Chapter 15 Marfil
Liam came over as soon as I called him. He entered my room and whistled like an idiot when he saw me lying in bed, shivering and writhing with body aches.
“I never thought I’d have to say this to you of all people, but you look like shit.”
Groaning, I pulled the covers over my head. “I asked you to come make me feel better, not worse, jerk.”
I rolled over as I felt him sit down beside me.
“I was just joking. You look adorable when you’re sick—your cheeks get all red from the fever.”
I hit him with a pillow, although I think it hurt me more than him.
“Can a tattoo seriously make you this sick? I told you, you don’t put a bumper sticker on a fucking Ferrari. You tried to go against nature, and now it’s paying you back.”
“Shut up.”
“Can you at least tell me what you got done? Because I could understand if you got a tattoo that says I love Liam.”
I rolled my eyes, sat up, turned my back to him, and lifted my shirt.
“Very cute… Even though you can’t really make out the ballerina right now.”
“Is it that bad?”
“It’s pretty bad.”
I put the pillow over my head. Karma strikes again.
“Not to change the subject, but,” he began, pulling the pillow away, “your bodyguard is out there in the living room looking super worried. He always has such a stick up his ass, but this time I think you’re the one who stuck it there. Did something happen between you two?”
“What are you talking about?” I said, playing dumb. “We don’t get along well, that’s all.”
Liam was about to open his mouth when we heard the buzzer. A few seconds later, someone knocked on my door.
“Come in.”
It was the doctor, accompanied by Sebastian. Instead of taking a break like I’d asked him to, he stood leaning against the door, watching me the entire time the doctor examined me.
“You still have a fever, but at least it’s under control now.
You need to drink plenty of liquids, take the antibiotics, and apply the ointment.
The fever is likely to spike in the evening.
If that happens,” he said, looking now at Sebastian, “repeat what you did last night: Check her temperature every hour and place cold compresses on her forehead to make sure it doesn’t go above 104. ”
I said goodbye to the doctor and lay back down.
The tension in the room was immediately palpable. Liam was staring at Sebastian, who was staring at me. Neither of them blinking.
“You spent all night putting cold compresses on Marfil’s forehead?” Liam finally spoke.
Sebastian ignored him, his eyes still boring into mine. “I’ll make you some food,” he said, then he left the room, closing the door.
Liam looked at me suspiciously. “Tell me you didn’t hook up with him, Marfil.”
I tensed but shook my head. “We didn’t hook up. We had a fight over something dumb, and now he’s even colder than usual.”
“But he took care of you all night? So now he’s a nurse, too?”
“What did you expect him to do? Leave me lying here, burning up? He just made sure I had everything I needed.”
“Right…”
I didn’t want to talk about Sebastian, so instead, I asked Liam to get out my laptop and pick a movie on Netflix.
A little while later, Sebastian came in carrying a bowl of soup with bread and butter. I could tell it irritated Liam.
Sebastian placed the tray on the bedside table and stood over me. “Eat this.”
I nodded grudgingly. That must’ve been enough for Sebastian because he shot Liam an icy look, then left.
“Why do I suddenly feel like I’m not wanted here?”
“Because you’re paranoid.”
I picked up the tray and sat up to eat. It was a butternut squash soup with carrot and leek, and it was delicious, though knowing Sebastian had made it just for me pissed me off. He had been very caring, it was true, but that didn’t erase the words he’d said to me after we’d kissed.
Liam and I watched the rest of the movie while I finished my meal.
The last thing I remembered was Liam going to the kitchen and making himself a sandwich.
I fell asleep well before the movie ended, curled up under my comforter.
I don’t even know if it was Liam who put the cold compresses on my forehead or not.
I spent two more days in bed, and I gradually began to feel better. Tami came to take care of me the day after Liam. I didn’t tell her what had happened with Sebastian. We talked instead about spring break and the possibility of her coming to visit me in Baton Rouge.
“I’d love to. I’ll have to see if my parents will mind. Is Liam going?” she asked.
“I doubt it. I invited him, but he has other plans.”
If she was disappointed by my response, I didn’t notice. We changed the subject, and I asked her how the ballet classes were going.
“The girls are fine; they all miss you. The little one named Lili won’t stop asking about you. They weren’t at all happy when I told them you’d be gone for a month or so, but the lessons are going well, I guess.”
