Page 58 of This Could be Love

“There’s nothing to worry about.”

“I’m not so sure about that. I can see how your eyes light up whenever you talk about him.”

“What?”

“It’s good to see them do that again.” She sighed. “But I would prefer it not to be in connection to a guy who is so adversarial to me.”

“He’s only that way because you’ve got something against his hostel.”

“For good reason.”

I sighed because we just kept going in circles. And I was beginning to get dizzy.

“Maybe you should finally come to terms with the hostel existing,” I said more sharply than intended. “And figure out a way to deal with that.”

Kay looked at me as if I’d slapped her, and I immediately regretted what I’d said. A sinking feeling began to grow in my stomach.

“I… That wasn’t…” I broke off and grimaced, as, suddenly, my stomach began to cramp like when I had my period.

“Lou?” Kay had jumped up and was looking at me concernedly.

“I simply…ow!” I cried and bent forward, now feeling dizzy for real.

“Lou! What on earth’s wrong?”

I felt Kay’s hand on my upper arm. And then…I vomited right onto her feet.

Chapter 24

That night the route from my bed to the toilet bowl became my own private flight path. A couple of times I didn’t make it in time and had to reach for the bucket Kay had intelligently put next to my bed. After puking onto her terrace, she had accompanied me to the bathtub and then up to my room. From one moment to the next I had grown so weak and so shivery that I couldn’t make it up the steps on my own. When the next wave of nausea hit, she lifted my hair off my face and stroked my back soothingly while I released the contents of my stomach together with bitter bile. Eventually I had crawled under the covers like one giant heap of misery, but the constant stomach cramps had made falling asleep impossible. I hadn’t kept any water or electrolyte solution with me and quickly developed a terrible headache. At some point I dozed off with a damp cloth on my forehead and only woke up againwhen Kay put a glass of water by my bed in the morning.

“How are you feeling?”

“Shitty.”

My voice was raw, and my throat hurt with every word.

She held the glass out to me, but I shook my head. “It just comes right back out.”

“Your body needs fluids.”

I reluctantly lifted my hand to take the glass and grimaced.

“Aching muscles?”

I nodded but then thought that that might have to do with what Vince had predicted. Vince. But before my thoughts could drift to all that had happened between us, Kay said, “I’m going to ask Dr. Chen to come by. She’s my GP. We should make sure you don’t have food poisoning or salmonella.”

“Salmonella?!”

“Who knows where Vince Greenfield dragged you?” She sighed.

“It was a completely normal food truck.”

I tried to bring the glass to my mouth, but my arm was trembling, so Kay helped. The water was such a relief to my dry lips. “I’ve got some kind of intestinal flu. You can pick that up anywhere.” Though, to be honest, I had to admit that I’d never been hit so hard.

“Slowly,” she said as I rushed to drink some more.

I let myself sink back onto the cushion too quickly and felt like my head had hit concrete. I shut my eyes with a groan.