When Cassie said she was sick, I expected that she was probably run down from the trip and had a headache or something. Maybe a little nauseous from all the driving. I didn’t expect her to answer the door looking like death had warmed over her and for her to be sprinting to the bathroom within a minute of opening the door. Sure, she sounded bad on the phone, but I wasn’t expecting this.

“Are you okay?” I ask quietly as she reached up and flushes the toilet.

She rests her cheek on the arm that is laying on the toilet seat. Her eyes are closed and her cheeks are red. A small moan escapes her lips but she doesn’t say anything.

“I should take you to see a doctor.”

Her eyes flutter open and then shut. “No,” she says softly. She wets her lips and then raises her head. “I’ll be okay. I just have to lay down.”

I let her hair drop back around her shoulders and put my hands on her arms to help her as she gets up off the floor. I get the feeling that she doesn’t want me to see her like this but I can’t just leave her here all alone while she’s so sick. My mom would kill me if she ever found out.

I feel even worse for her when we reach her room upstairs. I know that she just got here this morning but for some reason I didn’t think her room would be so bare. There are boxes stacked on the floor and a few random pieces of furniture scattered throughout the room. A large bed is in the center of the room but it isn’t made and only a pillow and a thin, crumpled blanket lay on it. This is not the kind of bed you want to be sleeping on when you’re sick.

I stop a few feet into the room. “You don’t have any sheets or anything?”

She pulls away from me and moves to her bed. “They’re all in one of the boxes.”

I watch as she crawls onto the mattress and then I go to the bed. I help her pull the blanket around her. “Do you need anything?”

She shakes her head and then lays it on the pillow. “No.”

She looks so miserable and my heart goes out to her. “Are you sure?”

“You don’t have to stay here,” she mumbles and shuts her eyes. “I just need to sleep.”

“I grew up in the south and I’d get my ass whopped if my momma ever found out that I left a girl all by herself when she was this sick.”

A smile briefly graces her lips before disappearing. “Just don’t feel like you have to.”

“I don’t.” I brush the back of my hand over her forehead feeling just how warm she is. “You should sleep and if you’re not feeling better by time you wake up, you really should go to a doctor, alright?”

She doesn’t respond or open her eyes and I let my hand linger against her hairline for another second before withdrawing and straightening. Once I’m out of her room and the door is shut behind me, I pull out my cell phone. I generally don’t take care of people when they’re sick and I don’t know what I can do for her. I need to call the expert for this.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Mom.”

“Hi, hun. How are you?”

“Good. You?”

“I’m good. What are you up to?”

“You remember me telling you about Cassie Reyna?”

“The designer? Yes.”

I walk away from Cassie’s closed door and slowly walk towards the stairs. “She got into LA this morning and I’m over at her house. She’s really sick.”

“What kind of sick?”

“She says it’s the stomach flu. I got here and she threw up for like ten minutes.”

“Oh, poor girl.”

“Yeah. She’s upstairs sleeping right now.”

“Has she seen a doctor?”

“No. She just got into the city a couple hours ago. She doesn’t want to go to a doctor. I said if she doesn’t feel better when she wakes up she should go though.”

“You’ll take her.”

It was a statement, not a question and I smile. “Of course.”

“Good boy.”

“But I just don’t know what I should do for her. I don’t know what I can do to help her feel better.”

“There’s only so much you can do when someone has the flu. Make sure she’s comfortable, keep her hydrated. Maybe make some dry toast to see if she can keep it down.”

“Okay.” I walk into the kitchen and over to the fridge. I don’t know what I was expecting but some realization hits me when I see the empty shelves. “She doesn’t even have any food or anything here.”

“Well I guess not if she just moved there.”

“I feel so bad for her, Mom. I took her upstairs to her room and she doesn’t even have her bed made. All her stuff’s still in boxes.”

My mom makes a tsking noise. “Poor girl. There’s nothing worse than being in a strange place away from everyone you know when you’re sick.”

“I know.”

“See if you can find some sheets and blankets for her and once she wakes up, make her bed. Sleeping on a bare mattress is not going to do anything to make her feel better.”

“Yeah,” I say and then hoist myself onto the counter. Switching my phone to my other ear, I let out a sigh. “I don’t really know what to do while she’s sleeping. The place is filled with boxes and that’s it. Maybe I should unpack some of her stuff. I offered last week and she said I could help her unpack.”

“Don’t do that now. I’m sure she doesn’t want you going through her things while she’s sleeping.”

