him. Mason
doesn’t get violent. Ever. This was the first I heard about it. But I’m fucking
glad he did.”

“I’m glad
Mason did it too.”

Ren takes a
deep breath and places his hand to my forehead to check my temperature. “You
should probably get some sleep. It’s late.”

He’s right.
But he just got here and if I go to bed he’s going to leave. And I don’t want
him to leave yet. “Will you stay here?”
I ask hesitantly.

“I’ll stay.
Do you want me to sleep on the couch or the bed?”

The bed. And
with the thought of that happening I wish even more that I wasn’t sick. But I
think Ren will still be platonic about it, unfortunately.

“You can sleep
in my bed, if you don’t mind sharing it with a sick person.”

“
I don
’t mind it at
all, Emmy. I’ll be right back.”

Ren takes the
shopping bag and leaves my room. I hear him walking around my apartment, and I
think my bathroom, before coming back.

He flicks off
the light in my room when he enters, leaving only the lamp on my side table on.

“Alright,
time for you to sleep now, sickie.”

“Stop telling
me what to do,”
I say while laughing, and pretending to be
annoyed. But suddenly I’m not laughing anymore. I’m distracted by Ren taking
off his clothes.

He quickly
strips off his shirt and jeans, leaving him standing next to my bed in nothing
but his boxer briefs.

Holy. Shit.

I knew Ren
had a good body, it’s obvious to anyone who looks at him. But I didn’t realize
how tan his skin was, and built his body is. He has to work out, a lot.

But just as
quickly has he’s taken off his clothes, he’s under my comforter in my bed.
Covered up. No longer at my viewing pleasure.

“I can’t
sleep in my jeans,”
Ren says when he catches me still looking
at him. “Is that okay?”

At the moment
I couldn’t be more thankful that jeans are uncomfortable to sleep in.

“That’
s fine,
”
I say, still looking at him.

The corner of
Ren’s mouth turns up. “Were you checking me out?”

“No.”

“You have that
guilty look on your face right now. Just like when you denied going through my
things. That reminds me. You owe me a snooping session.”

He tries to
crawl over me to pull open my bedside drawer.

“Hey, hey!”
I say with a scratchy sounding voice. “You don’t get to do this
now. I’m pulling the sick card, Ren. No snooping when I’m sick. Wait until I’m
healed, or so help me I’ll cough and sneeze all over you until you’re running a
fever higher than mine.”

He’s lying on
top of me, with one arm reached out and a hand on the drawer’s handle. And in
the process he lost the blanket that was on top of him.

And for the
second time tonight.
Holy. Shit.

Me
, in my oversized sweatpants
and T-shirt, with my unwashed hair sticking to me head, am lying underneath an
underwear clad Ren Warren.

If I didn’t
already have a high temperature I would be burning up right now.

“Okay, I
won’t look tonight. But you owe me one,”
Ren says quietly. Almost
whispering the words to me. I notice a wavy strand of his dark hair fall down
the center of his forehead.