Unwanted Heat

I’m shocked… beyond shocked. I swore I would never let another woman, well one who wasn’t family, into my personal space again. Swore I would never let someone get this close to me again. To say that I’m conflicted right now is an understatement. I’ve thought of Kenzie being here, hell I wanted her here, but now that she’s actually here, in my home, I don’t know what to think. A few hours is one thing, but fuck she’s been here the entire night. It’s not that I don’t trust her, I do… but it’s hard not to be skeptical after what she did.

“Your mother wouldn’t agree to keep you here unless someone agreed to spend the weekend taking care of you. If I hadn’t agreed to stay, she was going to admit you to the hospital.”

“I’m sure someone-”

“Your mother was on her way to the hospital to work a double and is scheduled to work overnight tonight, your dad and Cara are out of town and your mom felt Austin wasn’t the right person-”Còntens bel0ngs to Nô(v)elDr/a/ma.Org

“No, he probably isn’t.”

“With Julie and Carter away….”

“No, that makes sense. Look, thank you for staying with me but I’m sure you have things to do-” I don’t want to keep her here; I have no doubt this is the last place she wants to spend her weekend.

“Actually I can’t leave.”

“Why not?”

“Your mother made me promise to stay here until she cleared you to be able to stay by yourself.”

“I’m sure that’s not necessary, I’m fine.”

“I… I’m sorry, Nicholas, but I gave her my word I would look after you this weekend. She said you would probably start to feel better this afternoon but she was concerned that you fever could come back.”

“I’m sure my mother is just overreacting-”

“I can assure you I am not overreacting, Nicholas,” I hear my mother’s voice before I see her walking down the hallway in her hospital scrubs.

“I was just explaining to Kenzie-”

“I heard you,” she cuts me off and turns to give Kenzie a hug which absolutely shocks me. My mother is not a very trusting woman when it comes to people in my life, especially females. “How are you, Kenzie? Are you still feeling okay?”

“I’m good, Vivienne, thank you.”

Vivienne? My mother is letting Kenzie call her by her first name? Well that’s a complete shock. My mother insisted she call her Mrs. Parker; it was never an option for her, to call my mother anything else. When the truth came out about her my mother told me she never liked her but I guess I was blind to how much my mother truly didn’t like her. Seeing her interact with Kenzie is completely different; I can tell my mother actually likes Kenzie.

“Any problems since we spoke this morning?” my mom asks.

“No, I just finished making some soup. Would you like a bowl?”

“I’d love some, thank you,” and sits on the stool next to me while Kenzie rushes to the stove to get another bowl ready. The entire scene before me seems off… like I’m on the outside looking in, or like it’s a TV show I’m watching but missed a large chunk of it. “How are you feeling, dear? You gave us quite a scare last night.”

“I did?”

“Your temperature rose pretty high several times throughout the night. You are very lucky to have a woman in your life who cares so much about you. I know for a fact she barely slept last night; if she got more than a couple of hours, you would have missed your medication and your fever would have spiked. You were dangerously close to being admitted into the hospital last night and if it wasn’t for Kenzie, I would have called the ambulance myself.”

“Vivienne, it was-”

“Don’t argue, Kenzie. I know how little you slept and I have the text messages to prove it,” she gives Kenzie a look that basically prevents further argument. “I’m just saying dear, you have a wonderful woman here.

Don’t let her get a way.”

“I won’t, mom.” I’m taken back by my mother’s words. I can’t recall her ever saying that to me before.

“I see you’re eating soup; you’re feeling okay?”

“I’m going to…” Kenzie nods towards the hallway, clearly wanting to give us privacy.

“I feel like I’ve been hit by a truck honestly. My entire body hurts,” I admit.

“I’m not surprised, Nicholas. You were pretty sick last night. The test results all came back clear, so I think this is a case of food poisoning. According to the ER nurse who was on last night, they had several people come in with food poisoning. Looks like you weren’t the only one who had the chicken dish last night.”

“UGH, I’m never going back to that hotel.”

“I know you probably don’t want Kenzie to see you like this, but it’s important someone is here with you the rest of the weekend. Just because you’re feeling a little better now doesn’t mean you’re going to keep feeling so good. As you begin to eat and drink more, you could become sick again as your stomach might not be ready to handle food just yet. Dehydration is a major concern with any type of illness but especially with food poisoning. So either you allow Kenzie to stay here until Carter and Julie come back on Monday or I call for an ambulance and have you admitted to the hospital so I can keep an eye on you.”

“Is that really-”

“Yes it is,” her voice is firm and lets me know that I will not win this argument. I have no desire to be admitted into a hospital; the last thing I need is for the press to start leaking stories that I’m dying or have some debilitating illness that prevents me from running PFS.

“Okay, Kenzie can stay the weekend,” I say with resignation.

“Now, was that so bad?” she raises an eye brow chuckling. “I need to get going, been working far too many hours and need to get some sleep before my next shift. Let Kenzie know I said goodbye. I’m serious, Nicholas, don’t let this one go. It’s very rare to find a woman who is as selfless as she is. Last night should have proved to you just how much she cares for you.”

“Thank you Mom, I love you,” I kiss her on the cheek before she walks out of the room.

