Chapter Ten
Olivia
Monday
“Okay, you ready to go?” I smiled down at Justine. I hadn’t seen much of her smiling, but I missed it already. I’d somehow, with the help of Mrs. Stedman, I’d managed to cheer her up just a little bit, and now she was back to her usual sullen self. The only thing that had changed was Mark coming home. That wasn’t a coincidence.
I didn’t get how he couldn’t see the effect that his behavior was having on her. Every single damn time I tried to broach the subject of him cooling it with the work a little bit for the sake of his daughter, he got mad at me. I didn’t want to lose this job; I just wanted him to see what he was doing wrong. It was a nightmare.
“Yeah,” she murmured quietly. I noticed her eyes dart towards her father’s room. It broke my heart to see her so ignored. It was almost as if he didn’t care about her at all. “I’m ready. Let’s go.”
As we rode down in the elevator I scanned my brain desperately for the words to make it okay again, but I couldn’t find them. Justine had well and truly gone back into her shell. She felt unreachable again, just as she was starting to become a little bit more open. Damn, it was a shame. It made me want to shake Mark.
“Good morning,” Lincoln announced with sheer happiness, just like he always did when he saw us. “I have to say, you two are the brightest sparks of my morning. How are you feeling today?”
“I’m good.” I wanted to speak first because I wasn’t sure that Justine would say anything. “And you?”
“Oh, I’m wonderful too.” He stared down at Justine making it obvious that he wanted her to speak.
“It’s okay.” She shrugged, unhappily, but at least she was talking. “Off to school. The usual.”
At that moment, the car pulled up, which meant I couldn’t say anything about school. I still had a funny feeling that it was a problem for Justine and I wanted to dig deeper, but I couldn’t find the right time to bring it up. I hoped that it would come up in therapy once we went, but I would just have to wait and see.
I said my goodbye to Justine, waving her off with very little response back, then I turned to give Lincoln a weak smile. This man saw everything that happened in this building; he had to have his opinions, but he never let them show. This was a man who was always professional. I could stand to learn a thing or two from him.
“Well, I suppose I shall see you later on, Lincoln; you have a good day.”
“Don’t forget, I am always here when you need something.” He tipped his hat at me. “That’s my job.”
I gave him another smile then stepped into the elevator, wondering if he could get me some sort of miracle cure to make all of this okay. Right now, I was at the bottom of the mountain, just trying to climb it.
Once inside the apartment, right by the elevator, I tripped over something left by it. Something that I didn’t notice before. A black briefcase that definitely belonged to Mark. One that I knew he wouldn’t go to work without. This confused me; I assumed that he’d gone to the office hours earlier since I was a little later waking up today.
“Hello?” I called out loudly while peering around the apartment cautiously. “Mark? Are you here?”
I didn’t get anything back but I felt like he had to be here. I hadn’t seen Mark go anywhere except for work so I couldn’t imagine he would be anywhere else on a Monday morning. He had to be here. I tiptoed carefully towards his bedroom door and I pressed my ear against it. This felt like the forbidden zone, there was a real sense that I was being naughty, but I needed to know. At first, I assumed I was going crazy because I didn’t hear anything, but then, just as I was about to give up, a moaning and groaning came from the other side. I yanked my ear back, trying to work out what I was listening to. It sounded like he was in a lot of pain.
“Mark?” I called out once more. “Are you in there? Do you… need anything?”
“Water,” he rasped back. Yep, he was definitely struggling with something.
In a panic, I raced into the kitchen, and I poured him an ice-cold glass. He was in a mood yesterday; at the time I thought that his bad temper was all to do with me, but now I was thinking that maybe he was just sick and I’d given him a hard time. Well, Justine gave him a hard time, I just didn’t help matters because he deserved it.
I pushed the door open to his room tentatively, my heart hammering in my chest as I did. I wasn’t sure what I was expecting inside, maybe some sort of clue as to what he was really like as a person… but what I got was nothing more than another minimalistic room that really didn’t need to be hidden from anyone.
Mark lay across his bed, tucked under the covers, but I could sheen a sheen of sweat across him, which wasn’t a good look. In fact, with the smatterings of intense red patches over his body, he didn’t look good at all.
“Here we are,” I whispered as I handed him the drink in case he had a headache. “Are you okay?”
He groaned loudly in response before taking a big swig of the drink. The color of his eyes had paled dramatically; he looked even rougher the closer I got. This fever had swept through him quickly and had claimed him.
