After a while, room service had finally delivered a bowl of porridge, which John had specially instructed to be prepared as soft and smooth as possible. He first left it on the table for it to cool off before letting Sophia drink some warm water. Her being sick had made her rather weak and defenseless. At this point, she was even somewhat obedient.
After taking some water, he asked her if her gastric pain had gotten any better. Sophia grunted slowly with her eyes closed. No one knew if that was a genuine answer or a casual remark.
As John brought the bowl of porridge over, he helped Sophia up before feeding her while blowing on it. Sophia was indeed starving. No matter how sleepy she was, she still managed to swallow some of the porridge. After that, John got a napkin and gently helped her wipe her mouth.
Sophia peered at him and smiled. “I’d never imagine there’d be a day you’d treat me this nicely.” All of a sudden, John stopped wiping her mouth. Then, Sophia slid back down the bed and covered herself up with the blanket. She wriggled until she found the perfect position and fell asleep.
Meanwhile, John continued to watch her from the side for a while before putting things away and leaving the room. Everything that had transpired had tired him out, but he was not sleepy enough to fall asleep as he lay on the couch. He then put his hands under his head and stared at the black ceiling, reckoning that he would not be able to visit any place tomorrow. He was not even sure if Sophia would recover by then. However, he was not too bothered by that, as there were not too many places that he wanted to visit. After all, this whole trip did not feel right to him, and it did not help that right now he had totally lost his mood to do anything.
The man wandered in his thoughts for a good while before closing his eyes and forcing himself to fall asleep.
Sophia had been stable throughout the night and was able to sleep the next morning. As for John, his biological clock would wake him up at the same time the next morning no matter how late he stayed up the night before. After getting up, he quickly went up to her only to find that she was still asleep—and in the same position as last night.
John felt somewhat distressed. Why is she still in the same position? Is she dead? He went up to her and placed his finger under her nose to see if she was still breathing. After confirming that she was still breathing, he chuckled to himself and proceeded to touch her forehead. He realized that her fever had gone away quite substantially, and it was no longer as bad as it was yesterday.
At this point, he patted Sophia’s shoulder. “Sophia, are you awake?”
Finally, Sophia opened her eyes, looking drowsy; he then heard a rather hoarse voice coming from her. “Huh?”
All of a sudden, John felt himself getting an erection. He despised himself for having such a reaction at a time like this. It was ridiculous since he had never been too keen on being physically involved with any women. Now that he was like this, it seemed abnormal. He then took a deep breath and retreated from her bed. “Let’s get you moving since you’re awake. Your fever is almost gone. We’ll grab something to eat downstairs.”
It took her a while to respond before she slowly got up and staggered her way to the bathroom. She was extremely slow when she was freshening herself up. Every single action of hers was slower than usual.
Since John had not freshened up, he thought he should do that too. As such, he moved over and stood next to her as the mirror in front of the sink was huge enough for both of them to use. Now, John regretted not having done this before they got divorced, and now that they were doing it, it felt awkward for him.
Meanwhile, Sophia did not seem to feel this way. Instead, she kept on staring at him in the mirror. She brushed her teeth really slowly and her eyes looked dull. Even after John was done, she was still taking her time to wash her face.
John then left the bathroom and decided to take out all her antipyretics and gastric medicine. As there were a lot of different gastric medicines and John thought that she could not take these different kinds of medications at the same time, he decided to put the gastric medicine away before helping her make her bed. At this point, Sophia finally came out, looking clean and refreshed.
John then stood up. “Let’s go and find Zack. Then, we’ll go and get some food.”
Sophia kept quiet and walked behind him. For reasons unbeknownst to him, he was not used to her being so quiet.
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