Jodi took the hint and turned back to his laptop, his face a study in concentration. Despite his chagrin, Rupert was intrigued. He dropped his chocolate on the coffee table and rounded the armchair to squint over Jodi’s shoulder. What he saw meant little to him, but Jodi’s work never had. Jodi’s passion for web design had always impressed and baffled him in equal measure.
“Weird, isn’t it?”
“Hmm?” Rupert tore his gaze from the screen to find Jodi staring at him again.
“That I can remember how to code, but not how the central heating works.”
“No one knows how the central heating works in this place, mate. Bloody boiler’s got a mind of its own.”
“If you say so. Still doesn’t make any sense, though.”
Nothing does.
Rupert left Jodi to it, flopped on the couch, and went to sleep.
He woke a few hours later to the metallic clang of the weights Jodi had been given to strengthen his arms and legs. Yawning, Rupert sat up and checked the time: ten a.m.Damn it.He’d had dreams of sleeping until at least midday, but it wasn’t to be. Unlike Jodi—both before and after the accident—once Rupert was awake, he was awake, and there was little point pretending he wasn’t, especially when there was no big, warm bed and welcoming arms to make lying around in his pants any fun.
Get used to it, dickhead.Rupert scrunched his eyes shut and pinched the bridge of his nose, ignoring Jodi and his weights, and willing away the cloud of pessimism he wasn’t quite ready to deal with yet, but his mind refused to play ball, instead sweeping through every nightmare he’d had since Jodi’s accident, including the ones where nothing ever changed. The ones that became more and more real with every day that passed. The ones where Jodi continued to frown at his computer screen, and Rupert spent the rest of his life rotting on a lonely couch.’Cause even if he never looks my way again, I’ll never love anyone else.
Rupert rubbed his eyes and focussed on Jodi, who seemed to be having trouble packing the weights away in their box. Guilt fast replaced depression as he recalled biting Jodi’s head off just a few hours before. “Do you need some help?”
“No.”
Of course he didn’t. Rupert suppressed the compulsion to check Jodi had taken his medication and breathed a silent sigh. Jodi’s mood, like his own, was unlikely to change as the day went on. Sophie wouldn’t be back until tomorrow night, leaving Rupert at the mercy of Jodi’s apathy for the next thirty-six hours.Great.
“You can hold my feet ... if you want?”
“What?”
Jodi looked amused, an emotion Rupert had almost forgotten existed. “I’ve done most of it already, but I gotta do sit-ups now, and I can’t keep my feet down.”
He might as well have asked Rupert to fly him to Mars. Since when had Jodi followed the daily exercise routines his recovery team had devised for him of his own accord? Without growling at Rupert and Sophie first? Or simply being too tired and ill to cope with it?
Rupert slid off the couch and shuffled to where Jodi had laid down on the rug. “You sure about this? It’s been a while since we last tried.”
A month, to be exact, and they hadn’t exactly tried. Rupert had got as far as holding up the abdominal exercise sheet before Jodi had called him a cunt and left the room. The time before that, he’d fainted, leading Rupert to deduce that particular worksheet was cursed.
Perhaps Jodi didn’t remember, or care. He answered Rupert’s question by pointing to his feet. “Hold them down.”
Rupert held them down. Jodi took a breath, then slowly, painfully, hauled himself up.
It was hard to watch. Jodi had never been bothered by exercise or personal fitness, but with his lank and leanly muscled frame, bright smile, and general good health, it had never mattered.
“This hurts,” Jodi said.
“Where?”
Jodi shrugged like Rupert had asked the most bone-stupid question in the world.
Rupert tried again. “Everywhere, right? Okay, let me grab a pillow.”
Rupert snagged a sofa cushion and placed it behind Jodi, trying to ignore the clean, familiar scent of Jodi’s sweat.He’s not that Jodi, remember?“Gives you a little less work to do like this. Will hurt less if you drop too.”
“Got all the answers, haven’t you?”
“I wish, boyo. I wish. Straighten your spine a little.”
Jodi obeyed and fixed Rupert with an odd stare. “Are you okay?”
