As if the lack of sleep wasn't enough, Bertie experienced a lack of appetite too. The food seemed like mere gush in his mouth.
That never happened to him before. If anything else, he always had a healthy appetite.
That was the most unpleasant thing of all.
Luckily, he had some kind of appetite when he dinned out. At home, it seemed like the food became an obstacle more than any kind of pleasure. The worst thing was that the food was the same, nothing about it changed.
He forced himself to eat just to avoid offending Jeeves but he must have noticed how he struggles with the food since he started to bring him lesser portions and lighter food.
The lack of food and sleep made him grumpy and nervous. In his restless state, he started to play with the rose on his lapel. One by one he broke all of the sepals below the bud.
When he returned home Jeeves stared at the flower disapprovingly but said nothing. Bertie was entertained by his face thinking of it just as a slight annoyance.
He proved to be wrong. The annoyance mixed with the lack of sepals on the flower was sufficient enough for Jeeves to go down on the street with him when he went out. There he purchased a new flower and replaced the damaged one.
Bertie smiled as he did that knowing that from now on, he'll be breaking sepals more often. Not just because of the satisfying feeling he got under his fingers when the green sepal would break, or just to prank Jeeves, but because Jeeves tucking the rose in his lapel made him feel better. He was suddenly less nervous and he felt as he could eat something more substantial than a soup.