Heart-Shaped Hack(19)

She started to sit up, but Ian gently eased her back down. “I’ll get it. You stay here.”

That sounded like a fabulous idea to Kate. Horizontal felt marginally less wretched than vertical. “It’s on the kitchen counter.”

Ian returned with a tall glass of ice water and some Motrin. Kate was suddenly thirstier than she could remember being in a very long time. Ian put his arm behind her shoulders and helped her rise to a sitting position. After she swallowed the pills, she drained the glass and said, “I’m a level-five biohazard. You should get out now while you still can.”

“That’s ridiculous,” he said. “I’m impervious to germs. I rarely get sick.”

“No kissing,” she said as she fired off three giant sneezes that made her eyes water and her nose run. “I’m a mess, and I do not feel pretty.”

He plucked a Kleenex from the box on the coffee table and handed it to her. “Fair enough.”

“Why are you here? Our date wasn’t until this evening.” Because she had no way to get ahold of him, she’d planned on canceling when he showed up at her door and witnessed for himself the condition she was in.

“I went to the food pantry to make sure we were still on for tonight, and Helena told me you called in sick.”

“If we communicated by phone like normal people, you could have saved yourself a trip,” she said and then became engulfed by a coughing attack so violent it sent daggers of pain shooting through her chest and head.

“This is not a wasted trip. Tell me what you need.”

In addition to the pile of blankets she’d wrapped herself in, Kate was wearing the flannel pajamas Ian had bought her and a pair of slippers, but she still couldn’t get warm. “I’m freezing. Can you get the comforter from my bed?”

Ian retrieved the comforter and tucked it around her shoulders and under her legs. Then he sat down next to her. “Lay your head in my lap.”

Kate did as he said. She didn’t care that she wasn’t wearing makeup or that her hair was still damp from her shower and drying in a mess of tangles. She was more miserable than she could remember being in a long time.

She closed her eyes as Ian lightly stroked her head. “That feels good.”

When the Motrin kicked in, her shivering subsided, but she felt weary clear down to her bones.

“Sleep, Katie,” Ian said, and there was nothing Kate wanted to do more.



When she woke up three hours later, he was still there. There was a fire burning in the fireplace, and he was sitting on the chaise end of the couch, typing on a laptop. She poked him with her foot.

He stopped typing, looked over, and smiled. “How’s my patient?”

Kate still felt awful, but she said, “Okay.”

“You don’t sound okay,” he said. “You sound miserable.”

“I feel a little better than when you arrived. I think the nap helped.” Kate’s voice was so raspy Ian had to lean in to hear her. “Did you leave?”

“Only for a short while. I ran home to get my laptop. I figured I could work and keep an eye on you at the same time.”

“Do you live far from here?”

“I live downtown. I also dropped by the pharmacy because you were almost out of Motrin and the only other medicine I found in your kitchen was a half-empty bottle of NyQuil that expired two years ago. I wasn’t exactly sure what you needed. Usually I turn to the Internet for answers, but in this case I decided a pharmacist would be my best bet.”

“You spoke to a pharmacist?”

“Yes. He said you’re more than likely suffering from a viral upper respiratory illness but warned me that I should take you to the doctor if your condition worsens or you have trouble breathing. Are you having trouble breathing?”

“Not at the moment.”

“Good. He also hooked me up with everything you could possibly need. It looks like a Walgreens exploded in your kitchen.”

Ian was wearing a sweatshirt and well-worn jeans, and he’d kicked off his shoes. She liked the way he looked stretched out on the chaise: comfortable, like he planned on staying a while.

“You’re really great, you know,” she said.

“Are you just now noticing? I’m hurt, Katie. Really.” But he smiled when he said it, and Kate had to admit that for all Ian’s faults—faults he made no excuses for and that Kate realized he had no intention of ever working on—he was more than willing to compensate in other ways.

She told herself she could do a lot worse.



Ian ordered a pizza for lunch and tried to get Kate to eat some off his plate, but the thought of food repulsed her. “If you’re not going to eat, then you need to drink,” he said. “And don’t get excited, because wine is not one of the options.”

He went into the kitchen and returned with two glasses, one filled with orange juice and one with ice water. He set them down on the coffee table next to an assortment of medicine, a new box of Kleenex, and an ear thermometer.

“You seriously bought an ear thermometer?”

“Yes, and I’ve been dying to try it out. Come closer.”

Kate leaned over and Ian stuck the thermometer in her ear until it beeped.

“Just under a hundred. Could be better, but I’ll take it.”