Chapter 60 YOU'RE UNBELIEVABLE
••Luciana••
It had already been three days, and I had spent all of them in our room with Roman. He slept most of the time. When he woke up, it was just to eat and take his meds. That meant most of the day, I was alone, sitting beside him, watching him breathe, flipping through my phone, or reading just to keep my mind busy.
One of the drugs, the strong painkiller, made him extra sleepy. At first, I didn’t like how knocked out he always was, but I realized it was better that way. He healed more while sleeping, and he didn’t have to endure the pain too much. His bruises were getting better now, little by little. The swelling on his arm had gone down a bit, and the ugly purple marks on his ribs were slowly turning yellow.
So I stopped giving Roman the strong painkiller and switched to the mild ones instead. But whenever the pain came hard, he always demanded for the stronger one. The pain mostly got worse in the evening when he stayed awake longer and started moving more.
He had been awake for a while now, propped up against pillows. I had already told Ami to make his food.
“Luci, can I have the fucking painkiller?” he said.
“No, Roman.”
“Why?”
“You can’t continue to use that one consistently. That’s why I changed it to the mild ones.”
“But that doesn’t work well,” he protested.
“It does. You just want something faster. I don’t want you dead yet, punk,” I replied.
“Well, if I don’t use it, I might die soon at this rate,” he said dramatically.
I didn’t answer him.
“Okay, I would give you anything if you let me have it,” he said pleadingly.
“Okay, let’s see what you’ve got,” I whined.
“One million rubles,” he offered.
“Not even enough to get me a good Chanel bag.”
“Luci, come on. Okay, ten million.”
“You can do better,” I smiled. I enjoyed teasing him like this. It distracted him from the pain and made him less grumpy.
He mumbled something in Russian as he gave me that deadly side-eye.
“I just hope you’re not cursing me,” I said.
“You are such a bitch.”
“A boss bitch, precisely,” I replied, giving him a funny face.
He shook his head, groaning softly as the movement tugged at his ribs. “You enjoy torturing an injured man.”
“I enjoy keeping an injured man alive,” I corrected him.
Soon after, I stepped out to get a few things I needed for my self-care. My face cream had finished, my lip balm was missing, and I desperately needed new hair ties. I didn’t want to take much time because I didn’t want Roman to be alone. He couldn’t get up by himself yet, and knowing him, he would try something stupid out of boredom.
So I hurriedly bought the things and rushed back.
By the time I got home, the first thing I noticed was a bottle of alcohol and a shot glass on the bedstand.
Roman was sitting on the bed with pillows stuffed beside him like a throne.
“Roman!” I raised my voice so he could understand I was pissed even before he would decide to tease me.
“You took alcohol, really?” I stood before him with my hands akimbo.
“You wouldn't give me the fucking painkiller, and sleep didn’t come easily,” he said casually.
“And alcohol was the solution?” I asked.
“Relax, Princess,” he said like it was nothing.
“How did this even get here?” I didn’t recall alcohol being in the room before now.
“Mildred,” he said.
“You said you’d rather she doesn’t know.”
“Well, apparently she spoke to Theo and found out. She came barging into the room. After my dramatic display about the pain, she had to give me the alcohol because you weren’t here.”
I stood there speechless.
“She just left not quite long ago,” he added.
“Well, the party is over,” I said as I packed the bottle of alcohol and the glass away from him.
“Sorry, Princess,” he said softly, and this time he actually looked sorry.
I sighed. “You’re impossible.”
“You like me like that,” he replied.
“I hate you even more than you think." I shouted.
I cleaned his wounds again and put ice packs on them. Slowly and gently, he hissed more times than I could count while I was at it.
“Stop moving,” I warned.
“I’m not moving,” he said through clenched teeth.
“You literally just moved.”
“I flinched. It’s different.”
I pressed the ice pack gently against his side, and he sucked in a breath. “You enjoy my suffering.”
“I enjoy your dramatic reactions,” I said.
Since we had nothing to do, I turned on Netflix so we could see a movie. I scrolled through the mystery and thriller section.
“Play that one,” Roman said.
“This?” I stopped the selection on the one I was on at the moment.
“No, scroll back.”
“This?” I asked again.
“No, the one before.”
“This one?” I confirmed.
“Yes,” he said.
I played it, and we began watching.
Just a few minutes into it, my phone rang. It was Damian calling.
“I’ll call him later,” I said.
“Just answer it.”
“Alright.”
I didn’t want to pause the movie, but he did it for me.
“Hey, stranger,” I began talking to Damian.
Fifteen minutes later, I was still on the call. My conversations with Damian were always long. Each time I tried to cut it short, he brought up something interesting or ridiculous. I was sure Roman had gotten tired of waiting at this point.
“Yeah, talk later,” I finally said and ended the call.
“Can we continue now?” Roman asked.
“Yes, sì,” I replied and played the movie.
••Roman••
I blamed myself for telling her to pick the call.
For the past fifteen minutes, she had been laughing hard on the phone, her eyes lighting up in a way that made my chest feel strangely tight.
How does that her fucker best friend even make her laugh like this?
Apparently, from their conversation, he had screwed two sisters and now they had just found out and were after his life. Asshole deserved it.
When she finally got off the call, I heaved a sigh of relief.
“Can we continue now?” I grimaced.
She answered quietly, and we continued the movie in peace.
I shifted closer and placed my head against her neck. She immediately stroked my hair gently, her fingers threading through it without thinking. I loved it when she did that.
I think this is the good side of being injured. I get to be too comfortable with her without it being awkward.
Her touch slowed my breathing. The movie played in the background, but I wasn’t even paying attention anymore. All I cared about was her warmth, her fingers in my hair, and the calm that settled within me being with her this way.