I rest my hand on her forehead. She’s burning up.
“Ro, are you cold?” I ask her.
She nods, moving closer to me like she needs my body heat. Careful not to gostle her too much, I lean down, my fingers curling around the sheets I’d kicked off hours ago and pull them over her.
“That’s better,” Ro snuggles into me under a sheet and the doona. Shit. I’m no Alec but she must be getting sick.
“Rory, how are you feeling?” I gently rub her back.
It takes her a moment to answer me. “I’m really tired, J. My limbs are all heavy.” She yawns. “It hurts to move them.”
Fuck, that’s not good.
“Okay, Ro. Do you want to go back to sleep?” I say quietly.
If she’s got the flu, the best thing is probably for her to sleep it off. Sleep helps right? Mum always made me sleep when I was sick.
Rory doesn’t answer so I figure she must be out again.
I stretch above my head and fumble around for my phone on the bedhead.
Looking down to make sure I’m not about to wake my girl, I press ring.
“Hey,” I whisper when they answer. “Come to Rory’s room.”
Approximately twenty seconds later, Alec pokes his head in, phone in hand.
I lift one finger to my mouth, telling him to be quiet and I point to sleeping beauty. He frowns and makes his way over.
“She’s still sleeping?” He questions once he’s settled on the other side of her.
“I think she’s sick, dude. She woke up before saying she was cold. She slept this whole time and she said it hurts to move—like her arms and legs were heavy,” I tell him, hoping that it all made sense.
Alec reaches over and feels Rory’s forehead and cheeks.
“That’s the first thing I did, dude. She’s got a temperature.” I can’t hide the worry in my voice.
Alec puts his hand on my shoulder. “J, chill. It’s probably just the flu or some sort of virus. She’ll most likely have hot and cold flushes and it’ll be uncomfortable to move. If need be, we can give her something to keep her comfortable.” He retracts his hand.
“Okay.” I exhale, trying to shake off my worry. “Thanks, bro.”
“The stress of her assignments and then this morning probably weakened her immune system.” Alec looks more like he’s talking to himself than me as he mutters quietly.
He disappears for a bit and comes back with a wet washer, a packet of Nurofen and his laptop.
“I can look after her if you’ve got stuff to do,” he tells me.
I look down at Rory, sleeping soundly on my chest and shake my head. “Nah, it’s fine.”
It’s silent for a while. Alec taps away on his computer while Rory sleeps.
I think about how fucking lucky I am Rory’s back in my life. Not even just mine but how seamlessly she fits into the guys' lives too.
I don’t think she’s realised that regardless of whether she formally accepted our proposal…she’s our girl.
The jury’s still out on whether Alec and Dom can patch things up but there’s no denying that they’re both just as invested in Rory as the rest of us. I really don’t get what their issue is. They very clearly like each other but for some reason, they won’t make it official.
And I know more than anyone that if you don’t show someone how much you care for them…you might not get that chance.
