Even After All

Part Twenty Eight

Chapter Twenty Eight

The door opened, eventually and Matilda stood there, pale, drawn and with her eyes barely open. She was wearing pyjamas - shorts and a vest top, her hair a mess, her face still creased from the pillow. He had to swallow his anger, shouting would get him nowhere, instead that protective instinct in him kicked in, “bloody hell. You look worse than I imagined.”

Her eyes snapped open at the voice and she grimaced in pain, “I thought it was...what are you doing here?” Instantly she closed her eyes again and groaned.

Dylan reached for her shoulders and turned her back into her home, he curbed his reaction to the travesty that it was, the hole she was forced to live in. Instead he directed her to bed. She groaned again as she sank to the pillows and as Dylan looked around he was glad that the place was shielded in the darkness of closed curtains.

                “What are you doing here?” She moaned.

He looked at her from the corner that qualified as a kitchen, “I was trying to get hold of you, then Sarah said you had a migraine. I remembered how bad they used to be...so I brought supplies.”

He found a towel and soaked it under the tap, then filled it with ice cubes, wrapping it into a long tube that he laid over her head before she had time to answer.

She gasped for a moment and he wanted to smile, but he was still angry.

                “You remembered?”

That did make him smile, “I’ve never known anyone be so rough with a migraine as you. I imagined they’d be better by now for some reason.”

                “They are...I stopped taking the pill a few years ago, I rarely get them now, it is literally a couple of times a year.”

He leaned against the counter studying her, “so it was due to the Pill?”

She gave a half shrug, “it’s hormonal, that seems to be the agreement. I cope most of the time.” She took a deep breath, “so if you’ve got ice you must have...” She half opened an eye then smiled as he held up the large bar of chocolate, “see our marriage wasn’t a complete waste of five years.”

That was a little bit awkward, and they both grimaced.

                “Thanks Dyl, I really appreciate this, but haven’t you got a plane to catch?”

Dylan looked at her, already she had a little more colour to her cheeks, and she was watching him from the corner of her eyes. “I can’t leave you HERE, like this.”

                “What do you mean?”

Dylan sighed; he could already sense her rising animosity, “this place. I cannot believe you live here.”

Taking the ice from her forehead she sat up and draped it around her neck, “Dylan, DO not go there, this is none of your business.”

                “But it is!” He leaned forward and stared at her, “it’s like bandit country out there, I fully expect my car to be stolen when I leave here. I cannot let you live here. It’s ridiculous.”

Her eyes were glaring, “you think? YOU have no claim over what I do. You gave that up when you fucked off to Hong Kong on YET another whim five years ago. WHY THE HELL do I have to KEEP labouring this same point? You are my boss, that is IT. When will you learn that there is a line that you KEEP crossing? It’s bloody ridiculous. YOU are ridiculous. Go off to New York when you come back I’ll be well and I’ll pretend this exchange hasn’t happened. Now go.”