Pressing her fingertips to her forehead, Neva selected what would and would not be acceptable to say in her current state. Said state was not fit for company, or conducent to good decision making. Throwing him out so she could make good rational choices was ideal. But it was not going to happen. Not when her brain was not functioning on the same level as her conscience. At this point in her life, she knew that her decisions had lasting impact. She couldn't just run off to Belize and crash for a month or two till things blew over. Connor wasn't something she wanted to blow over either.
Having taken a moment she held up her hand.
Seeming far calmer then she actually felt, Neva forced the words out. "Listen up and listen good homeboy. You're going to take me out to dinner. It will be in a nice fancy restaurant. Like tomorrow…or the next day…and there we will talk about not being friends with benefits anymore. Just like normal people do. I'll dress up and you'll pay for dinner. Is that suitable?"
Connor nodded that it was sufficient.
"Fantastic," she sighed. "Now you can either go home. Or, you can help me get out of these clothes. I'm tired and I'm smelly. We can argue about this later. You're making an already crappy evening go even further downhill."
If Connor heard her final words he didn't make it known.
"Where were you? Where could you have possibly been for two days that lacked telephone service? We're in Chicago not Siberia. I'm not going anywhere until you explain to me what is going on with you."
With a snap of her fingers and a wave of her hand, she glared. "Connor! Really! You really want to do this? I have absolutely no clue who I brought back from the brink to have the universe hand you over to me, like some kind of a gift! Women like me don't normally get men like you! So you're just going to have to bear with me. But I am trying very hard to keep things from getting messy. We're around the time when you start figuring out what a hot mess I am, and then realize that I'm so not worth the effort."
His eyebrows met.
Connor was surprised by what came out of her mouth.
Bewildered, he shook his head, "Are you delusional? I don't care about any of that stuff. You are always going to be that young woman who slept in a bathtub wearing her tactical vest and helmet, no matter what country you were in, to me. Nothing that's been going on these past few weeks could ever make me look at you differently."
She just stared.
It'd been a while since she had worn her Kevlar to sleep in the safety of a tub. Thinking about it brought back fond memories. Neva bit her bottom lip, unsure what to say next. It was quite possibly the sweetest thing he'd ever said to her. Back then she had an amazing tan and was fifteen pounds lighter, "Do you mean it?"
Connor took a couple steps until he could wrap his arms around her, and pull her against him.
Tightly he held her against him while he pressed his lips against the top of her head.
"Every time you make that face at me, I think of the first time we met. When you were tanning by the pool outside our hotel in Dubai. Do you remember? You had on a pair of men's PT shorts rolled up and your Kevlar vest with that helmet. All of your coworkers were swimming in the pool in their Kevlar vests. You were throwing coins into the pool for them to pick up off the bottom. I'd never seen anything quite like it."
Neva nodded against his chest, "I still have those Ray Ban sunglasses."
Connor sank his fingers into her hair and got a whiff of a uniquely antiseptic fragrance. "I'll always think of you calling out denomination and country before tossing them into pool, whenever I hear your voice on the phone." He then kissed the top of her head again. "Now do me a favor and lift up your arms. These clothes are putting off enough fumes to make my eyes water."
Discreetly Neva wiped her eyes as she stepped back and lifted up her arms.
The shirt was lifted up and tossed over by the door. She'd taken a shower before she left Uri's auto-body shop, but there wasn't much lying around for her to change into.
Connor actually paused when he set eyes on the large belt buckle.
"Impressive isn't it," she asked.
"There are no words," he admitted.
With minimal effort the belt came unhooked and a second or two later the jeans puddled around her feet. Connor kissed her that next moment, completely taking her by surprise. Everything he hadn't told her about the way he felt about her was put into his kiss and touch. He backed her a few steps back into the hallway shedding his own coat and scrub top.
Neva stopped him when she realized he was leading her towards the living room.
"No," she shook her head. "The shower…I'll never get this smell out of the couch."
In total agreement he nodded then confessed, "You know…I never thought I'd be turned on by the sight of men's underwear. But it really works on you."
She glanced down at the sight of Calvin Klein boxer briefs. "I refused to wear my brother's spare clothes home unless he went out to buy me a package of clean underwear. This is what he bought me."
Connor kissed her again, until she melted against him and wrapped her arms around his neck. It wasn't long before her legs wrapped around his waist and he wound up walking both of them down the hallway to the shower. It was a significant while longer before her feet found solid footing on the floor.
XXIIXXIIXXIIXXIIXX
Somewhere around four am Neva's cordless phone began to go off on her nightstand.
It pierced a deep sleep, one that had encompassed her in darkness seconds after her wet head had dropped down on her pillow.
Yet, at the electronic noises, she reached blindly into her dark bedroom.
Thoughts of Natalia flashed through her brain in a sobering wakeup. By the time she had found the cordless, pressed the button and put it to her ear she was awake. "Yep," was the greeting she gave whoever had called at that hour. Without glasses or contacts her caller id was nothing but a glowing blur.
Beside her in the bed she felt Connor stir at the intrusion to his sleep.
His brain woke up just as quickly as Neva's with thoughts of the hospital. His body on the other hand lodged a formal complaint. Under all the warm blankets and cushioned into the gel memory foam mattress, he was as close to heaven on earth as he was going to get. The scantily clad woman mere inches away sealed his heaven on earth theory.
Judging from her tone, whoever had called didn't call with an emergency.
There were no names exchanged or raised voices. The fact that she spoke quietly so as not to bother him made him curious.
Who on earth was called at four in the morning? According to his watch.
Connor lifted his head from the pillows as a soft laugh came from her side of the bed. He managed to catch the tail end of, "…no don't worry about it. Connor's here. I'll grab some cash out of his wallet. He's making that doctors money. Ok. See you in a little bit."
When she clicked off the phone her hand reached across the bed to pat whatever part of him she came into contact with, it happened to be his chest. "David has his appetite back."
Unsure where this was going, he lifted an eyebrow when she managed to turn on a lamp on her bedside table.
She grabbed a pair of wire rimmed glasses and slid them on.
Connor found them even more attractive than when she was wearing her contacts. Although her hair was a mess and she was only wearing socks and a pair of panties with a screen-printed solar system on them, so there was a strong possibility that had something to do with his fondness for her glasses.
"So we're going to go pick him up something?"
Not that he minded. David had been looking a little green around the gills for the past couple days. A new medication that had killed his appetite. The most he'd seen him eat was a handful of crackers and hot tea.
Neva leaned over to kiss the top of his head. "Don't you have work in a few hours?"
"No," Connor shook his head. "Three to eleven, I switched with Choi incase Downey got bad news at his appointment this morning. You're going with him right?"
"Of course I am. I promised to let him drive my Jeep if he let me see his labwork."