The idea hadn’t sounded appealing anyways. “I guess.” I swing my legs out and let them lightly bounce against the wood of the cabinets below me. “Have you decided when you’re coming out here yet?”

“I was thinking early next month. I was looking at the second to the ninth. So check your schedule and then get back to me if those days are good for you.”

“Okay.” It’s quiet as I stare at the pattern of the tiled floor. “Maybe I’ll go to the store and see if I can find some medicine for Cassie.”

“Sounds like a good idea.”

“I’ll call you later about those days.”

“Sure. Tell Cassie I hope she feels better.”

“I will. Talk to you later.”

“Sure. Love you.”

“Love you too.”

* * *

The four hours of sleep did wonders. Not to say that I don’t still feel like shit when I open my eyes but at least the headache is gone and my stomach isn’t hula dancing inside of me at quite the intensity as it was before.

The blanket covering me is doing nothing to keep me warm and I curl my body into a smaller ball as I lay there. I know I’ll feel better if I get up make my bed but I really don’t think I can expel that kind of energy at this point.

I would just keep laying there and hope for more sleep but my mouth is dry and there’s a bad taste in it and I can’t ignore it. Praying that my stomach will cooperate, I slowly pull myself into a sitting position. I have to stay sitting in that position for a minute but I’m able to keep the nausea down to a minimum. Maybe this means the worst is over. I can only hope.

In the bathroom, I run my hands under cold water and splash some on my face before cupping my palm under the faucet and drinking a bit. With no towels unpacked yet, I use the front of my hoodie to dry my face and then raise my eyes to the mirror. I look really, really bad. With the circles under my eyes, I look like I needed to sleep for another week. With my schedule this week, though, that isn’t a possibility. I’m just praying I’m better by tomorrow morning. I have to be at the store for nine o’clock.

The sound of someone on the lower level of my house causes me to freeze before things start coming back to me and I remember that Justin is probably still here. I forgot that he came over. I actually don’t know why he’s still here. I’ve been sleeping for four hours and if he’s been here the whole time…what has he been doing?

I need to go lay down again but even the short distance from my bathroom to my bed seems too far. Propping my hands on the edge of the counter, I drop my head down and squeeze my eyes shut. After a few breaths, I lower myself into a squat and rest my forehead on the wooden cabinet.

“Cassie?”

Justin’s voice is quiet but with the house so quiet, I hear it even from in the bathroom. I suck in a breath and then answer. “Yeah?”

I can hear him come in my bedroom door and walk through my room. A second later, he appears in the doorway.

“I heard you get up,” he says. “How are you feeling?”

Turning, I slump down completely on the floor and lean back against the cabinet. “Sleeping helped.”

He squats down beside me and puts his hand on my forehead. The coolness of it feels good and I shut my eyes. “You’re still really warm. I can still take you to the doctor.”

I shake my head and his hand pulls away. “No.”

He gives me a half smile. “You’re really stubborn, you know that?”

I try to return his smile but I don’t think it works too well. “I know.”

“Have you thrown up again?”

Him saying that reminds me how he saw me throw up and embarrassment spreads through me. “No.” I can’t help but let a small groan escape me and drop my head down.

“What?” he asks.

“I can’t believe you’re seeing me like this. I’m like at my worst right now.”

I feel him sit down beside me but I don’t look up. He’s quiet for a short moment before speaking. “Well I guess that just means that it only gets better from here.”

I can’t help but smile a bit at that and shake my head. “I hope so.”

“And your worst really isn’t that bad.”

If I had more strength I’d probably roll my eyes. The guy has to hold my hair back for me while I’m throwing up and he says that isn’t bad? Sometimes it seems like he’s almost a little too smooth for his own good. At this point, I won’t be at all insulted if he says I looked like crap.

I raise my head and rest it back against the wood behind me, shutting my eyes. “You didn’t have to stay,” I mumble.

“I said I would,” he states simply.

I open my eyes as he picks up my hand and squeezes it before setting it back on my lap. “Someone as famous as you must have better things to do with his time than sit around an empty house for hours.”

“I didn’t just sit around for hours. I went to the grocery store and then I finished the second coat of paint in the living room.”

I turned my head to look at him. “You did?”

He nods.

He is a breed of man that I have never met before. I didn’t know they made guys this perfect in real life. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. And I was thinking that you should come over to my house and sleep there tonight. You shouldn’t be by yourself when you’re sick.”

