Ari pursed his lips left to right before he said, “it really isn’t just a fever, Dare.”
I huffed and crossed my arms.
“It sounds like a mild case of pneumonia.”
“Exactly, like you said. Mild. So I’m fine.”
Ari sighed.
“Yes, but unless you want it to turn into a severe case of pneumonia I’d suggest staying in bed the rest of the week, and take these.” He raised a bottle in the air and shook it, making the pills inside rattle like a maracas.
“What are those?”
Zach huffed and snatched the bottle from Ari’s hand.
“Magic beans. What do you think they are? How many and when should he take theantibiotics, Doctor?” He said, and glared at me when he said the antibiotics part.
“Call me Ari. And one every eight hours for five to seven days should do the trick.”
Zach confirmed he’d heard Ari by opening the bottle and handing me a pill, then he grabbed a glass of water from the bedside table and finally checked the time on his phone.
“I’ve set an alarm for eight hours, so we won’t forget. Anything else?” he asked.
I watched him as Ari answered his questions and I felt a flutter in my chest as my heart started racing again. But it wasn’t from the pneumonia. It was because of how much he seemed to care. How interested he seemed in my wellbeing. How he acted more like a partner than a friend.
Or maybe it was the pneumonia, and I really needed to get a grip.
“Are you done discussing my life or are you going to coordinate my bathroom visits too?”
“Don’t tempt me, mister,” Zach said and Ari laughed.
“How long have you guys been together?”
I choked. Zach laughed. Warren bit his lip.
“We-we’re not together,” Zach said at the same time as me and then shook his head for added measure.
It had no right to feel like a knife to the heart, but it did. And yet his response, his reaction even, was another reason why I needed to pull my shit together. I was projecting all my desires on a young innocent man who was only here out of necessity.
Zach didn’t want me. He didn’t crave me. His heart didn’t stop beating every time I entered the room, and his lungs didn’t stop working every time I smiled. That just happened to me when he was near. and I was just a sad, pathetic man who craved connection so much that I was projecting.
I needed to get over myself. I needed to get over Zach. But how could I when he was here, in my house, twenty-four seven.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to?—”
“You didn’t,” I snapped. “It’s okay.”
I made to get up, and I got stared down by three sets of eyes again.
“What?” I asked.
If I was going to get over myself I needed to get out of these four walls.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Warren asked.
I sighed.
“Guys, enough, okay? I know you all want what’s best for me and yadda, yadda, yadda but I’ve got fields to look after, deliveries to make.”
