CARTER

XII

LILLY

I shiver and snuggle into the warmth. My head pressed to something hard and I could smell cigarettes. By opening my eyes, I find his face close to mine. His forehead pressed to mine. He was sleeping with me. I look around and groan as I felt my body breaking. I was in a hospital.
Then I remember it all.
I gasp and try to pull away from his arm only to be pinned on the bed with him on top and his hand on my neck. He looked alert. Terrifying. Then he realizes that he curses to himself "Never creep on me when I'm sleeping."

"I-I w-wasn't creeping on you."

He lays on the side again and rubs his face, groaning softly. Then he looks at me again, pulling his coat up to my shoulder and then draping his arm over his eyes "I'll be up in five minutes." I ask "What happened?"

"Shh, I said five minutes. Don't talk. Quiet."

He pulls me close enough so my head would land on his chest and his arm around me, holding onto my shoulder, pinning me to himself. I perk up when I see the door open. Sarah smiles "Hey, how are you feeling?" Romano doesn't move. When Sarah looks at him, her lips are pressed together with a smile. Partly because she thought he was sleeping and because he was holding me. Romano was not sleeping. He was listening to everything calmly. I had to play the part "What happened?" She comes closer and tones her voice down to a whisper "You fainted before leaving. He brought you here in his arms." She sighs "You were extremely dehydrated and running with a fever, Lilly. You need to take care of yourself. I know you care about the people you love the most but that doesn't mean you should let yourself go." I wanted nothing more than to poke Carter in the eye.
I ask "Where's Josh?" His hand falls from my shoulder and he switches sides, facing me this time, his hand pressed to my back but his eyes were open. Watching me. Sarah smiles at us but then she whisper-yells "That piece of shit Josh! I asked him if he had visited you yet and he just plain ignored me and walked away saying that he doesn't need to. I thought he liked you!" I look down at him and find the corner of his lips stretched. God damn it, Romano.
I say to Sarah "He has been acting weird since I showed up here with," I almost forgot the fake name "with Daniel." Sarah snorts "He's jealous of Daniel. I mean, Daniel is a Greek god compared to Josh now. I mean, I see Daniel on the runway as a Givenchy model. Better than the underwear model Josh is." Romano's smile spreads wider and his brow is raised when Sarah keeps going "Oh, and by the way, you were right. Josh is the underwear model we talked about. He kind of slipped it out when we all had drinks after work. I kept praying you would show up because your ass had been going crazy to know if he was or not."

Shut up, Sarah, he's enjoying this too much.

She looks at him and whispers "You think he's still asleep?" I swallow and look down. Oh, he was wide awake but I lied "Yeah. He's a deep sleeper. He won't know whatever you say." I feel a pat on my spine for lying effortlessly. Her smile spreads wide "So how is he?" I raise my brow "With what?" She wiggles her brows "You know, the body. Is he good in bed?" My jaw drops at her questions but I lie to my best friend again "Oh, yes. He likes it rough but he always takes care of me." To take the lie further, I push my fingers into his hair and press his face to my chest. I could feel his chest vibrate by holding in a chuckle. Sarah looks at us in awe "I love that for you. I'm so happy. We need to celebrate you not being a virgin anymore. We need cake and champagne, and more cake and-" I stop her "That's nice. Don't you gotta work? For what I know, you should be at the reception by now." Her eyes go wide and he looks at her watch "Shit! I should get going because I have this annoying shitty job, but I'll check up on you in an hour, okay?" I nod and smile "I'll see you later. Thank you." She winks and clicks w picture of us, making the 'OK' sign at his butt, and then she's out the door.