She waved at him before pulling out of the space and had to drag her eyes from him to the road as she turned out and caught him watching her as she drove away. Internally squealing that this had just happened and crossing her fingers she wasn’t dreaming.
It had been a long night for them. Yuelin waking up with a temperature had been the start of a horrendous sickness bug that had seen Suying dragging them in here less than two hours later. Yuelin had been unable to stop vomiting or drink water, and the doctor in her didn’t want to wait at home. Here they had fever meds, saline drips for fluids, and around-the-clock nurses to observe her if it got worse. It hadn’t, and at just one am, they were watching her sleep peacefully as though she hadn’t made them worried sick.
“I can handle work without sleep. It wouldn’t be the first time.” Ling had just gotten home from their long weekend convention this morning and had rested enough all day. It wasn’t sleep she needed to prepare for tomorrow. It was the courage to face Tian in her first meeting of the day.
A bad bug was going around Yuelin’s age group, and she wasn’t the first child to be rushed in that day with nonstop vomiting, a fever, and an inability to keep water down. It seemed to be a passing twelve-hour virus. There were other kids in here with them tonight, who were all peacefully asleep. Parents were already snoring softly on pull-out beds in different wards.
“I’ll walk you guys down to the main door and grab a coffee from one of the machines to wake myself up. I want to watch her for a bit until I can feel her temp coming down with the meds.” Meilei got up, too, stretching her back and yawned, balling a fist in her mouth. She would stay awake for a while to be sure Yue was okay and then catch some sleep if she didn’t rouse. Yuelin’s complexion looked normal again, and she was breathing soundly. The nurse in the ward was only two beds away, so leaving her for five minutes would be fine.
Meilei was exhausted and had not slept before Yue had woken. Now that the worst was over, she was dead on her feet and looking forward to lying down.
The three walked arm in arm and were oddly quiet as each was lost in their heads. Meilei tiredly rested her head on Ling’s shoulder because she was in the center, her mind on Yuelin and the warm relief sweeping her that she was over the worst. Yuelin rarely got sick, so tonight had made Meilei uptight with nausea and fear, thinking the worst. She didn’t know what she would have done without Suying and Ling to help her stay calm when the fever hit hard.
Suying seemed to be gazing into the distance. Letting them drag her along while she fixated on the memory of kissing Dee and blushed. Her mind was in a weird state of euphoria now she had no more concerns about Yue’s health. Being a doctor who dealt with kids all day and every day, she knew Yuelin was fine and had let her worry go already.
Ling was in a state of dread. Knowing as the hours ticked by, a certain unavoidable meeting was about to take place. She was all churned up inside and on the verge of imploding. Ling was bubbling with someone’s name on the tip of her tongue, now her focus was no longer on her sick princess. Her stomach churned with it, and she sighed. After being home alone all day on a rare day off, she had gone to bed early to sleep it away and even skipped dinner with Meilei. Yuelin waking them sick had brought it all crashing back to the forefront again.
“What?” Meilei lifted her chin to gaze at her as they reached the elevators, and Suying pressed to call one.
“You kissed someone?” Meilei called it first, seeing through her friend and connecting the dots. She had seen Ling this way before after some drunken make-out session at the Christmas party. “Did you get drunk and kiss another boy from the temp pool?” Meilei shook her head, giggling at the memory of that regretful wake-up. Ling had avoided that guy at work like the plague until he moved to a new company.
Amused that Ling, for all her cold and icy manner, was a hopeless drunk. Her aversion to men was forgotten when the intoxicated her saw a handsome face and good body.
She was hilarious.
“What?” Suying tripped over her sneakers and stumbled into the elevator, hauled upright again by Ling’s fast reflexes, and Meilei’s mouth dropped open in shock.
“Someone from OTS or another company?” She asked, hoping for her friend’s sake he was someone from another region entirely. That way, at least she wouldn’t be acting like some weird ninja at work again, using furniture and strange disguises to avoid him. She had worn sunglasses and head scarves throughout that entire month and hid under more desks than she dared to admit.
Ling sighed heavily, dropped her chin to her chest in shame, and groaned. Wishing this was not her reality and knowing she only had herself to blame.
“Is it someone younger, and that’s why you look ready to throw yourself off the roof?” Suying observed her, and Meilei frowned. Coming to a certain conclusion because they knew her so well.
Suying leaned in front of Ling conspiratorially and motioned Meilei over with a tiny finger wiggle. Both girls bowed their heads at her chest level to whisper loudly in a very obvious way.
“Please tell me you have hot not so old ones, or else I may look at her in a completely different way after this.”
Both girls giggled, finding the fun in her shame, and Ling smacked them on the top of their heads. Open-handed bops because they were enjoying her pain a little too much and didn’t understand the real deep shit she found herself in.