I was proud of myself. I kept cool while waiting for my ride. Finally out of a hostile environment, I let myself relax in Michael’s arms in the Seven-Eleven parking lot. He didn’t say anything, just held me until I stopped shaking from the cold. I had used the ATM at the store to get cash for essentials like tissues and coffee, but they didn’t sell blankets or even socks so I was still shivering. I dug into my tiny purse for a tissue and blew my nose.
“Thank you.” I said simply.
“No need to thank me; you needed me, I’m here.” He started the car and pulled out of the lot. “Want to tell me what you’re doing in this part of town at four a.m.?”
“Not really. But I will.” I tried for a wry smile, but it set him off.
“What happened to just staying home and relaxing? I was up half the night calling hospitals, Zo. No one had any idea where you were and from the state you’re in, you look like you’re lucky to be alive!” He’d never raised his voice with me before.
“I went.” I said calmly. “To Ian MacKay’s funeral. If you stop yelling at me, I’ll tell you the rest of it.” And if you yell at me again, we are going to have words.
He got louder. “You were where? Why? Sorry.” He dropped his voice to a normal tone, but it was tense, clipped. “I was worried about you. You didn’t tell anyone where you were going; you didn’t take your cell phone. We were going crazy looking for you.”
“Who’s we?” I asked with not a little trepidation. I sneezed again. My throat was sore, too.
“Just me and Marie. She stopped over at your place after dinner and when you didn’t answer your phone or the door, she called me. She didn’t want to worry Feliz.”
God bless Marie. “Smart of her, Feliz is worried enough already.” Feliz didn’t know how not to worry.
“Yes, she is. I called her and told her you were getting sick again and were going to stay with me for a couple days. She’ll cover for you at the shop.”
“I am, am I? And who’s going to bake muffins for my customers?” I could still do that, even if I wasn’t working downstairs. I suddenly felt hot and achy, like a pile of bricks had been dumped on me. Crap. I didn’t just have a fever. The flu was back with a vengeance.
“Zo, please.” His knuckles showed white through his grip on the steering wheel. “Would you tell me what’s going on? This isn’t like you.” He turned off the freeway. He must have been driving eighty; it usually took a little longer to get from Slidell to New Orleans proper. I hadn’t paid attention to his speed or the traffic. I was too busy trying to stay warm while I fended off the questions.
“I slept in,” I explained. “I checked craigslist. There was no response to my ad. I checked the obituaries on the newspaper’s web site and found the death notice for Ian MacKay. He was the guy in the store on Sunday, the one that I thought was dead. The one whose blood is crusted on my favorite silk blouse. Remind me to ask Jerry about that in the morning. After I’ve slept, rather. It is morning.”
“Later.” He pulled into the covered parking lot of his building. “I’m guessing you want to get cleaned up. I can’t convince you to the hospital, can I?”
I prodded my ribs gently. No additional pain, so I didn’t think I’d cracked any. I hurt, and was probably bruised everywhere. When I’d visited the ladies’ room at the Seven-Eleven, I’d been sporting a shiner and a split lip. I could walk, however, and I could breathe without additional pain. I miraculously hadn’t hit my head. “No hospital, honey. I’ve already got a doctor’s appointment scheduled for Friday.”
“You do?”
“I already promised Marie I would go, so I made the appointment this afternoon. She even said she’d go with me.”
“Okay, I won’t push you. Want me to run you a bath?”
I sneezed. “A very hot one, I think.”
A long soak later I was wrapped up in one of the changes of clothes I’d been keeping at Michael’s topped by one of his gray sweatshirts. This one read, “No, I will not fix your computer.” I almost felt warm again as we watched the sun come up. Except when I was cold. While the sky turned pink and peach and finally blue, he listened to my disjointed telling of my previous afternoon’s adventure.
“Okay,” he interrupted me, “I understand how you found out about the funeral, but how did you end up in Slidell?”
“A little girl named Maryam took a liking to me. She’s the deceased’s daughter and a charming little thing to boot. She kept getting away from the cousin or aunt that was supposed to be watching her. I read her a book before the funeral started and she told her grandmother I was her new friend and I had to come back to the house with her. So her grandmother found me a ride.”
He nodded, taking a minute to absorb everything I said. “Then what happened?”
“We got to the house--it’s a very nice place. There was a huge sunken living room and enough space for a lot of people, plus there were some on the back deck. The woman who was running things shanghaied me into helping her out in the kitchen. She was pushy. I made some coffee, put a quiche in the oven, that sort of thing. She gave me a mug of coffee with about six shots of whiskey in it. I was going to leave. In fact, I was waiting for the girl who drove me--Marilyn, no, Magdalen.”
“Madeline?” he offered.
“That’s it! How did you know?”
“Lucky guess,” he said, “Keep going.”