“Do you need a doctor?” I asked him cautiously. “Can I get anyone to help you?”
Mark shook his head slowly, looking like the action pained him. “No doctor, just work.”
Work? He wanted to go to work? Or maybe he wanted me to contact his work to let them know that he was sick. I could recall a selection of phone numbers on the contract that he gave me. I still had my copy in my room.
“Okay, I’ll be right back. I’ll just go and sort it, okay?”
But I waited until he placed his glass on the side, lay himself back onto the pillow, and he slid his eyes closed again. Once he looked rested, I raced into my room with my heart pumping powerfully.
“Holden?” I muttered to myself as I saw the name listed as an emergency contact. “Okay, Holden it is.”
I paced the room as I dialed the number and I waited for it to ring through. This Holden, who I presumed was a business partner or something, was certainly taking his time to answer. I needed to speak to him now.
“Holden Smith,” he answered the phone in a professional tone of voice. “How can I help you?”
“Erm, hello.” I felt awkward as I talked. “My name is Olivia. I work for Mark.”
“Oh, right?” He didn’t sound too interested in what I had to say right now. “Is he stuck somewhere again?”
“Oh, no, nothing like that. He’s sick. Really sick. I think he might have the flu or something.”
Holden was silent for a couple of moments before answering. “Does he need anything? I can come over.” When he spoke this time, he sounded much more animated. “I know that he can be a stubborn bastard when it comes to seeing a doctor or anything, so do you want me to come and sort him out?”
“Erm…” I wasn’t sure this was the best idea. “You better not. He might be contagious. I’ll sort him out.”
I wasn’t convinced that I could, but I didn’t want Holden to doubt me. If I invited him here and Mark didn’t want to have him here, I would end up being blamed. I needed to keep him away and see what I could do.
“Right, okay, well, I’ll have my cell phone on me all day, so if you need me, I’m here.”
That made me feel better. At least I had options. “Thank you very much, Mr. Smith.”
“Please, Olivia, call me Holden. I shall speak to you later on. Goodbye.”
Well, he’d turned out to be quite nice in the end, surprisingly. “Bye, Holden.”
As I hung up the phone with Holden, I also fired off a quick text to Rosa. Much as I would’ve preferred to have her with me, I didn’t want anyone else to be contaminated with what this was. It was already too late for me. There was no point in Rosa getting sick too; she had children to take care of. It would only spread.
Once I’d done that, I grabbed a washcloth from my bathroom, and I covered it in cold water. I took it into the bedroom where Mark was still writhing and groaning in agony. As I put it on his forehead to cool him down, I knew that if I wasn’t going to be able to get him to see a doctor, then I at least needed to get him some pills.
“Where is all your medicine?” I asked him. “I need to get something to sort you out.”
“Bathroom,” he grunted without even bothering to look at me. It was almost as if the light was too bright for him and sounds too loud. I made a concerted effort not to be too noisy as I walked off.
I made my way into his bathroom and looked through the cabinets, but there wasn’t anything of any use. He really wasn’t well equipped to get sick at all. Maybe it was something that didn’t happen very often, which was why his business partner seemed to freak out about the idea. I needed something more, but I really didn’t want to go out. This certainly didn’t feel like something I could contact Holden about… so, who could I?
All of sudden, in a flash of inspiration, I thought of Lincoln. He was always offering his help and I knew that he meant it as well; he didn’t seem like the sort of person to just say something that he didn’t mean. With a surge of determination, I grabbed the phone on the hallway wall and I called down to ask him for help. I rattled off a list of things that I thought Mark might need and Lincoln was more than happy to help. I wasn’t sure how he would achieve it, but that part was okay. It was in somebody else’s hands now. For now, all I could do was watch over Mark to check that things didn’t get worse. I would respect his wishes to not get a doctor involved for the moment, but if he showed any signs of going downhill, I wouldn’t have a choice. I couldn’t let him get too sick because he was stubborn. That wouldn’t help anyone.
I moved into his room and sat at the end of his bed staring down at him. Usually he looked so tall and strong, but today he looked weak. He needed taking care of. I wondered if this illness was a sign that he was pushing himself too hard. He needed to take a break. All this being a workaholic was well and good until you ended up sick. This was his body’s way of telling him to calm down. I just hoped that he listened to it and he took a step back, hopefully noticing Justine at the same time. She needed that.
Either way, it seemed like I had a long ass day ahead of me, one where I would have to be a nurse!