FOUR HOURS LATER
Ophelia’s eyes fluttered open and he looked around. For the first time in six days, she felt her sinuses clear a bit and her head felt lighter than she had been carrying. She looked around as she scrambled into a sitting position, trying to force herself to remember all the things she had done before she passed out on the bed.
“Oh god, I do not pray for anything in life, but please, I hope I have not done anything embarrassing today,” she muttered as she sat there searching her room as if it were a strange scene.
The door clicked and opened with Cade standing in the doorway. “You are awake,” he said, rushing to her with a flak. He dropped the hot water flask to the bedside table and sat down on one of the stools he had managed to draw from her vanity mirror set. He wondered why one vanity mirror for a girl had three stools.
“I am, and you are in my room,” she said, a nervous laughter escaping her lips.
“Yeah, I was the one who brought you here and helped you take medications,” Cade said, searching her face to make sure that she was alright. “Are you fine though? Do you feel better, or do we need to go to the hospital?”
“Hospital for a minor common cold?”
“A minor common cold?” Cade asked in a surprising tone. “how were you taking this so lightly? You have already passed out.”
“But I am fine now; don’t you think that maybe you are overreacting?” She asked, taking the cover off her body.
“I am not overreacting.”
“What are you still doing here anyway?” she asked, standing up and going to her vanity drawer.
“What?”
“You said you were travelling on a business trip? Remember that?”
“My flight does not leave until the evening so I can still spare time to be here with you.”
“Here with me? I am sure you have tons of things to attend to so you do not have to stay here with me like I am such an idiot that needs tending.”
“Why are you avoiding me? I thought you knew that none of that meant anything to you?’ Cade asked as he watched her rearrange her very well-arranged desk.
“I am not avoiding you…”
“We are just busy people,” he completed for her. “You cannot wait to get rid of me.”
“You said you had a business trip. What was I supposed to do? Stop you from going? And how can I face you when I had so embarrassed myself before you? If someone is embarrassed like that, they should at least have a few days to process it before they go back to their normal lives. You do not just expect me to reset like some robot? These were real emotions I felt, and they would take a very long time to process,” she blurted.
“What do I do?’ he asked, standing up and walking to her.
“Can we keep a safe distance?”
“A safe distance?”
“Yeah, the way you do not see me as a tool of consolation and try to kiss me, and I do not see you through the lens of surplus raging emotions and try to jump you,” she said, waving to him and trying to get him to stop.
“You are being ridiculous.”
“Of course I am; to you this is ridiculous, but to me, this is how I protect my sanity.”
“Ophelia please”
“Can you just go?” she asked him, stepping back.
“Why are you asking them to go now? A moment ago you were telling me not to go on the trip with Harper.”
“You know that was the meditation speaking. It made me drowsy, and I was speaking gibberish. You know that that statement does not count,” she said, pressing her lips together and nodding. “So please, can you go?”
“But can you please go to the hospital instead? I would call Diana to be here with you,” he said.
She nodded and walked to the door. She opened the door and pointed to the hallway. “I want to get ready to go to work. Can you please leave?” She wished to be hard on him. She knew that the only way she could detach herself from him was to be rude and close off herself.
“I will go Just promise me that you will not go to work but rest here.”
“I will go to work,” she said, flashing her teeth at him as if she were purposely going to rebel against him.
“Okay, then can you at least go to the hospital?” he asked, still standing by the hallway.
“Do you have the right to tell me what to do?”
“I am not telling you what to do; I am suggesting and making a plea so you do not hurt yourself,” he said.
She sighed because she was trying to pick a fight, but he seemed to be handling it so well. “I can take care of myself; I am a grown adult who can make choices by myself, so if you do not mind, can you please excuse me?” she said, pointing once again to the hallway.
He nodded and stepped out, “See you in a few days”
“Ten days” Ophelia corrected under her breath.
“What was that?” he asked raising his head. He had hoped that she would truly ask him not to go on the trip as she had said before she fell asleep.
“I said to have a nice trip,” she said, raising her head to meet his eyes. She stared at him for a moment and then dropped her gaze. Without another word, she slammed the door in his face and leaned her back to the door. She kept praying herself over and over in her head. She had done the right thing after all.
Cade went to Fidnih up preparing for his trip when he heard Ophelia leave. He came out to see her driving herself instead of having the driver take her. She was dressed quite casually, so he hoped that she was meeting up with friends or going to the doctor. He still sent a message to Diana, saying that she kept an eye out for Ophelia since he had to travel.
Moments later, Harper was in his house, ready to pick him up at the airport. As he came out of the house to the car waiting for him, he could not believe his eyes. He eyes her outfit up and down shaking his head. She snapped her fingers in his face and he looked up.
“Eyes are up here buddy” she said and then threw a wink at him.
“Your outfit…” he trailed. He did not want to talk like a pervert and give her the wrong ideas.
“What up with it? This is a trip, and I thought I could dress as a person going on a trip.”
“Please tell me that you packed normal clothes for the meeting.”
“I only packed things like this. Why?” she asked, checking herself out and then raising her head to meet his with a coy smile on her face. It was obvious that she knew what she was doing.
“They are inappropriate for work.”
“Oops, was this a work trip?”