TWENTY-TWO
The Best Day
NORA WASN’T SURE she’d heard him correctly, and even if she had, it could have been the cold medicine talking. Covering her mouth with her hand, she couldn’t help the happy dance she did in the hall.
“What has you dancing, nae serang?”
“Good day.” Her cheeks hurt from smiling.
Seok’s eyes twinkled, actually twinkled, in the light. He swept her into his arms, squeezing her tightly and kissing the side of her neck. “I’m so glad. You deserve good days. What happened?” Pulling her hand, he led her down the hall and into his bedroom. “I want all the happy details.”
His room was warm, and the heat from her happy-dance made her sweat. “Cai’s sick; he was very sweet.”
Confusion clouded his expression, and she realized she’d implied she was happy he was sick. “I’m not… it’s not because Cai’s sick.” Her hair was sticky on her neck. “Hold on. I haven’t even taken my coat off yet.” She shook her head at herself, unzipping her jacket and placing it on the bed.
He reached for her again, seating them both on the bed and leaning against the headboard. “Well?”
Her mind raced back over her day. With the exception of her time with Mr. Gunderson, most of it was really good.
Seok’s fingers tangled in her hair as he attempted to run them through her curls, and her head jerked to one side. “You can’t do that with kinky curly hair,” she giggled, as he tried to untangle himself. “Sorry.”
“I’m sorry.” His voice was embarrassed. “So, before I pulled your hair like a little boy, what happened?”
Rubbing at the spot, she giggled and leaned into him. “I walked to class; I had the study—” His body immediately tensed.
“It wasn’t so bad.”
He snorted.
“Okay, well, it was uncomfortable, and maybe I puked—”
“What!”
“Wait!” She held up a hand. “Listen.”
His eyes were angry, and his lips firm, like he was holding them together to keep himself from asking more questions.
“I did this test, about relationships, and I learned I’m not a very good listener, even though I can apparently read body language like nobody’s business.” She waggled her eyebrows, and it had the effect she desired, thawing him a little. “I got scared, thinking about what it meant for us, whether we were doomed. The stats about a relationship like ours aren’t great, but then I realized, this study did me a favor.”
“How so?” Burying his face into her hair, he breathed in deeply. His hands ran along her arms, leaving tingles and goosebumps in their wake.
“Well.” It was hard for her to remember her point with his hands distracting her. “If I know what I need to do, I can do it. I can listen better, communicate more honestly.” She took a deep breath. “You know, we haven’t even talked about birth control or being tested for STDs.” Her cheeks flushed, and she resisted hiding her eyes.
“You’re right. We should have talked about those things.” Peeking at him, she saw his eyes were narrowed. “I’m an idiot.”
“Stop.” She slid over, throwing a leg across his and wrapping her arms around his neck. “You’re not.” She kissed his ear. “We need to be more open though.”
He nodded, the silky threads of his hair brushing across her face. “Yes. So. I’m clean. I have been tested. You?”
“I have only had one partner, and until then, I was only intimate with you guys.”
His hands which had begun to trace patterns on her back faltered. “Oh.” Clearing his throat, he whispered, “We’re all clean. We’ve all been tested. If you’re intimate with only us, you’re fine.”
She couldn’t think of anything else to say but suspected he’d caught on she was a virgin until she’d met them, which meant, because she wasn’t anymore, that she’d slept with one of them.
And he knew it wasn’t him.
“Seok…” she began.
“You don’t have to tell me, nae serang. We’ll get there.”
“I feel like I should apologize.”
“I almost want you to,” he whispered.
Sitting up so she could look into his face, her heart clenched. “Oh, Seok. I’m sorry.”
His dark eyes were focused on a place over her shoulder, but at her words he glanced at her. “No. I wouldn’t have you apologize to any of the others for being with me. It will be special for us.” His lips curled, but his smile was forced. “I have to stop this line of thought. It’s not as though I am a virgin. It is wrong for me to be upset, especially since this is the relationship we agreed to. I’m surprised, I suppose, that I feel like this at all. I’m not usually jealous.”
She leaned in, kissing him gently on the lips. He returned the kiss, but when she tried to deepen it, he kept it chaste and sighed. “I’m sorry.”
“No.” She shook her head. “It could be weird, now. I get it.”
He cupped her face in his hand and kissed her once again before hauling her into his side. “It is not as if I don’t owe you an apology for what I did to you.”
Her mind raced. “Apologize for what?”
“When you first came here, I was cruel. And then I left you, in your bed, without an explanation.”
Oh God. “Seok…” It was on the tip of her tongue to dismiss his apology, tell him it was okay, not to worry about it. But she thought of Ryan and how he desperate he was for his apology to mean something. “Thank you.”
His fingers traced her ear, tucking her hair away, and then his lips touched her forehead. As he entwined her fingers with his, he asked, “What else was good about today?”
She appreciated his attempt to lighten things but recognized he may need to change the subject. “I got a second interview at a store downtown.”
“That’s great! What kind of store?”
“A comic book store.”
“Yeah?”
“Sort of. It has comic books and toys.”
A deep chuckle rumbled in his chest. “They’re called action figures.”
“Good to know.” Her fingers crept across his shirt and around his waist, tucking beneath his body. “Wait. How do you know?”
