I nodded and we both sat in silence for a while, watching Ari examine Zach.
"Hey, I thought you said you weren't gay," I said.
Warren flinched.
"Obviously I didn't mean I'm in love with a man or anything." He sounded flustered and I couldn't help laughing.
Although I quickly regretted it when that caused my wounds to throb and the pain to start back up again.
"Guess I better take these," I mumbled and grabbed the pillbox from the coffee table.
Warren got me a glass of water and a few moments later, Ari stepped aside and smiled.
"I'm glad to report no ribs or bones were broken. You can take Dare's pain meds if the bruises hurt too much but you should be fine."
"So I'll live?" Zach asked with an innocent, almost angelic tone before he rolled his eyes and came to sit down next to me.
"We'll leave you to it," Warren said and we watched him help Ari pack up before they went on their way and left us all alone. I turned to Zach and held his hands, searching his eyes now that everything had settled down.
"How are you feeling?"
He frowned.
"I just said I'm fine?—"
"I mean about what you did."
He licked his bottom lip at that and turned his gaze away.
"I'm okay. I mean...no, I'm okay. I think."
I cupped his cheek and made him look back at me.
"It's okay if you're not. You don't have to lie to me. Or feel embarrassed. What you did is hard. It might have been the right thing, but it's hard. It's hard enough when it's a complete stranger. I couldn't imagine what it must feel like with someone you used to love, even if he didn’t deserve that love.”
He nodded and my hand moved with his face, but he didn't say anything for a while. And when he did finally speak up, it was completely irrelevant to Victor's death.
"Your nose looks rough," he said, fingers hovering like ghosts over my busted nose.
I smiled, or tried to, but for some reason him paying attention to my injury made my face hurt so I flinched.
"Is that gonna be a problem?" I asked.
"A problem?"
"I don't know. Maybe I've lost my sex appeal."
"Ah, yes. You're so ugly I could throw up now." He snorted.
I put a hand to my chest and gulped.
"You wound me, lover," I said.
"Well, stop saying stupid crap then and maybe I won't."
"So you still like me?"
Zach's face turned serious and he put both hands on either side of my face.
