Page 77 of The Night Before Christmas
James waited outside with the sports supplement while Felicity crept tentatively into Adam’s room.
He looked terrible, which was hardly surprising, but Felicity still felt inwardly shocked. She was so used to Adam looking ‘together’, having it all ‘together’, and it dawned on her that in all the time they had known each other he had rarely been ill – or not that she could remember.
Now though, he looked ghastly. His cheeks were pale, his face gaunt, and his bare chest was covered in electrodes. There was a large cannula in his hand, something that always made Felicity wince. He looked tired, but he smiled as she walked in, and she felt overwhelmed with guilt yet again.
‘Hey, you,’ he said, his voice sounding hoarse.
‘Hey yourself,’ said Felicity, trying to keep her own voice light and airy.Don’t cry, don’t cry.
‘How are you feeling?’
‘Oh, you know, I’ve been better.’
‘I would have thought being waited on by nurses would be your idea of heaven.’
Don’t mention heaven, what are you doing?
‘Well, I haven’t had a bed bath yet and I don’t know if they still do them but if they do, I’m definitely down with that.’
Felicity rolled her eyes. ‘Glad to hear you haven’t lost your sense of humour, if that’s what you call it.’
‘What do you think of my gaff?’ said Adam, ignoring her and waving his free arm around the room weakly.
‘Love what you’ve done with the place.’
‘Knew you’d like it.’
They smiled at each other for a moment.
‘So… what the heck was that about then?’ said Felicity, mock punching him gently on the arm. ‘Apart from scaring the living daylights out of me, that is.’
Adam winced and shuffled on his pillows. Felicity stepped forward and began to help him rearrange them behind his head. Too late she realised it was rather an intimate move – a girlfriend move, really – and she quickly retreated, bashing into the heart rate monitor as she did so and ripping two of the electrodes from his chest.
He let out a yelp and then tried to cover it with something a little more manly. As he jerked in pain, both his pillows fell off the bed and landed on the floor at Felicity’s feet.
‘Ouch!’
‘Oh my goodness, I’m sorry! So sorry.’
Adam was rubbing the sore place on his chest with one hand and trying to reach down to retrieve his pillows with the other and something about the scowl of concentration on his face gave Felicity a sudden and irrational impulse to laugh. She tried to cover it by fussing around on the floor picking up the pillows herself but as she stood up, she could hold it in no longer and it came out in a guffaw. As she leant over him again to put thepillows back in place, Adam burst out laughing too and then winced in pain.
‘What are you like?’ he said when he could speak again.
‘I really shouldn’t be allowed out in public.’
‘You’re not kidding.’
He was still rubbing his chest and once he was comfortable – ish – and they’d both stopped giggling, Felicity picked up the ends of the electrodes and attempted to stick them back in place, batting feebly at his chest to get them to stick and trying not to think about the last time she’d touched that skin.
She had to get really close to him now, and let out a little cough to cover the awkwardness. But if Adam felt the same, he didn’t comment. When it all looked reasonably similar to before, she sat down on the bed and patted his hand lightly.
‘Ahem. Sorry about that. You were saying?’
‘What was the question?’
‘I was just asking you about, you know, the whole terrifying the life out of me thing. You remember that, right?’
‘Oh yes, that. Well. I have no idea what happened, basically. I don’t remember much about it. But my previous approaches didn’t seem to be working on you… so I thought I’d try a different tack. Sympathy vote, you know.’
