Page 50 of The Affair
“You’re evil. I take back my earlier comment. You’re a terrible nurse. Your bedside manner sucks.”
I snuggled into the couch, having eaten what I could of the soup. From my vantage point, I watched him. It was as if the last two weeks hadn’t happened. As if my fever had given us a pause in whatever had been going on between us.
Or maybe it was a bridge.
I just needed to figure out how to get to the other side—and stay there.
“Have you been working on them?” he asked, pointing to the black binder on the coffee table.
“Yeah,” I answered, pulling the blanket around my shoulders. “I’m done with that one. I need to get a few more from the guest bedroom.”
“How’s the dictation going?” he asked, a small smirk spreading across his face, as if he already knew the answer.
“It’s going okay,” I answered slowly.
“You really are the worst liar.”
“Okay, fine. But if you knew the answer, why did you ask the question?” I asked.
“Because I wanted to see if you’d actually tell me a straight answer.”
I let out a frustrated breath. “I just couldn’t get used to it.”
“You don’t like giving up control,” he said, correcting my answer.
“That’s probably true, but your dictation software is still terrible.”
He just shrugged—that casual shrug I’d grown to love so much. “Where are they? Back here?”
My eyes grew wide. “Yes, but you can’t go back there!”
“Why not?” he said, already rising from his chair. “Is it your bedroom?”
“What? No!” A brief thought of him in my bedroom ran wild through my brain.
Wowza.
Suddenly, I felt dizzy again, but it had nothing to do with my fever.
“Then why are you so jumpy?” he asked, pulling me back to reality.
“Because it’s messy in there.”
“So?” he said, already on the move.
I got up, fully intent on following him.
That got his attention.
He instantly turned back around. “Sit back down.”
“No,” I argued. “Not if you’re going in the guest bedroom.”
He took on an expression that somewhat reminded me of a parent coddling a child. “I’ve seen a mess before, Elle. Messes don’t scare me.”
I let out a breath, one I hadn’t been aware I’d been holding.
“Now, lie back down while I pull a few more of the journals out. It will give us something to do while you rest.”
