Page 20 of Incurably Cupid

I sighed.

It was a cruel joke that my one and only day off also coincided with Mordecai’s, and that he wanted to meet Mesmer and watch a movie that evening. He went home to ‘do house stuff’ while I helped Mesmer change his bandages and wash his hair again.

I winced whenever he turned chalky pale, which usually meant he was holding in all the curse words and wanted to howl like a banshee. I told him he could, and I would put in earplugs. But he held it all in, and, when we were finished, took a nap, while I tackled house chores too.

When Mordecai came back that night, Leo and I had already selected a movie. I had two guys in our movie-watching group, three if you counted Leo, who always reminded me that as a sentient being, he counted. I grumbled and made five different kinds of popcorn, including my two favorites: white chocolate popcorn and cheese and jalapeño popcorn. Then I made little sausages wrapped in croissants, some mocktails, and spicy chicken wings. I finished everything off with hot jalapeño artichoke dip and some crusty, herby garlic bread for dipping.

Both guys looked at the movie-watching spread like they’d died and gone to heaven.

“It’s just food, guys,” I grumbled, sitting down with a plate and digging the remote out of the chair cushion beside me.

Leo cleared his mechanical throat. “You don’t need the remote!” he said indignantly. “I can control the movie.”

I sighed. I don’t know how I could have momentarily forgotten that Leo got perturbed when I tried to handle a tech task in the house that he considered his kingly domain. “Sorry, Your Lordship. Just what we picked earlier, please.”

Mesmer was rolled into the living room by Lance after he grabbed his plate. He looked a little better after his nap, but I’d be staked out in the sun, slathered in butter and honey, and covered in bees and ants before I admitted that. For one, he was very aware of the fact that he was mostly helpless right now, and he did not like it one bit. And for two, he was... handsome when he didn’t look like someone had run him over with a megaton cruise ship, then staked him out in the desert and tied him to a prickly cactus to die. I mean, he was handsome anyway, but,yeah, I didn’t feel as guilty ogling him when he wasn’t in as much pain.

Also, I was secretly enjoying, just the slightest bit, that this big, strong gargoyle needed me for a little while. Just a little. And yes, I know I needed therapy for admitting that. But I couldn’t remember the last time someone had ever needed me. I mean, it’s been a long time, if ever. It felt... good. I sighed. No. Nope. I wasn’t doing this. I was supposed to be finding his forever mate.

“You okay?” Mesmer asked, parked next to my chair. Mordecai had taken my loveseat and was sprawled across its entire length. It reminded me of those little kids who licked their ice cream all over so no one else would steal it from them.

Really, he needed therapy too. Probably much more than I did. I thought I remembered hearing that King Draven is an accredited therapist... Hmm. Something to consider.

“How are you so observant?” I asked Mesmer.

He shrugged his broad shoulders, hunching over his food. “I don’t speak much, but I do a lot of observing.”

“That’s... frightening.” Really, because in all the time I’d observed Mesmer, he’d never struck me as someone trying to round up a second brain cell so the first one would have a friend.

He flashed a small smile at me, then hunched over again, whistling through his clenched teeth. He was clearly in pain but was being masochistic again. “When’s the last time you took your pain meds?” I asked, eyeing him with concern.

“Yesterday?”

“Mesmer!”

He grimaced. “They make my brain foggy. I don’t like them.”

I marched to his bag of meds on my kitchen counter, grabbed them and a glass of water, then marched back and handed everything to him.

“I don’t want them,” he said stubbornly.

“Better do what she says, bro,” Mordecai said, his eyes on the movie playing behind me. “Indie’s mean. She’s got a reputation.”

I nodded. Yes, yes I was. And I wasn’t afraid to use dirty tactics when necessary.

Mesmer sighed, glaring at the pill in his hand before he popped it in his mouth and swallowed it down. “She’s not mean. She’s a barbed wire marshmallow with a squishy center.”

I gaped at him.

And then Mordecai nodded, henodded,and said, “Yep, that was my read on her too after a while. That’s why I finally got the courage to approach her and beg her to be my friend.”

I frowned at him. “That was not how that went down.”

“That’s exactly how that went down,” Mordecai corrected with a charming smile.

I ignored him and focused on the movie. There was a bomb on a speeding train, and a woman and a man were systematically trying to figure out where it was hidden. I’d seen this one before. The villain was driving the train, and he’d hidden the bomb beneath it.

“It’s under the train,” Mesmer said, his eyes starting to look sleepy again. His meds were kicking in.

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