“I love comics.”
“You do?” She sat. “That’s awesome! You can help me! I was going to Google, but you might help more!”
“Sure.”
“Okay.” Enumerating on her fingers, she listed the things Frank had told her to search. “Vampires, runaways, and strong women.”
“He wants a list of comics?”
“I think he wants me to know some—but he wants me to have a better idea about those themes.”
“We’ll start with some of the lesser known comic heroes, and then we’ll go from there.” He drew her down to his body again. “She-Hulk.”
“Huh?” She had been eating more since living with him, but she didn’t think she was Hulk-sized yet.
“We’ll start with She-Hulk. Strong women.”
“So in order to be strong in a comic book, you have to be a mutant? Can’t just be a person with gadgets, like Batman?”
“DC versus Marvel, Nora. Can’t mash your universes.”
Sighing, she rubbed her cheek against his warmth. “I hope I get it.”
“I hope getting it means you can quit Dr. Murray’s study.”
“It’s only four years, Seok. I’ll owe too much money. Even the hard stuff, like today, taught me something.”
“I’m worried it’s chipping away at you.” He squeezed her tightly, kissing her head. “You can’t see your face when you leave the house to go to the lab. You’re pale and scared. It kills me.”
“I…” Did she really look scared? She couldn’t deny feeling overwhelmed by the study. Each interview and test was unpredictable. One test consisted of a lie detector and another, a ride through town. It made her hyper-vigilant, waiting for something to happen.
And, with the exception of Dr. Murray, the other doctors were kind of assholes.
“Your silence doesn’t inspire confidence.”
“I’m thinking about what you said.” Her answer seemed to satisfy him. “I wish I’d never gone with Tyler to meet Dr. Murray, I do, but I also wonder what I’ll learn from this. Already, I’ve learned I’m not a good listener. I want our relationship to work. I love you.” He was quiet so long, she wondered if she’d frightened him. “Does it freak you out?” she asked.
“Our relationship?” He seemed to think about it. “It should. It’s fast. But it doesn’t. I’ve dated, Nora. I’m older than the other guys and have seen enough of the world to know I’ve found something amazing.”
“Yeah?”
“Of course.”
Seok’s phone chirped, and he sat, reaching in his pocket for it. “I need to make a call,” he said, reading the message.
Nora stood. “I want to check on Cai, and then I’m going to start dinner.”
Raising an eyebrow, he glanced at his phone again. “It’s only two o’clock.”
“I want to make a crockpot something. This is late for crockpot cooking.” She leaned over, kissing him. “Okay?”
“Okay,” he agreed. “Wait!” He called when she got to the door. “What’s wrong with Cai?”
“Fever, cough, sneezing.”
“We better clean.”
“I’ll take care of it.” She rolled her eyes. It was a cold, not the end of the world.
After closing the door, she paused. She’d been honest with Seok. Really honest, not brutally honest, but she’d explained how she felt about things from the job interview to their intimacy to Dr. Murray’s study.
When she thought about what she’d said and how she’d said it, she couldn’t help feeling proud. And right. She’d taken something she’d learned from Dr. Murray’s study today, and she’d applied it to her life. This study, while difficult and mind-fucking at times, could actually help her in the long-run.
* * *
Cai slept, mouth open, head tipped back. His face was flushed, and when she put her hand to his forehead, he was still warm. She scooted downstairs, filling a water bottle with ice and a little water, knowing as the ice melted he’d have nice cool water for his throat. She dug through the cabinets, looking for cough drops or throat sprays, and carried it all to his room. After organizing the items for easy access on his bedside table, she kissed his forehead and left him.
Matisse met her as she came out of the room. His eyes were red-rimmed, and his arms crossed over his chest. “Hey, cher.”
“Hey.”
Opening his arms in invitation, he snuggled her into his chest. His body was warm, like he’d just woken up from his nap. “How are you?”
“Tired.”
She smiled, making a sound of agreement. “You stayed up all night.”
“Last hurrah, friends left town for a while. The weather turned, wasn’t great for biking.”
Thinking about the way the motorcycles skidded out of the parking lot earlier today, she nodded. “I met your friends today.”
“Huh?” He pulled back, gazing at her in confusion. “You did?”
“Yes, the ones on motorcycles? I saw you on my way to the lab this morning, and when I left, they were still there. I wanted to see if you were, too. They knew who I was.”
“Yeah.” He shivered a little, goosebumps lifting on his arms. The hallway was cold, and Matisse was only in a t-shirt and boxer briefs.
“I caught you on the way to the bathroom, didn’t I?” she realized. “You’re not up yet.”
In response, he yawned. “No, not really.”
“Go back to bed; we can talk later.”
Rather than argue, he shuffled toward the bathroom, stopping before going in. “Were they nice to you?” he asked, suddenly.
“Yes.” She nodded. “You told them I was your girlfriend?”
His face was sheepish. “Yes. Was that okay?”
It was hard for her not to leap at him and show him how entirely okay it was. “Yes,” she said. “It made me really, really happy.”
He walked back, dipping and kissing her. “You make me happy,” he said, righting her and leaving her smiling like a loon.
This really had been the best day.