“Naw. That wouldn’t be possible,” he said as he set down a tray with eggs and bacon on it.
I tucked in to the food, surprised at how hungry I was. But then I realized I hadn’t eaten all day. In fact, I hadn’t had anything since last night at dinnertime.
As I devoured the food I asked, “Where did you find eggs? I didn’t think I had any.”
“Youdidn’t. Your fridge looked like it was on an active starvation diet. I ran to the store and picked up a few things.”
“Did you keep the receipt? I’ll pay you back.”
I’d been trying to save money lately, so I’d reduced my grocery budget down to the bare necessities. I had about a thousand ramen noodle packets and a big tub of oatmeal in the kitchen, but not much else.
“Naw, that’s not necessary. I’m eating the food, too.”
I looked the man up and down. He didn’t have a plate of food for himself.
“I mean, Ialreadyate. Actually, a couple times. You slept forever, and I gotreallyhungry.”
“You look like you could eat a lot. You’d probably make my grocery budget double.”
His face lit up as I realized what I’d implied.
“Oh. I didn’t mean—”
“Naw. Iknowwhat you meant. You meant if you replaced the Boinkacorn with the real thing.”
My mouth dropped open. “How do you know the name of my…”
Dawson looked absolutely delighted. “You don’t remember? You told me last night. We had a long conversation about your vibrator.”
I tried to think back. The pain medication they’d given me in the hospital had wiped me out. I wasn’t used to taking anything stronger than aspirin.
But I remembered enough, embarrassment flooding through me. I let out a low groan, then asked, “I hit on you, didn’t I?”
His eyes took on a warm glow as he stared back at me contentedly. “You might have flirted a little. But I can assure you that I didn’t mind.”
I was getting too used to having him around. But I needed to keep in mind that despite his flirty words and happy eyes, we didn’t know each other well yet. And this arrangement was just temporary.
When I finished my meal, he asked, “Any interest in taking a bath and getting a fresh change of clothes?”
“Yeah.” That sounded like the next step back to normalcy for me. The doctor had recommended that I bathe instead of showering while I had the cast on.
“Can you handle it on your own?” he asked as his eyes drifted down to my t-shirt.
I nodded. “I think I can do it.”
“Maybe I’ll just stay right here, and if you need something, holler out,” he said as he laid back down on my bed looking like a tasty treat.
I hobbled into the master bathroom and started running the water for my bath, then used my good arm to tug my t-shirt up.
Hm. Easier said than done. The t-shirt was tight, and I only managed to hitch it up on one side.
Okay, I’ll start with the jeans.
It was a struggle, but I managed to get them unzipped and down one hip before I got stuck again.
Getting the clothes off the left side of my body was proving to be more difficult than I’d imagined.
“Damn it.” I needed to watch a YouTube video on how people managed this.