This is where I draw the line. It’s one thing for him to be over here but I can’t intrude on his life over the stomach flu. “Thanks for the offer but no thanks.”

“But you’re sick.”

“And it’s not going to kill me. It’s really nice of you to offer but I can’t.”

“But, Cassie-”

“That stubborn part of me isn’t easily swayed.”

He shuts his mouth and then smiles. “Fine. But I can’t promise that I won’t stop by here in the morning to see how you’re doing.”

“If all goes well, I’ll be at the store in the morning.”

His eyebrows raise. “That can’t be pushed back? You’re sick.”

“I’ll push it back if I have to but I’m hoping I won’t have to.” I sigh. “We’ll see.”

It’s quiet for a second and I turn my head to look at him. He gives me a smile and then lifts his hand up and places the inside of his wrist on my forehead.

“You’re still pretty warm.”

“I still feel pretty horrible.”

“Are you okay to get up? You’ll feel better if you’re not sitting on the bathroom floor.”

“Yeah…I think so.”

He hops up from the floor and then offers me both hands. I place my hands in his and he gently pulls me to a standing position. My stomach turns in a couple circles and for a second I think I’m going to be sick but it passes. Wrapping my arms around my stomach, I follow him back into my room. He points me in the direction of an armchair in the room and not having strength to do much else, I sink into it and rest my head against the back of it. My eyes half open, I watch him move through the room.

“What are you doing?” I finally ask.

“If you’re staying here tonight you can’t sleep on a bare mattress,” he replies, shaking out a sheet. “I found the box full of your sheets and blankets so I’m going to make your bed.”

I roll my head to the side, my eyes following his movement. “You know how to make a bed?”

He tosses me a smile over his shoulder as he smoothes the sheet across the mattress. “My mom used to make me do this every week when I was a kid. I make a mean bed.”

If I didn’t feel so sick, I’d probably laugh. But for now, all I can do is close my eyes and try and keep the contents of my stomach from exiting me. I don’t open them again until I feel Justin brush his hand over my hair. When I focus my eyes on him, I find him holding a juice box towards me.

“Think you can drink this?”

I take it from him and examine it. “Where did this come from?”

“You had no food and I know you probably don’t feel like eating but I got you some juice and bread and some Gravol.” He sits down on the armrest of the chair and takes the juice box from me. He pops the straw out of the plastic and then pushes it into the top.

I make myself raise my head up from its resting position as he offers me the juice again. Honestly, the thought of drinking anything isn’t too appealing at this point but my mouth is dry and I know I need to get some sort of liquid in me before I get too dehydrated.

As I take a small sip from the juice box, I notice that my bed is made and a few pillows now sit at the headboard. He worked fast.

“Do you want me to grab the Gravol?”

At this point I’ll take any medication he is willing to offer. “Okay.”

He stands and disappears from the room. My eyes follow him and then move to the bed. Now that it’s made, it looks so much more inviting and I pull myself up from the armchair and shuffle over to it.

There’s something about sliding in between cool, clean sheets that makes you feel so much better when you’re sick. I put the juice box on a couple of stacked boxes by the bed and then lay down, curling myself onto my side and letting my head sink into the pillow. This is so, so much better than my previous situation.

“So I couldn’t find the nondrowsy stuff so this is probably going to knock you out.”

I open my eyes and see Justin coming back into my room. He hands me a couple pills and I put them in my mouth and reach over to grab the juice box. As I’m swallowing the pills, he sits down on the edge of the bed.

“Do you think you’ll probably just sleep?” he asks and I nod.

“I’m exhausted.” My eyes shut as he brings his hand up to my head and smoothes it over my hair. His touch is perfectly comforting at this point.

“I’m going to probably go then. With the Gravol you’ll sleep through the night.”

I crack open an eye when his hand withdraws. “Thanks so much for doing all this. You didn’t have to.”

He gives me a smile and rubs his knuckles over my cheek. “You needed someone here though. Don’t worry about it.” He stands up. “And if you need anything else, call me, okay? I can come back over.”

I nod even though I know I won’t call him unless I’m actually dying. He’s done way too much already. Hannah’s going to die when I tell her all this.

Just when I thought he couldn’t get any sweeter, he kissed the tips of his fingers and then placed them on my cheek. “Sleep and feel better, okay?” he said, pulling the blanket up to my chin.

I manage a small smile and close my eyes as he gets up from the bed. A small sigh escapes me as I move slightly in my bed to get more comfortable. If I didn’t have a huge crush on him before, I do now.