Chapter 121

I don’t have any fight in me and I just sink lower into the padded seat and let my throbbing head take over.

‘‘Pharmacy, then apartment … Now, what’s wrong with you? What do you need?’’ Alexi is back in unemotional mode and I wonder if this is because he doesn’t trust me to go home and stay out of his way; he’s going to deposit me and probably shackle me to his apartment, just for the hell of it.

‘’A morgue maybe, I think I’m dying from Alexi related diseases.’’ I answer sarcastically. Lifting my head, I look his way warily and earn myself another furrowed brow of disdain. He looks like he always does, except in a tux and annoyingly groomed. No hints of what’s going on in that brain on the surface.

‘’Hardly. I make sure I’m clean on a regular basis. You’re sick; what is it? Flu?’’ He hasn’t got a suave bedside manner, despite probably making a hot doctor and I just shrug at him.

There goes my idea he’s riddled me with sex diseases then.

‘‘If you’re lucky maybe it’s the plague.’’ Would probably be a blessing for him if I died of a horrible disease suddenly. I jump when he puts a hand on my forehead and slap him away again impulsively, burning from his touch and the ignition of fury. I am surprised by that gesture but nothing should surprise me where he is concerned anymore. Alexi does shit for God knows what reason, and I will have an aneurysm if I even begin to dig at the layers and depths of how his mind works.

‘‘You have a fever, you’re hot and unwell and you should be in bed.’’

‘’No shit, you know I happen to feel it and I don’t need your powers of psychic to tell me I’m running a temperature. I weirdly did manage to summarise that I might be sick all on my own.’’ I lose all strength in my voice, giving up physically and sink back down again, lowering my chin when the car starts moving. I may want to spit and scratch at him but my body is reminding me that I am in no fit state at all. I am barely holding on, I just want to go back to bed and a million miles away from him.

Alexi tells the driver to find a Duane Reade and turns back to me with a concerned look that spikes my mistrust and anxiety about this man.

‘’Why are you being nice to me?’’ I turn to him with a look of suspicion. Alexi only does what helps Alexi, and he’s not known for gallantry or compassion, especially when it comes to me. After how things ended, this is the last thing I expected from him at all.

He just ignores me and pulls out his phone to answer the vibration it's making. I leave him to it and turn my head to the window to watch the rain lash down on us while we move through the streets. New York is a city full of interesting sights and this part of it is both strangely and architecturally pretty yet intimidating all the same. People rushing about under umbrellas and cars whizzing past in the busy streets, despite the horrendous weather.

‘’Do you have water and food in the apartment, has Mico been checking in?’’ It’s said softly, so much so, that at first, I don’t even think he’s talking to me and jump when he touches me. Flinching and moving away pathetically, afraid of any contact from him at all.

‘’I’m not hungry and it hurts to swallow, I just need some pills and a bed. I’ll sleep it off and sweat it out. I’m a big girl … I don’t need anyone to take care of me or check in, I never did.’’ This time I don’t look at him, I just continue watching the rain and impulsively trail my finger down the glass to follow a huge drop which moves so slowly it seems suspended in time. Focused on the small things to try and block him out. I draw a tiny circle around where it hits the outer rubber of the window and then go back up midway to trace a new fat drop as it makes the same repetitive path.

Alexi taps his thumb on his leg and remains silent.