5. Chapter 5
Chapter 5
PAIGE: I’m sorry, but I can’t make it tonight.
David read the text from Paige and frowned at the thought of a wasted date night. It had been almost a week since their dinner at Bender’s, and during that time they’d only been able to get together via FaceTime because of their conflicting schedules. It had been fun, but relatively tame (no nudity, unfortunately) and David had been looking forward to tonight for the past several days.
He immediately FaceTimed her.
“Why can’t you make it?” he asked when Paige answered.
“It’s been a really long day,” she answered with a sigh. “And I’m not fit company.”
“What does that mean? Is it code for being on your period?”
She gave a short laugh. “It’s not code for being on my period, you goof. I just have a headache, and I don’t want to bore you with the details, so—”
“Actually, I want you to bore me with the details because the details are fucking with our plans right now. So, tell me about this headache.”
“It’s just … I’ve had it for most of the day, and when I get headaches like this, they usually hang around for a while.”
“What do you mean, headaches ‘like this’? Is it a migraine?”
“No, it’s just a bad headache.”
“How often do you get them?”
“Not too often,” she answered.
He looked at her for a long moment, before asking, “Are these headaches because of your concussion?”
“Yes.” When his expression darkened, she added, “But, they’re getting better.”
“Better?”
“Coming less frequently. This is actually the first one I’ve had in almost a month.”
While that was technically a good development, the fact that she was still dealing with headaches at all pissed him off, but before he could respond in any way, she was speaking again.
“Anyway, I took something for it at lunch, so my headache is mostly gone, but the medication makes me really tired. So, as appealing as the idea of going out to dinner and spending time with you tonight is, I just want to go home and take a bath, then sleep for ten hours, to be honest.”
There was a lengthy moment of silence, in which he tossed a few ideas around in his head. His desire to salvage the evening and see her was still his main priority, but now there was also the desire to take care of her, even if it was in a small way. “How about this? I’ll grab something for us to eat and come by your place at 6 p.m. That way, we can still have dinner and spend some time together,” he suggested. “Then you can take your bath and go to bed.”
“All right,” she agreed softly. “That sounds really good, actually. I’ll see you at 6 p.m.”