I’m shocked that Kenzie volunteered to stay the weekend with me; she could have easily said she had plans and let my mother arrange for me to be admitted into the hospital. Our date ended last night, she didn’t need to agree to stay beyond the dinner. She could have told Carter and my mother that she wasn’t able to stay. Why didn’t she? Why would she agree not only to stay the weekend with me but if what my mother said was true, stay up most of the night to make sure I was okay? Maybe she thought if she didn’t stay with me I would get mad? That I would terminate our arrangement?

“Did your mom leave?” Kenzie walks into the kitchen quickly pulling me from my thoughts.

“She did, she wanted to get home and to nap before her next shift.”

“I’m sure she’s tired.”

“Kenzie… I don’t want you to think that I’m ungrateful-”

“No, I don’t think-”

“I know I sounded ungrateful,” I interrupt her quickly. “I appreciate you staying here last night, more than you know. Thank you for this weekend; thank you for keeping me out of the hospital. This… what you

did… it’s more than I ever would have expected.”

“I’m just glad I could help,” she shrugs it off, obviously uncomfortable.

“And the soup was delicious. I’m looking forward to having more later if I’m still feeling good.”

“I’ll leave it on the stove to keep warm; it’ll make a good light meal later tonight if you get hungry.”

“So… Did you want to watch a movie or something?”

“Sure, that would be nice.”

We settle into the only room in my apartment that has a television. I don’t have much free time, so watching television is something I rarely do. In my billiards room, I have a large flat screen TV on one of the walls with a large couch in front of it. Originally Austin convinced me to get it so we could play video games on it but then Cara insisted I get a movie streaming subscription so she could order movies when she is here. I rarely use the service, it’s here. There’s no way I could concentrate on PFS work right now, even if I wanted to. My body is too sore and my head feels like it’s in the clouds. I doubt I could respond to an email right now, let alone do anything productive. At least with the TV in here, it gives Kenzie and me something to do since she’s stuck here all weekend.

“What type of movies do you like?” I ask her as we both sit down on the couch in front of the TV.

“Something funny would be nice, but really I’ll watch anything.”

I flip through the on screen guide until I reach the comedy section and slowly scroll through the movies, most of which I’ve never heard of until she speaks up.

“Oh, can we watch that one? I saw the previews when it was in the theater but never got a chance to see it.”

“Sure, whatever you want.”

“Oh, let me grab my phone. I need to set the alarm for your next medicine.”

She jumps from the couch before I can offer to get it and returns a few minutes later with a prescription bottle and her phone. She presses a few buttons before placing the phone on the arm of the couch next to her. Just as I hit play on the movie, I see her putting the throw blanket that was on the chair next to my bed over her legs. Suddenly I realize that not only did Kenzie sleep here last night but that she slept in my bedroom. God, I hope I didn’t have a nightmare. She hasn’t mentioned me having one, so hopefully last night was a rare night.

“Nicholas? Nicholas?” I hear Kenzie’s voice and realize I must have fallen asleep at some point during the movie.

“Sorry… how long was I asleep?”

“About three hours. I wasn’t going to wake you but you need to take your medicine,” she hands me a couple pills and a bottle of water.

“I should get up anyway,” I stand up but realize I must have stood too fast because the entire room goes black and I feel dizzy again.

“Sit back down,” Kenzie’s by my side immediately, her arm around my waist helping me back onto the couch.

“Thanks… I must have gotten up too fast.”

“Maybe try and wait a few minutes before you get up again?”

“Yeah, probably a good idea.” I sit back on the couch and close my eyes, willing my body to return to normal. I hate being sick-I especially hate letting someone see me like this. She shouldn’t have to deal with me being sick; if I wasn’t afraid my mother would follow through with her threat to admit me into the hospital, I would insist that Kenzie go home. She shouldn’t have to stay the entire weekend with me, worrying about medication schedules and cooking soups. I’m sure this is the last thing she imagined doing this weekend, she was probably- “Your cooking classes,” I realize aloud.

“I sent them an email last night letting them know I wouldn’t be able to attend-”

“Oh Kenzie, I’m so sorry. Perhaps you can still go tomorrow? I’m

sure-”

“It was a two day class; you needed to commit to attending both days when you registered for the class. Really, Nicholas, it’s not a big deal; they’re offering another weekend class in a couple of months so I’ll arrange for them to transfer my payment to one.”

“I completely forgot. I assure you, had I remembered I would have figured something else out so you could still take your class.”

“Nicholas, it’s fine really; you needed someone to stay the weekend with you and I could arrange my schedule easier than anyone else could, it was a simple decision. There will be other classes that I can take, so please don’t give it a second thought.”

Well now I feel worse than I did earlier; I feel like a dick for not remembering that this weekend was the cooking class she signed up for. I could tell she was excited about it when she told me on our way to dinner yesterday. I feel like such an ass for not remembering. When I can think more clearly, I need to find a way to repay her for everything she has done this weekend. Giving up her class, rearranging her life, is more than I think anyone would have done in the same situation. Allowing myself to think back to my life a few years ago, I can honestly say that no one in my life outside of my family would have done something like this for me. She never would have given up something she wanted to do to take care of me. Not for the first time, I can’t help but wonder what the fuck I was thinking.