“Feel better,” Luke said as he bent his head back towards his lab work.
The bright sun and blazing September heat tortured Ash as they walked back to their apartment. Thankfully, their house was a short walk off campus on the backroads of Vestal. If they had to drive home, Ash wasn’t certain they would be able to do it.
On the way, Ash stopped inside the library to grab a coffee from the small but lively cafe where students could get coffee nearly 24/7. Ash had spent many late nights in Jazzman’s, sipping a coffee and cramming for chemistry exams.
The library was an interesting place. In most areas, students were allowed to speak. The first floor was always lively. Students chatted in booths, studied with their friends, or even just sat to pass the time between classes. But as they moved up to the fourth floor, it got quieter. Each floor had a maximum noise level. Even a whisper on the fourth floor was frowned upon. If you moved your chair too quickly and it scraped on the floor, you received death glares from everyone around. Ash needed silence to study, so the fourth-floor tables were their haven.
After Ash picked up their caramel latte from the barista, they continued their walk. Caffeine, while sometimes a trigger, could also help the pain once it started. During undergrad, Ash drank nearly six cups of coffee or tea a day. In graduate school, they drank three. And now, they were down to one unless they absolutely needed it. Their migraine was only a three out of ten on the pain scale, but it didn’t make it any less awful. They were starting to get sensitive to light and noise. Ash slipped their sunglasses out of their backpack to block out some of the light. While it helped, the ear pieces squeezed their head and took their migraine from a three to a four.
When Ash finally made it home, they plopped their bag on the floor and grabbed their meds and a large glass of water before sitting on the couch. Usually, their meds worked within an hour or two and after a nap, but Ash had work to do. If they laid down for a nap, Ash wasn’t certain they would get up again. Instead, they sat on the couch, turned an audiobook on, and closed their eyes.
Ash hadn’t meant to fall asleep. They had tried very hard to stay awake, but alas, they were unsuccessful. The audiobook was still playing, much further along than they remembered. As Ash went to turn it off, their phone rang, the screen lighting up with Luke’s name.
“Hello?” Ash answered as quickly as they could. Was Luke angry Ash hadn’t come back to the lab?
“Ash, hey. I’ve been trying to call you. Are you okay?” Luke asked, breathless.
Ash ran a hand down their face. “Sorry, I was asleep. Yeah, I’m feeling much better now.”
“Good. You left your laptop in the lab. Do you want me to bring it to you?”
A smile lit up Ash’s face at Luke’s kindness. “Oh, no. You can leave it in the lab. Don’t go out of your wayto bring it to me.”
“It’s not a big deal,” Luke said. “I don’t want someone breaking into the lab to steal it.”
Ash let out a light laugh. “If someone wants to break into the lab and steal my old ass computer, they can have it.”
“Seriously, Ash,” Luke said, stifling a laugh. “I don’t mind.”
Ash chewed on that thought. It would be nice to have their laptop. After a long nap, Ash was going to be up for a while. They could analyze the results from their most recent model.
“Okay, sure. That would be great.” Ash gave Luke their address before hanging up the phone.
As Ash stood, they sighed with relief that their migraine was gone. Coffee, meds, and water were the Holy Trinity for pain resolution. Ash logged their migraine in their app and scrolled through their headache tracker for the year. They were relieved to see a significant decrease in headaches from last year—their dissertation research had been quite difficult with the number of migraines they would get a month. But now, Ash had only had six migraines this year, a significant improvement.
A sudden knock pulled Ash from their phone. Ash stretched out their back before walking over to the door and taking a look out the peephole. Luke stood with a brown paper bag in one hand and a laptop in the other.
Ash opened the door and ran a hand down their face to clear the exhaustion from their eyes.
“You look a lot better,” Luke said, searching Ash’s face with what looked almost like concern.
“Ifeelmuch better. Thank you for bringing my computer,” Ash said, eyes flicking from Luke’s face to their laptop. “I’ll analyze the results tonight.”
“You don’t have to do that,” Luke said, handing over the laptop. “You’re allowed to take a break. Have you eaten dinner?” Luke raised his other hand, holding a brown paper bag.
Luke had brought Ash’s laptopanddinner? This was too much, too kind. No one had ever cared about Ash this much, not even a partner. Luke was different. He genuinely cared about Ash, and Ash didn’t know how to feel about that. “No. Come on in.”
Luke stepped into Ash’s tiny apartment, and Ash suddenly felt self-conscious. Luke’s home, from what Ash remembered, was much larger and nicer. Immediately upon entering Ash’s home, Luke stepped into the small kitchen with an old electric stove and barely enough counter space to prep dinner. Luke surveyed the living room with the one couch and tiny television. The one-bedroom apartment was enough for Ash, and they hadn’t given much thought to other opinions of their home, mostly because the only people who came over were their closest friends who would never judge them for the lack of decor and cheap furniture.
The one thing Ash loved about their apartment was the bar counter. On the other side of the sink was a lifted counter, below which sat four barstools. Since there was no room for a table, Ash ate every meal at the counter. The unfortunate side effect of that was, Ash couldn’t watch TV while eating their meals.
“I didn’t know what Chinese food you liked, so I got a few things. If you don’t like it, we can always order more.”
Warmth spread across Ash’s chest. Luke was incredibly thoughtful. He had bought them food twice now. In just one short week, Ash had gotten to know Luke better than a lot of people in their life.
“I’m not picky. I just appreciate you bringing dinner.”
Luke unpacked the bag and placed several white Chinese food takeout containers on the counter. Opening them, Ash found porkfried rice, egg fu young, chicken with eggplant, chicken with broccoli, egg rolls, General Tso’s chicken, beef spare ribs, and egg drop soup. Luke really had gotten everything.
