still ill • michael gray

Chapter 14

The past two weeks have been hectic to say the least, and Michael's cool behavior at the wedding certainly did not betray how he would act in the future.

"Eve! Did you fucking scrub the guest bathtub?" Michael shouts from the next floor up.

"I did it weeks ago!" She shouts back.

There's a pause, "THEN FUCKING DO IT AGAIN!"

I take a deep breath at the bottom of the stairs and prepare myself to confront him. I ascend slowly. He's an absolute mess and I'm sure he's going to fall apart at any given moment.

He's pacing back and forth, running his hands through his hair. "This is mess," he sighs. "He could be here at any moment and everything is a mess."

"Everything is fine, really, the place is spotless," he stops pacing and stares right at me, "you're driving yourself insane."

"I need you to help me clean up my office," he insists.

I shake my head, "You've cleaned your office five times in the past five days."

He gives me a look of utter defeat, "Bea, please."

I take his hand in mine, "Come on, we can go take a look, but after this you need to stop. You've done everything in your power at this point, so now we just have to sit tight and wait, okay?"

He nods, "Okay."

We walk up the office hand in hand. He looks exhausted, not only physically, but emotionally. I can't imagine the amount of anxiety he must be suffering from right now. "Tonight I'm going to mix you some whiskey, honey, and lemon juice. My grandmother says it's the best way to get a good night's sleep, and I just want you to relax a little."

"I'm sorry," he mumbles, "I've been such a wreck lately."

"Don't be sorry, you have nothing to be sorry about," I squeeze his hand, "I understand you're stressed, and we're going to work through this together."

He clenches his jaw, "When he gets here, I don't want you staying here the first few nights. I need to settle things on my own."

We step into his office, which is immaculate aside from two stray papers on his desk. I don't respond to what he said and instead address the papers, "Do you want me to file these?"

He picks them up, "I can do it."

I watch as he puts them away quickly and lean on his desk, "Also, you need to go easy on Eve, she can only do so much."

"I should've hired another maid," he smacks his forehead, "stupid."

I take ahold of his wrist forcefully, "You aren't stupid and you need to stop freaking out," I pull him into a hug, "None of this is going to go well if you're acting like a maniac."

"I'm so fucking scared," he says quietly, "what if he says I'm never going home?"

I hold onto him tightly and stare into his eyes, "First of all, he isn't going to say that. Second of all, if he did say that then we would make the most of our lives here and everything would be okay," I kiss his jaw, "Everything is going to be okay, I promise."

He takes a deep breath, "Everything is going to be okay."

I nod and push his disheveled hair back into place, "You'd better pray he doesn't show up now, because although it is sexy, you look like you've been sucked up by a tornado and spit back out."

"That isn't helping me relax," he laughs.

I smile, "Well, you wouldn't look like that if you'd just relax. I want you to go downstairs and apologize to Eve now that your office is settled and you've settled down. Just remember, regardless of how it all goes, everything will pan out okay. You can do this."