Page 37 of A Lab Rat's Guide to Fated Love
“You have to drink some, too. The ginger and spices will help you warm up.”
“Okay. Go on.”
His jaw slowly unclenched as he watched Nori burrow herself under the blanket, and the tightness in his chest began to ease. He’d never beenthisworried before. It was a horrible… horrible feeling.
He’d waited at first, watching the sky grow dark with grumbling armies of clouds that seemed determined to drown the entire hillside in their rage. But soon, he’d gone searching with an umbrella.
All the while, his brain had kept up a steady supply of deadly scenarios for him to browse through and feed his rising panic. For every unsolicited probability he’d pushed away, two more had taken their place.
Don’t lose her… find her… find her….The words had played in his mind over and over and over. Words that were his, but also, they weren’t somehow.
And when he’d doubled back to check if she’d already returned, the sight of Nori’s small, trembling form trudging along the fence had almost brought him to his knees.
The prospect of losing her had thrown him into an unfamiliar abyss of helplessness and grief he hadn’t known how to maneuver himself out of. Evidently, his feelings for her ran deeper than he’d originally thought.
Vir rubbed his chest again, pullingthe blanket up to his chin for more warmth. He didn’t feel any other signs of a congestion yet—no stuffy nose, no cough.
Last time,he promised himself, rising on an elbow to peek at Nori’s face while she slept. It was good that he did, because it allowed him the split second he needed to roll out of the way before she tumbled right off the bed to drop beside him with a mutedthunk.
Over the past weeks, he’d learned it was safer to let her simply fall onto the mattress, rather than try catching her and getting head-butted in the process. Every few nights after this woman went to sleep, she chose violence. That she remained blissfully clueless about.
“Guaaa uaaaa…” Nori mumbled, frowning in her sleep, before the tip of her tongue briefly darted out, as if to savor the taste.
Vir suppressed a laugh while smoothing a finger over her brow. Then returned her to her bed, before settling back into his own.
By the time he dozed off, he’d already made up his mind. He’d cut a guava for her every day, as long as she wanted one.
The woman with Nori’s face beamedat him, and his lips curved up in response. It’d been a while since she’d visited him in his dreams.
“You need to wake up,” she whispered with a slight tilt of her head.
Why?It was so peaceful… and warm. He shook his head,no.
Dream-Nori’s smile vanished, and without warning, she slammed both her fists into his ribs.
“Ow!”
“Wake up.”
It was getting colder. He didn’t like it.
“Wake up!” She yelled at him, but the sound seemed to be coming from somewhere else. His vision blurred.
“Wake up!” Panic tinted her words. “Get up! Wake up!”
Someone shook him violently.
Vir forced his heavy eyelids open to squint at the face hovering over his. “Norrree?”
“Vir!” She swore before moving out of view. “Stay with me, okay?”
Vir turned his head to the side to notice the early morning light filtering in through sheer white curtains. His arm was hooked to an IV, shirt unbuttoned, chest bared, and his legs lay elevated, with a bunch of pillows stacked under them.
“What—what happened?” he asked weakly, suppressing a shiver.
Nori stared at her laptop screen for a long moment before, finally, she let out a relieved huff.
“You’re okay. Everything’s okay,” she said, covering him with a blanket. Her trembling fingers reached under the fabric to wrap around his cold ones.
