“How are you feeling?” he asked, crouching down beside the bed. His eyes were bruised with exhaustion.
She wanted to say something clever, but her lips only formed the word “Fine.” That had always been her answer whenever anyone asked her how she felt. From the time she was little. It was the safest answer. She’d learned at a young age that any information you gave people could be used against you. Do not show weakness or reveal anything personal.
He smiled, and then there were pills in her mouth and a straw with an instruction, “Drink.” He helped her out of bed, walked her to the bathroom, and waited outside. He walked beside her back to the fortress of blankets. When she lay down, she realized she had on a different shirt than she had before, she didn’t remember changing. She was wearing something soft, gray, and oversized, smelling faintly of laundry soap and him.She wasn’t freezing anymore, now her skin felt tender, as if she’d been sunburned beneath her clothes. She laid her head on a pillow, and Niko pulled a blanket up around her. She stared up at him, and he brushed a piece of hair behind her ear. She loved when he did that. It felt so nice, so soothing, her eyes closed.
She blinked, and when they opened, she immediately closed them, squinting in pain. The room was bright now, filled with sunlight streaming in. The white walls were screaming at her with an ocular attack.
“Sorry, sorry!”
She heard Niko apologizing before the room dimmed.
“I was just airing out the room, trying to bring in some fresh air and sunlight. Is that better?”
She tried to respond, saying yes, but her mouth felt like she’d been sucking on cotton balls. She nodded and was able to open her eyes, the room now a mellow, shady gray.
“Here.”
A straw was on her lips, and Niko was in front of her face. As she drank, she felt a cloth being removed from her head, then replaced with one much cooler. The change in temperature caused her body to shiver. Seemingly out of thin air, a warm blanket appeared, and she was covered with it. The warmth felt so nice she closed her eyes to enjoy it.
She opened them again, and Niko was gone. It felt like a blink, but time must have passed because dusk replaced the bright sun and shaded the walls purple, and she was lying in a pool of sweat. Niko was gone. He was nowhere to be found. There was a loud ringing in her head. She managed to sit up, slowly. Her feet hit the floor, and after using much more strength than it should take, she pushed up to a standing position. Each step she took felt as stable as ice skating on stilts, the room spun, and her muscles weren’t listening to the signals she was sending them.
On the short walk to the bathroom, delicious scents wafted through the air, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on what they were exactly and was surprised to hear her stomach growl. She managed to make it to the bathroom without falling down, which she considered a win. When she glanced in the mirror, she was horrified at what she saw. Her hair looked like a bird’s nest, her skin was pale, and her eyes had dark circles beneath them. Her face was skinny, and actually, she glanced down at her shirt—no, not her shirt, it was his shirt. She had a vague memory of Niko asking her to put her arms up and him stripping her of her shirt and pulling on his.
When she lifted up his shirt, it was damp with her sweat, and she was shocked at what she saw. Her hand ran over her ribs, which were visible. She’d definitely lost a couple pounds. She reached for her toothbrush, moving slowly, and scrubbed away the sour taste haunting her mouth, then scoured her tongue for good measure. Each step in the process, rinse, and spit, was a triumph. She rummaged through the pile of clean laundry that Niko had washed, folded, and stacked on the linen cabinet shelf. She pulled on new underwear, soft joggers, and a fresh t-shirt, the fabric clinging to her still-damp skin but feeling like armor against the cold. She twisted her wild hair into a bun, glancing in the mirror to see if she could pass for someone marginally alive. It was almost comical, the way her eyes still seemed sunken and huge, but at least she didn’t look like a cautionary tale anymore.
She made her way into the hallway on tentative feet, every step a test of balance, like she was learning to walk for the first time on the moon. She expected the old dizziness to come rushing back, but her body seemed to sync itself again, and she managed the narrow hallway without pinballing off the walls. She followed the scent of onions and herbs.
The kitchen was awash with gold and shadows, sunlight a prism across the countertops and pooling on the hardwoodfloor. Steam unfurled from a pot on the stove, and Niko stood in front of it, stirring with the concentration of a scientist about to change the world. He was shirtless, gray sweats hanging loose on his hips, feet bare on the tile, and, for a second, she was distracted by the easy, at-home way he belonged to the room. There was nothing performative about it, the man simply filled his domestic space, even with his back turned. Just like he had at the studio as an instructor, something Tiana couldn’t begin to imagine him as.
Was there any space he didn’t naturally adapt to? People used to talk about Renaissance men, maybe that’s what Niko was.
She must have made a noise, or he sensed her presence because he glanced over his shoulder and saw her in the doorway. Instantly, he set the spoon aside, wiped his hands on a dish towel, and closed the distance between them in three long strides.
“Hey, how are you feeling?” he asked as he guided her to a kitchen chair.
“I’m okay, I think.”
As soon as he had her settled, he went to the fridge and got out a water for her. He set it down in front of her and instructed, “Drink.”
She did as he said and teased, “You’re lucky I take orders well.”
He nodded, not picking up on her flirting or ignoring it, as he went to the stove. “Your fever broke, and Liam said you should be hungry, so I made you some soup just in case. Sit.”
Liam? Liamhadbeen there. It wasn’t a dream? What time was it? How long had she slept?
“Where’s my phone?”
“It’s there.” He motioned to the other side of the kitchen. “I’ll grab it. Let me just…” Niko pulled down a bowl from the cabinetand used a ladle to fill it with what smelled like chicken soup, then walked over and set it in front of her.
Her mouth watered when she looked down and saw it was the most delicious-looking chicken soup she’d ever seen, or maybe she was just starving.
Using the spoon, she dipped it into the broth and got a carrot and shredded chicken onto the utensil, brought it to her mouth, and blew on it.
Niko got out a glass, filled it with ice, and then poured 7Up in it, then added some saltine crackers to a plate and delivered them both with her phone to the table.
“Thank you.”
He just smiled.
