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“Here?”
“Upstairs.”
“In your apartment?”
“Lindsey? What the hell? Yes! Now can I order some food?”
“Don’t get your tighty-whities all bunched up. I’m surprised is all.”
After I placed my order, Lindsey offered to have the food delivered so I didn’t have to leave Ali alone. When I opened the door thirty minutes later, I didn’t expect to see her standing on the other side of it.
Rather than invite her in, I took the bags out of her hands, eased the door closed with my foot, and told her I’d be right back. She had her arms folded when I handed her cash for the food. “Who’s got their tighty-whities in a bunch now?” I said when she didn’t take the money from me.
She grabbed the bills from my hand and spun around toward the elevator without another word. “Keep the change,” I called out after her.
When I walked into the kitchen and found Ali standing at the counter, looking white as a ghost, I rushed over to her. “What are you doing out of bed?”
“I had to…you know…use the bathroom.”
“Maybe you should sit down.” I pulled the stool I’d been sitting on out and turned it so she could lean into it. It was the perfect height that she didn’t have to bend down or climb up.
“That smells really good.”
I smiled and winked. “I got all your favorites.”
She smiled too, at least briefly, reminding me that she probably needed another pain pill. I grabbed the bottle, set it in front of her, and poured a glass of water.
When I turned back around, she was looking at my laptop.
“Sorry,” she muttered when our eyes met. “Don’t worry, I can’t see anything. I don’t have my contacts in, and I have no idea where my glasses are.”
Contacts? Glasses? “When’s the last time you had them?”
“Which?”
“Let’s start with your glasses since they’ll be easier to find.”
“Yesterday morning. Wait. What day is it?”
“You haven’t missed any. It’s Wednesday.”
“I left them in the apartment.”
“I can go get them for you.”
She eased forward and put her head in her hand. “I need more than my glasses, Cope.” Her eyes opened wide. “Where’s my laptop? And my purse? And my phone? And my wallet? Shit!”
It dawned on me that the bag of stuff she took with her from the hospital didn’t have much in it. “Did Chloe take it all back to your apartment?”
Her shoulders relaxed. “She did. I remember her saying she was going to this morning. I think she said she was leaving my phone and wallet, though.”
“Be right back.” I rushed into the room where I’d set the bag and carried it out to her. “Might be in here.”
She rummaged through it and set both items on the counter. “That’s a relief,” she mumbled.
I noticed the bottle of pills sat unopened. “You better take one of those.”
“I don’t like feeling so out of it.”