1
Jeremy awoke feeling rank. He'd puked three more times during the night and still had a funky taste in his mouth. But at least his stomach had settled. In fact, he felt hungry.
But not for Work's extra spicy Buffalo wings. He'd never try those again. From now on it'd be strictly sandwiches and burgers when he ate there.
He turned over and found the bed empty. Where was Dawn? She'd come home last night and gone straight into nurse mode. Got him some Pepto and rubbed his back and gave him sips of Gatorade. Nice try, but it all came back up again.
He heard the toilet flush and a few seconds later Dawn came in. She wore a short T-shirt and a thong and nothing else, and the sight might have put a little wood in Mr. Willy if she hadn't looked like hell. She wobbled on her feet and her face was the color of three-day-old grits mixed with some of that lime Gatorade she'd been spooning into him last night.
She groaned as she dropped onto the bed like a hundred-pound sack of corn feed and pulled the blanket up to her neck.
This was her second morning in a row like this.
"You okay?"
Another groan. "Like totally not. Like anything but. I think I caught what you have."
"Had. I'm feeling much better." He gave her arm a squeeze. "All thanks to you."
She pulled her arm away and pouted like a cranky child. "Sharing a bed's okay, but not a virus."
Virus… Jeremy had been under the impression he'd had food poisoning.
But Dawn hadn't eaten anything Jeremy had. Could you catch iood poisoning? He didn't know all that much about medicine, but he didn't think so.
So maybe it was a virus. But if not…
He bolted upright.
"Puh-Zea.se/" Dawn said. "Do not rock the bed!"
"Sorry. You…" Had to be careful here. Didn't want to spook her. "You felt this way yesterday too, didn't you?"
"What do you mean?" She looked at him. "Tell me you're trying to say I gave this to you."
"No-no. Not at all. But you know, these viruses, sometimes they hit you like a ton of bricks and sometimes they sneak up on you for days, and when they finally hit you look back and say, 'Oh, yeah, that's why I was feeling so crummy.' Was it anything like that?"
She closed her eyes. "I didn't feel so hot yesterday morning, but I didn't hurl or anything. Felt like I could have, though. Didn't even want my morning coffee."
Jeremy tried to hide his excitement.
Could it be?
Suddenly she was out of bed and running for the bathroom. He heard her puking. An ugly sound, but if the reason was what he hoped, it was like music.
He put on a concerned expression as she stumbled back to the bed and sat on the edge.
"You all right, darlin?"
She gave him a look. "Oh, I'm just fine. I just love totally puking up my guts. If I didn't know better, I'd be scared I was pregnant." She turned to face him. "You don't think I could be pregnant, do you?"
He wanted to scream YES! but kept his expression straight.
"I don't see how, darlin, what with me havin a vasectomy and all."
"I know, but I feel so totally rotten."
"It's the virus, I'm sure." He reached over and stroked her upper arm. "But you know what? Just so's you're not worrying about it—because if I know you, I know you're gonna dwell on it—we'll pick up one of those pregnancy test kits and give it a try."
"Oh man, that's scary. I do so not want to be pregnant. That's like the totally last thing in the world I need right now."
And the thing I need most, Jeremy thought.