“Are you being careful? I’d feel responsible if anything happened to you…”
Tami shrugged. “I go straight to the subway as soon as class ends. It’s staying light until later now, so it’s not dark when I leave. I do like giving the classes, though. I understand now why you risk going out there by yourself. The girls are amazing.”
I smiled, missing my students and wishing I could go back to giving classes again myself.
After Tami left, I felt the need to move my body, do something, so I put on my dance clothes and left my bedroom for the first time in four long days.
As I made my way toward the kitchen for some water, my sister called and we talked for the fifteen minutes her school allowed.
I missed her, and I was counting the days until I got to see her again.
“What are you planning to do?” Sebastian called, standing in his doorway, looking me up and down as I walked past his room.
I stopped in front of him. “Isn’t it obvious?” I answered.
The last thing I wanted was another argument with Sebastian.
“You’re not healed yet, Marfil, and you’re taking antibiotics. You shouldn’t be exerting yourself.”
“Physical activity is healthy,” I said.
He blocked my path by stretching an arm out in front of me. “Wait a few days—you should be in bed.”
“Listen, Sebastian, I understand that you’re super concerned with losing your job, but you’re going a bit overboard.
You’re getting paid to keep someone from killing me, not to protect me from myself.
I’m going to dance, so leave me alone.” I slipped through the space under his arm and moved down the hallway.
When I entered my studio, I closed the door behind me and sighed, grateful to be alone in my sacred space.
I hit Play and stood in front of the barre.
I started with some simple pliés and then stretched on the barre, my torso perpendicular to my leg. All my joints cracked, reminding me how out of practice I was.
The tattoo hurt, and I was afraid that I might’ve removed the scab. I tried to check it in the mirror, but I could hardly see anything, so I kept stretching until I started dancing. I needed this, needed to do the thing that had inspired me to get the tattoo in the first place.
As I came out of another pirouette, I began to feel dizzy, but I kept going even though I knew I should stop. When I moved into the sixth position, the floor spun at a strange angle, and I fell, my side slamming into the hardwood floor.
Shit.
A second later, Sebastian opened the door.
“I told you not to dance.”
He walked over to me, picked me up off the floor before I had the chance to stop him, and carried me out of the room.
“I’m fine, dammit.”
After he lay me on the couch, I realized he was angry.
“Go back to bed, please.”
“Mind your own business, please.”
Sebastian sighed and stood there, staring at me for a moment. “If you like dancing so much, why do you only do it alone in there, where no one can see you?”
His question took me by surprise, most of all because he’d never shown any interest in learning anything about me, other than the meaning behind my name.
“My father and my uncle forced me to stop dancing when I turned fifteen. I stopped training professionally and lost almost all my technique.”
“You don’t seem to have lost anything…”
I narrowed my eyes, confused. He hadn’t seen me dance…
“The day you taught those girls… You didn’t seem bad at all.”
I leaned forward and started untying my pointe shoes, quickly yet carefully. “That was a dance lesson for twelve-year-old girls… It’s not that hard.”
“Right.”
I nodded, eyeing him like a kid does a piece of candy they can’t have. That’s what he was for me. The way he’d made me feel that day in the bathroom still replayed in my mind every night.
As if echoing my thoughts, he gave me a once-over. I took the opportunity to openly observe him as well, taking in his muscles, recalling the way he’d lifted me off the floor and carried me onto the counter with almost no effort.
“You know what? You’d be a great dance partner,” I said without thinking.
Sebastian raised his eyebrows in surprise. “Clearly you’re still feverish,” he said, placing a palm on my forehead, looking at me like I was delirious.
“I’m not joking,” I responded, pushing his hand away and trying to ignore the butterflies in my stomach.
“I guess we’ll never know,” he said with a blank expression.
Just when I thought the tension in that small room would suffocate us, the doorbell rang, and we both jumped.
Sebastian stepped away from me and walked toward the front door.
I followed.
“Are you expecting anyone?”
I shook my head, annoyed when he put out an arm to stop me from checking to see who it was.
He muttered something to himself, then opened the door, an unfriendly look plastered on his face.
Liam walked past Sebastian without even looking at him and greeted me with a smile. “How are you doing?” he asked, giving me a gentle hug. “If you’re feeling better, I have a proposal for you.”
“I’m doing perfect!”
“Great! Because I have tickets to see Imagine Dragons tonight.”
“What?!” I exclaimed, overjoyed.