Run, Girl (If You Can)

Keeley already threw up into a nearby trash can once before Aaron arrived but her stomach was still boiling. She felt feverish and saw a red haze surrounding everything when he appeared in front of her so he looked oddly like a cartoon devil.

"You look awful," he noted.

"Thank you Captain Obvious. Get me out of here before I throw up again," she hissed, still peeved that all of this could have been avoided if he hadn't stopped her on her break.

He sighed and crouched down in a rather undignified manner to give her a piggyback ride. "Please don't throw up on me."

"What if you deserve to be thrown up on?"

"Does anyone really deserve that though?" he asked wryly. "I can admit this is at least partially my fault; it's why I'm here. Get on."

Keeley didn't want to argue further. She might puke again if she opened her mouth and despite her big talk, she didn't want to die today because she blew chunks onto the suit of the vice president of Hale Investments.

Aaron carried her like that a few blocks back to the parking lot near the medical school. His driver was there waiting for them.

Her stomach felt even worse being in the car. She feebly asked, "If I throw up in your car are you going to kill me?"

"Don't be ridiculous."

Less than ten minutes later, they pulled into the basement parking lot of a building she didn't recognize.

"This isn't my apartment complex," she said stupidly.

"It's mine. I didn't think you'd make it all the way to Washington Heights in your condition so you'll have to stay here for now," Aaron responded in his usual cold tone.

She felt too sick to protest though on the inside she was screaming. Aaron's lair was the last place she wanted to end up! How had this happened?! He was supposed to take her home, end of story!

He carried her to the elevator and they rode it up to the penthouse. She was shocked how different the interior was to their house after they got married.

It was almost completely empty aside from some severely austere modern furniture scattered here and there. This was definitely a bachelor pad.

"Aaron, I'm going to throw up again," she warned and he hastily slung her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes and deposited her in front of the nearest toilet.

"Stay there, I'll get you some water."

How would he know that people with food poisoning are supposed to stay hydrated? The kind of restaurants he frequented would never produce food that caused such a thing. Did he…look this up for her on the way to pick her up?

Keeley puked twice more before he came back.

"Thanks," she said miserably as she accepted the glass from his outstretched hand and chugged the whole thing. She then filled it up with tap water and used it to gargle because her mouth felt gross.

"Do you feel any better?"

"Not really. I'd like to brush my teeth but I don't know when I'll make that pointless by puking again," Keeley sighed.

"Well, whenever you're ready there are spare toothbrushes and toothpaste in the drawer to your left. I'll go refill this for you," he said casually before walking away with the glass in hand.

Since when was Aaron this nice? Maybe he was capable of feeling guilt after all. Too bad he learned how over a decade too late for it to matter.

Over the next two hours, Keeley puked until there was nothing coming up but bile and Aaron continued bringing her expensive spring water imported from Iceland. He was surprisingly patient about the whole thing, which didn't jive with her image of him at all.

She hadn't been taken care of like this in a long time…possibly since before her mom died since her dad was so squeamish. It was kind of nice. Her anger lessened a bit since he was so clearly apologetic for the first time in both of her lives.

"I think I'm done puking," she informed him with a yawn. "I'm going to brush my teeth and then you can take me home."

"You're exhausted; why don't you take a bath in the Jacuzzi tub and sleep in one of the guest rooms. If your dehydration gets too bad, my place is closer to the hospital anyway," Aaron offered.

Her first instinct was to refuse. Spend more time with the enemy? Stay in his apartment overnight? No way!

But a relaxing bath in a bathtub big enough to be a hot tub…his mattresses were probably amazing too; they had been before. She was tired, sick, and sorely tempted. Her head was too muddled to think straight.

"Some needs to feed Molly," she said blearily, clinging to her last strand of rationality. "And my roommates will be worried."

"Give me your phone, I'll text them for you."

She took the phone out of her polka-dotted skinny jeans without complaint and lay back down on the cool bathroom floor. "Text Valentina…she's my emergency contact."

"Found her."

A minute later, he handed the phone back and Keeley saw the message he sent. 'I got food poisoning across town so my friend is taking care of me overnight. Please feed Molly for me.'

Simple and to the point, just like Aaron.

"I'll go start that bath for you," he said softly before leaving her alone again.

Keeley continued lying on the floor, her mind overloaded with thoughts.

The most coherent one was that she was so glad she started carrying an emergency pair of underwear in her backpack after the time she bled so heavily through her pants on campus while on her period that the underwear was completely destroyed.

She had to wear it for another four hours to boot even though she managed to buy some pads in the student convenience store and covered the stain by tying her jacket around her waist. It was an incredibly uncomfortable experience so she started carrying a spare in case anything like that ever happened again.

That still left the problem of pajamas though… No matter. The bath was the only thing she could focus on right now. It sounded wonderful.

When Aaron came back, he helped her get upstairs to the master bathroom where the Jacuzzi tub was and showed her where the towel and pair of pajamas he left for her were.

It was one of his Egyptian cotton matching pajama sets that would surely be too big for her. She nearly forgot he used to wear those.

"And while you're relaxing you need to drink this entire water bottle," he said sternly. "You lost a lot of fluid."

Keeley nodded mutely, wanting him to leave so she could sink into the hot water and enjoy the jets. Once she was sure he was gone, she locked the door and removed her clothes, practically melting into the water. It felt amazing!

She sipped from the water bottle occasionally but for the most part she closed her eyes and let her mind go blank as the stream of bubbles pounded against her back.

Sometimes, it was nice to be rich—the Jacuzzi tub in their old house was her favorite thing about the place. She could do this every day.