Worth the Wait || Raura

t w e n t y - t h r e e

Worth the Wait: 23 | Dinner Parties
| Laura Marano |

| A Week and A Half Later (June 7th, 2021) |

"Ross?" I ask, turning my head the slightest to look up at his face. For the past few minutes, he's been gently massaging my head to try and help make my nausea go away that I've been having off and on for the past couple of days. He moves some hair off my forehead for me. "Can you go get me a glass of water? I think maybe I'm dehydrated." I say softly.

"Dehydrated? You drink water every day, Laura." He tells me. I shake my head and sit up. Good news, I didn't feel like I had to throw up.

"But I haven't worked out in the last few days because I feel so nauseous and tired. I usually drink a ton of water during and after, but since I haven't been working out..." I trail off. With a grunt, Ross gets up off the couch and walks over to the kitchen. "You're the best!" I somewhat shout. He returns a moment later with a big glass of water. "Thank you." I say as he hands me the glass. He kisses my forehead before sitting back down beside me.

"Are you up for that dinner party at Riker and Vanni's tonight?" He asks me.

"Of course, I already feel better than I did ten minutes ago." I tell him. "When would we leave?" I ask, looking at the time. It was a little past two o'clock now, Ross had to go do a few phone interviews back at his house with Rocky earlier this morning, but once he was done he came back over.

"Not until four something." He tells me. I drink about half my water and set my glass down on the ottoman tray, and then cuddle up into my blanket. "Laura, go to your bed if you're going to take a nap. It's way more comfortable."

"No, I'm fine right here." I quietly say. "Can you watch something else, though. I don't want to miss any of this." I say, referring to Will & Grace. We're barely on season 2, but I still don't want to miss anything.

"I guess." He dramatically signs. "Do you want me to mess with your hair at all?" He asks me. I smile slightly to myself before crawling closer to him and putting my head back in his lap. "No drinking tonight." He whispers. "If you think you're dehydrated, alcohol will only make it a million times worse." He tells me.

"I know, I'll stick to water only for the rest of the day." I say. "Are we staying here or at your place tonight."

"No idea. I'll talk to Rocky and see if I need to get anything done. Now shh, stop talking and try and go to bed. Maybe you'll feel a hundred percent when you wake up." He says.

"That'd be nice." I whisper, cuddling my face into his shirt. "Ross?" I don't move my head to see him or wait for him to acknowledge me because I felt his stomach tighten as he looked down at me. "Don't you think that if I actually am sick, you shouldn't be around me. Isn't this why we've been staying at my place the last few nights?"

"I don't care about getting sick. I just don't really want my brothers getting sick." He tells me.

"But you saw Rocky today, you could have spread your germs to him, who then could have spread his germs to Ryland, and boom. All four of us are sick." Ross grows silent for a moment.

"You know, I didn't actually think of that." He whispers. "But I feel fine, so no harm done, right?"

"I'm not sure that's how it works, babe." I mumble. "Just because you don't feel it yet doesn't mean it's not already in your system and contagious." I say.