“Let me know if you needanythingelse, Tyler,” she said as he walked away. “I’ll be more than happy to oblige.”
He groaned as he shut the door to his office. Today he was going to suffer through in constant state of arousal with a mammoth-sized headache that was only aggravated further by the sudden blood redistribution. Today he was going to go home, throw himself into bed and wait for body parts of Jordan to stop playing on his mind so he could actually get some sleep. Today, like every other day for the past three weeks, he was going to try to think of another way to get Trisha back and convince himself for the umpteenth time that his feelings for Jordan were just superficial.
Yeah, today was one of those days.
*****
“Matthew, you are the worst friend in the world,” Tyler shouted into the phone. “I could be dying and you’re not even willing to help.”
“You’re not dying, Ty.”
“My fever is about a thousand degrees. My head is ready to explode. My—”
“The fact that you’re not telling me your real temperature means that it’s in the moderate zone, so you’re still fine.”
“It could get worse.”
“It’s the hypochondriac in you talking. It’s just a classic case of man-flu. You’re not gonna die, Ty.”
He could actually feel Matthew rolling his eyes on the other side of the phone. And was that a chuckle he just heard? This was no laughing matter. His mammoth-sized headache had escalated to the point where it felt like his eyes were going to pop out of his skull and his temperature was so high, he was on the brink of spontaneous combustion. It could happen at any second now and here was Matthew (new title: former best friend), chuckling on the other side of the phone.
“So are you coming over?” Tyler asked.
“No.”
“Matt, it’s not like I’m asking you to take care of me. I can take care of my goddamn self. All I want is for you to be on standby. What if my fever spikes in the middle of the night and I’m so delirious I can’t drive to the hospital.”
“You can call me then.”
“High fevers can cause seizures. I could swallow my tongue.”
“My answer’s still no.”
Tyler gritted his teeth. “You know what? You’re fired!”
“Ty, it’s only August and you’ve already fired me six times this year.”
“I mean it this time.”
He heard Matthew sigh on the other side. “Fine. I’ll come over.”
“Really?”
“No!”
And with that, former best friend hung up the phone. Tyler tossed his phone on the coffee table, switched on the TV and dropped down onto the sofa. Matthew was right. He was a bit of a hypochondriac, but he had good reason. As a child and even as a young adult, he’d been rushed to the hospital several times because of abnormally high fevers so he was just naturally cautious whenever he had an unexplained spike in temperature. Apart from the headache, he had no other flu-like symptoms. He was burning up for no apparent reason. If that wasn’t cause for concern, then what was?
He had left the office early today, taken a variety of pills and yet he wasn’t feeling any better. It was almost six o’ clock and the pounding in his head was still persisting.
About half an hour later, he heard a knock on the door and exhaled a breath of relief. That’s why Matthew was his best friend because best friends were always just a phone call away. Lethargically, he stood up and went to answer it.
“You’re not Matthew.”
A pretty smile curved on pretty lips. “I know. Thanks for pointing that out, though. For a moment I wasn’t sure.” Jordan stepped in and he closed the door behind her. “So what’s the big emergency? Matt said you needed to see me urgently, a life or death situation.”
Tyler groaned inwardly. “He shouldn’t have done that. I askedhimto come over. Sorry about this. I have fired him already, if that’s any consolation.”
She giggled. “Are you going to tell me why I’m here?”