“I said goodbye to little Maryam and Mrs. MacKay, finished the coffee, then while I was waiting, I started to feel sleepy. I opened the front door to get some air and last thing I remember was the chick with the red hair--the pushy one. She had really big eyes, and really tight skin, and she sniffed a lot. I don’t remember her name. Shit, she must have drugged me, but why?”
“Zo, um, you smelled like whiskey when I picked you up. Did you take anything for the flu yesterday? That stuff doesn’t mix well with booze.”
“Yes, no. No to the cold medicine, yes to the whiskey. Three shots will not knock me out, even on an empty stomach.” Trained stunt drinker. Don’t try this at home. Marie and I had cut our alcoholic teeth on Planter’s Punch while still in our teens, to her mother’s consternation, but had eventually graduated to boilermakers. “That’s twelve hours ago.” I got up and fetched my clothes from the bathroom. It was easier to move now that I’d had a hot bath and a couple of aspirin. My feet felt like they’d been subjected to the Death of a Thousand Cuts. It had taken forever to pick all the gravel out of the soles. Luckily, I hadn’t stepped on any broken glass. When I felt better, I was getting a pedicure. Marie would take me. I had no idea where to get a good one. I was hungry, but that would have to wait. My boyfriend didn’t cook. One whiff of the sweater confirmed my suspicion and I handed it to Michael. “There’s more Jameson’s on that sweater than I drank since New Year’s Eve. What a waste of a decent whiskey.” For Irish coffee, anyway. If I was going to sip whiskey, I preferred Bushmill’s. “Dammit, maybe I should have gone to the hospital. I could have asked for them to do a tox screen on me.”
“We still can go, you know.” He moved to get his coat.
“No, no. It’s not worth it now. Anything unusual I had in my system has probably been have washed out by now.” I sneezed. “Do you have any vitamin C?”
“I have some tea with vitamin C in it. I’ll make you some before I go to work.” He paused for a moment. “I could take the day off and spend it with you if you want, but Jerry might get suspicious.”
“He might be already if Allison told him she ran into me at the mall,” I said wryly. “Pass me the phone?”
He did and I called my home phone for messages. There were three from Marie, each one sounding increasingly panicked, one from Feliz simply saying “Feel better,” and a grouchy one from Jerry who wanted to know just whose funeral I thought I was going to and how dare I go off anywhere without my cell phone?
“He knows,” I said to Michael with a grimace. I sneezed again. It was getting old. “I’ll call him in a couple hours. I’m not going to wake anyone else up. Do you have anything resembling food in the house?”
“Um,” I was treated to my boyfriend looking totally abashed. It was adorable, but it didn’t get me fed. “Lots of frozen things, some Hot Pockets.” He got up and rummaged. “How do you feel about waffles?”
“Waffles will do fine, honey. And that tea you mentioned.”
Hooray for toasters. We ate at his breakfast bar. He hadn’t chosen the condo for its kitchen size. “After this, you’re going to bed.” He said simply.
“Since when do you give me orders?” I didn’t have the energy for an extended argument, but I was getting tired of people being bossy.
“Since you went running off without telling anyone and got hurt.” I noticed he didn’t say, “Got yourself hurt.” Jerry would have pointed out that I’d gotten myself into that fine mess. Actually, he was probably looking forward to saying just that later today. I decided to forget to call him.
“Okay, I deserved that, “I conceded. “I’m sorry I worried you. I should have said that earlier.” I took the dishes and loaded them in the dishwasher. He put his arms around me. “But you don’t get to yell at me.”
He nodded an apology. “I know you didn’t mean to, Zo, but you keep forgetting there are people out here that care about you. You went dashing off to God knows where with no way for anyone to get in touch. The people who love you are going to worry if you go off half-cocked like that.” He kissed my forehead. I wondered what going off full-cocked would be like. There was a dirty joke in there somewhere, but I couldn’t find it. “I think your fever’s gone up. Come on, I’m going to tuck you in.”
I yawned and sneezed at the same time, which caused me to pull a muscle in my back. “Ouch. Okay, bed sounds good. Then I’ll figure out what to do about MacKay.”
“Why do you need to do anything? He’s dead.”
“I’m not so sure.” I yawned again. At last, I was feeling warm and it made me sleepy. “You sure Feliz is okay with me not coming in?”
“She knows you’re sick and she’s got James to help if she needs him. She said something about calling Tanya, too.” I nodded. Tanya was one of my part-timers. She was a quiet, efficient woman. “I think I have some Nyquil in the bathroom, do you want some of that?”
“Sure.” I knew it had alcohol in it, but what could happen to me here? He poured the green stuff in the little plastic cup for me. I swallowed it with a grimace. Michael kissed me on the cheek and I was asleep before he left the condo.