Ten o’clock.
She’d been in bed for nearly two days.
Poor Xavier – he must have been bored out of his mind.
Slowly, carefully, she swung her legs out of bed and tested how she’d feel standing up, finding she wasn’t as dizzy as she’d been the day before, and instead of lurching, her stomach gave a growl of hunger.
Thank goodness for that.
It seemed it was only a forty-eight-hour bug. Still, as she pulled on her robe and made her way to the door she had a moment where she thought she might pass out.
Better take it easy, Soli; no need to rush.
After pressing her hands to the wall and taking a few deep breaths to give her head a chance to catch up with the movement, she walked slowly out of the room and into the living area.
It appeared to be deserted, though there was a smell of coffee in the air and a plate and a mug next to the sink.
‘How are you feeling this morning?’ came a voice from outside and she turned to see that Xavier was sitting on the terrace, looking at her with concern in his eyes.
‘A lot better, thanks,’ she said, walking slowly out onto the terrace and over to where he was sitting on one of the loungers with a tablet on his lap.
‘You still look a bit pale. Are you sure you’re okay to be up?’ he asked, his gaze raking her face.
She cursed herself for not even looking in the mirror and flattening down her hair before leaving her room, but decided just to brazen it out now she was here. He certainly didn’t look disgusted by her appearance. If anything, his expression was one of friendly concern.
‘A bit of fresh air will probably do me the world of good,’ she said, sitting down carefully on the lounger next to him and offering him a tentative smile. ‘I’m so sorry for ruining your holiday.’
He waved a hand at her. ‘Don’t be ridiculous. It’s not as if you got ill on purpose.’ He sat up and swung his legs to the side, putting the tablet onto a coffee table next to him. ‘Could you eat?’
‘Actually, yes. I think I could.’
He nodded. ‘Okay. Stay there. I’ll fetch you some breakfast.’
Before she could object, he stood up and strode swiftly and purposefully back into the house, returning a few minutes later with a mug of coffee and a plate of wholemeal toast.
‘Here,’ he said, handing her the food, then putting the drink onto the table next to his tablet. ‘I thought something quite plain would be good to start with.’
‘Thank you,’ she said, gratefully accepting the plate and sitting up on the lounger to eat.
She felt him watching her as she took her first tentative bite, then when it was obvious she wasn’t going to be sick again he went back into the house, returning a couple of minutes later with a mug of coffee for himself.
‘I guess you were hungry,’ he said, gesturing to the now empty plate she had on her lap.
‘I guess I was,’ she agreed, giving him a grateful smile.
‘Listen. We don’t need to rush off anywhere today, if you’re worried about that,’ he said, his expression sincere. ‘I’ll be very happy to hang out here until you feel more up to going out. Perhaps you could teach me how to play a board game or something.’
‘That would be great,’ she said, immediately perking up at the thought. Lazing around and recuperating whilst playing one of her favourite games would be her idea of heaven right now. ‘Except I didn’t bring one with me.’
‘No problem,’ Xavier said with a twitch of his eyebrows. ‘We have some here in the house. Apparently, they’re popular with holidaymakers who want to switch off their phones and get back to a screen-free existence for the duration of their stay, or so the interior designer told me the other day. It made me think of you actually.’
She blinked in surprise. ‘Well, that’s great. I guess the lure of board games isn’t dead after all.’
‘I guess not,’ he agreed, the corner of his mouth turning up. ‘I’ll go and fetch them and we can have a game now if you feel up to it.’
‘Great,’ she said, ‘but we should move to the table. I take my playing very seriously.’
‘I’d expect nothing less,’ he said with a smile.
