Page 94 of Overtime
I stagger against him, though not on purpose. I can’t feel my legs. Aran curses in my ear. We don’t say anything else as he slowly walks me out of the café. I keep my head down so he doesn’t see the tears trickling down my cheeks. I’m angry and embarrassed and it hurts so freaking much.
My period has always been like this. It arrives without warning, sometimes four weeks after the last one, other times two, others months later. But every time, it visits with the power of an anvil falling on my body. And everyone around me tends to think I’m overreacting, especially doctors.
“I’m sorry,” I say once we’re in his SUV and on the way back home.
“What the hell for?”
“Being an inconvenience.” He starts to turn, and I look away.
“Who said that?”
“Well, no one,” I whisper. “But you seem annoyed. And we’ll have to cancel the study session because of me. And I feel bad.”
“Yeah, you feel bad because you look like a nine on the pain scale. And I am annoyed, but only because I can’t do anything else to help.”
“Oh.” I bite my lip hard, as if it could tamp down the butterflies fluttering in my chest.
We get to the apartment complex, and I’m all too eager to unbuckle myself, since the seat belt felt like a clamp around my hips. I open the door, and slowly, I turn around until I can basically melt onto the pavement. And that’s when I realize something.
“Oh no. How am I going to climb four floors like this?”
I want to cry. But not in front of Aran. I take big gasps of air, trying to not let myself.
“I’ll carry you if I must,” he says from the other side, shutting the door.
“No, you will not. If you get hurt because of me, I couldn’t live with myself.”
Sighing, he walks around the vehicle until he reaches me again and offers his arm. “First, let’s try. If it doesn’t work, you stay very still, and then I won’t get hurt while I carry you.”
“Aran—”
“Just walk, woman.”
I grunt just like he does all the time and grab his arm. It takes him a few tries to match my minuscule steps, which are all I’m able to take while it feels like my insides want to push out. It takes embarrassingly long to make it just to the building entrance, and on the way, I’ve complained at least ten times to his zero.
Aran stays completely silent as I groan and gasp through the snail’s-pace climb of the first flight of stairs. At the landing, Iclutch at the banister with one hand and him with the other because everything’s swaying again. And we’re not even halfway.
“Yeah, that’s enough. Hold still.”
“What—”
The world tilts, and gravity disappears for a moment.
And then I’m in Aran’s arms again. Gasping, I cinch my arms around his shoulders. He bounces me a couple of times until he gets a comfortable grip.
“Are you sure?” I whisper in his ear.
“Just don’t move.”
I’ve never met a guy who could lift me up. And I never imagined there was one who could climb stairs while doing it. But I can’t enjoy even a second because the pain seems to get worse with every step he takes. My head collapses on my arm that rests on his shoulder, and that’s the last thing I’m aware of for a bit.
I come to at the sound of heavy breathing and a voice calling me. Shaking my head, I focus on it until I make out the words.
“Where are your keys?”
Something incoherent comes out of my mouth. I grab Aran tighter as he slides me back down to my feet. But neither of us trust them, and I’m glad he keeps his arm around me, pressing me up against him. My head on his chest bounces with his heavy breathing as I feel around my coat’s pocket. Aran takes the keys from my hand and opens the apartment door.
“Thanks. I can take it from here.” I sound drowsy as I speak.
