Page 25 of Love in Mission City: The Shorts

“No bother.What’s happened?”

“Well, I have this…friend…and I think he’s suffering from heat exhaustion.Or I don’t know, maybe heat stroke…?”

“That can be very serious.Do you know what his core body temperature is?”

I wracked my brain to think if either Spike, from what I’d seen, or I, from what I remembered, had a thermometer.“I don’t know.And I don’t have a thermometer either.”

“Well, you’d have to take the temperature rectally to get an accurate reading.”

“What?”God, let me have heard wrong.“I’m pretty sure he’d tell me to fuck off.”

“So he’s talking?Communicating?Coherently?”

To my knowledge, Spike’d never been a chatty guy, but he seemed okay to me.“Yeah, when he talks, I mostly understand what he’s saying.”

“Not much of a talker?”

“No, frankly, not.”

“Where is he now?”

“In a tepid bath.”

“And he seems to be cooling?”

I poked my head inside the bathroom.Spike lay in the bathtub with a towel under his neck.Most of the red color was gone.I quietly slipped back out.“Yeah, I’d say he is.”

“Okay.Of course I’d say bring him in, but something tells me if that’d been a possibility, you’d have already done it.”

“You know me well, Doc.”

He chuckled.“So, monitor him.Any signs of disorientation, call an ambulance.If he can’t take in water, or doesn’t cool down, don’t hesitate.If you’re still worried in a couple of hours, I can drop by on my way home.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Do.And I think you’re due to come in soon.It’s been a while.”

“Haven’t done anything worth mentioning.”Except I had.Just this morning, in fact.But I’d used a condom, so it didn’t count.

Right?

Likely wrong on that belief.It probably did count.

“I’ll keep that in mind.Oh—” How to put this tactfully?“—your hold music is appalling.”

Owen chuckled.“I think you’re feeling calmer.Get some more liquids into your friend, call if you want a visit.I’ve got to go.One of my regulars just arrived, and I don’t like making her wait.”

“Yeah, thanks.”

What that, he was gone.

And I felt truly alone.

I snagged the abandoned water bottle, added more cold water from the tap, and headed back into the bathroom.Spike was rising from the bathtub, and droplets of water covered his fantastic skin.His arms and neck were a shade darker than his pale skin where the sun didn’t touch.Clearly he didn’t sunbathe naked.I put the bottle of water on the counter and reached for a towel.

Once he was safely on a bathmat, he took it with some gratitude.Grudging, but there.

“Drink some more water.Do you want clean clothes?”I indicated to the apartment behind me.

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