A few weeks pass and I'm finally released from the hospitals' care, my burns healed enough that I can walk, stretch, bend, move, bathe, and put clothes on by myself. Before I leave the hospital, my doctor prescribes me a special burn relief cream that I have to put on every day until my skin goes back to a 'healthy pigment' as he says.
I walk the twenty minutes to my house and look around my living room after going inside.
It's been so long since I've been in here. I think to myself as I walk into my bedroom and charge into a fresh pair of underwear. I pick up the tube of cream and twist the cap off, getting ready to apply some. Right when I'm about to squeeze some out, there's a loud knocking on my door. I put a silk robe on and walk over to the door, twisting the cap back on. I open the door and instantly quirk one of my eyebrows up in question.
"Officer Williams." I say, leaning against my door frame.
"Ah, I'm off duty. Just call me Ben."
"Alright, Ben... What can I help you with?"
"I thought I'd drop by and see how you're doing. I know you got released today, so I decided to come see you, see if you had any information to update me on, see if you needed any help or anything." Ben says, his eyes drifting down to my robe.
"Actually..." I say, getting his attention, "I was just about to put on some of the burn cream the doctor gave me." I wave the tube of cream in my hand. "Do you think you could help me get my back? It's hard to reach and hurts my arm to move that far back."
He tugs his bottom lip with his teeth and scratches the back of his head awkwardly. "I don't think it'd be appropriate for a man my age to touch your bare skin like that."
"Ben, I am twenty four years old, not a seventeen year old. Besides, you'd be helping me out."
"Scarlet, I'm thirty one. There's still a decent age gap."
"I just need help with my back. I don't know anyone the who could help me." I look into his golden brown eyes pleadingly.
"Alright. But only because I know you can't do it yourself." He hesitantly responds, stepping inside when I move to make room for him to enter. I close the door and sit down in one of my wooden chairs.
"I'm going to go ahead and put cream on the places I can reach." I tell him while putting cream in my hand and rubbing it all over my leg and arm. I hurry and finish rubbing cream on the rest of the damaged skin I can reach before handing him the tube and turning my back to him.
He clears his throat. "Erm... Your robe."
"Oh, right. Sorry." I untie it in the front and ease it off of my shoulders, letting the material pool at the curve of my lower back.
Ben breathes in sharply when he sees the burns. More to himself than me, he mutters something under his breath along the lines of 'that must hurt so bad', before squeezing out some cream and gently spreading it along my charred flesh. I wince at the pain, my back having received the first of the damage, despite how careful Ben was being with me. I squirmed under his touch and he hesitates before continuing. "If I'm hurting you, I want you to tell me. I don't want to cause you any discomfort while I'm tying to help you."
"It isn't so much painful as it is an annoyance. Plus... I'm feeling a little insecure because of my skin. I know, it must sound so ridiculous-"
"Not at all. I'm sure I'd feel the same if something like this happened to me." he interjects, lightly trailing one of his fingers down the line of my spine.
I shiver under his cool touch and glance at him from over my shoulder, slowly pulling my robe back on to protect my modesty. I watch his eyes follow the fabric go up my body before I secure it into place and stand. "Would you like something to drink, Ben?" I ask as I go to my kitchen and open my fridge, gauging the various foods and drinks inside to find something that isn't spoiled.
"Water is fine." I hear him call out. I nod my head and close the fridge, moving to grab two bottles of water from the cupboard. I hand him one and sit with him. "Thank you."
I give the slightest inclination of my head as a response. We sit there in smothering silence for a few minutes, him looking at things around the room and taking sips of water, and me watching him under the veil of my eyelashes. Eventually, he breaks the silence and we begin to talk more about details I could possibly remember from the night of the fire, my answers vague and short. Ben figures out in quick succession that I am not interested in talking about that night, so he instead directs his questions to the topic of Amelia; how we met, how we became friends, what her personality was like, what things I liked about her, and so on.
"Oh! There is something that I think you'd find interesting." I say, taking a sip of water.
"Tell me." he demands with laughter in his golden brown eyes.
"Alright. Well, Amelia had this ring, this silver ring that was too big for her, so she always wore it on her left middle finger. Now, this ring was pretty bland, but there was this infinity mark carved into it. She loved it. Almost never took it off." I tell him, a sweet smile on my lips at the thought.
His eyes darken and the light of laughter in them disappears when he suddenly points at my hand and softly but firmly asks, "Do you mean that ring?"
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