Chapter 19

Dean spent the next morning, treating Shelly like she was a fragile, helpless, invalid.

He barely let her out of the bed, other than to use the bathroom, and when she declared that she was hungry, he insisted on bringing her breakfast into her on a tray and would have sat there, spoon feeding her – had she not flatly refused to eat anything in that way.

She had woken up that morning feeling slightly lightheaded and wrung out, but blissfully pain free and mostly alert.

By the mid-morning she was feeling pretty much back to normal, and more than ready to get out of bed and resume her life.

Dean had other ideas.

“You need to rest,” he informed her firmly.

“I have rested! I have slept for more than twelve hours and I have spent the bulk of this morning ‘resting’ in this bed ... and now I am ready to get up and get dressed.”

“No.”

“No?” she raised her eyebrows in disbelief.

“No, you need to rest and get back to full strength, then and only then will I let you get up and about.”

She looked down at her hand, and her tongue touched her top lip.

She peeped up at him and Dean let out a small groan of anguish. He knew exactly what she was thinking.

“Perhaps you could come and join me then?” she murmured huskily, allowing the cover to fall away and show more than a little of her bare flesh. “Maybe keep me company – keep me entertained?”

“Shelly ... I don’t think...”

The buzz of his door, had him sighing loudly in obvious relief.

“That is probably your cousin.” he told her thankfully.

Shelly watched him retreating with a sense of chagrin, he didn’t want her anymore!

Her bout of illness and frailty had left him cold – just like Malcolm her ex.

Malcolm had always beat a hasty retreat at even a hint of illness, and she had always been left to take care of herself. Fortunately, she was only rarely ill and usually it would just be a mild cold or something; but even a sniffle had Malcolm running home to mother until she was completely well – and germ free again.

Dean had stuck around to take care of her though, so she had to give him credit for that; but now, now it seemed like he no longer saw her as an attractive sexual woman – but more of an invalid that he was obliged to care for.

His attitude towards her all morning had been painful asexual, and she felt the loss of their flirtatious relationship keenly.

Kelly strode through with a bright smile.

“Oh, good you are feeling better I see!” she exclaimed jovially.

“Yes, yes I am much better ... where is Dean?”

“Dean? He said he needed to nip out, said that since I was here to keep an eye on you, then he would take the opportunity to run a couple of errands...” Kelly frowned at the sound of anxiousness in her cousin’s voice. “Why? Do you want me to go and call him back?”

“No ... No, I want, Kelly I need to get out of here – before he comes back, please Kelly, you have to help me to get dressed and get out of here!”

Kelly’s frown deepened to open concern. “Why, Shelly; what has he done to you?”

“Nothing, oh honestly nothing, Kelly; but I hate that he saw me like this – I feel so weak ... so humiliated; I can’t stay here a moment longer with him nurse-maiding me like this!”

She threw back the cover and stumbled from the bed, and Kelly automatically stepped forward to catch her.

“No time for that!” Shelly snapped. “Where are my things?”

Kelly sighed as she heard the desperation in her cousin’s voice. She had been so convinced that Dean what the right sort of guy for Shelly, but now all of a sudden it seemed he was anything but.

“Ok Shelly,” she said calmly. “You sit on the bed and I will fetch your bag.

Five minutes later she was guiding her cousin out of the apartment and across to the elevators. And soon after that, away from the apartment block – and Dean.

Dean was whistling as he stepped out of the elevator, shopping bag and flowers in hand.

He planned a romantic dinner for the two of them tonight, complete with candles and crystal glasses. He would open up the rarely used dining room, and after helping Shelly to dress, he would slowly and gently spend the evening seducing her.

He would wine and dine her and then carry her back to his – their bed and spend the night making slow gentle love to her.

He would make her feel cherished and loved.

The silence in his apartment was the first thing he noticed on his return.

His heart flipped over in his chest and he strode through with a deep gut-wrenching sinking feeling.

“Shelly?”

The bedroom was empty of course, and the silence was absolute.

His phone suddenly beeped at him and he knew who the text was from immediately.

‘So sorry I did not wait for your return, I decided to go away for a few days – to recuperate, and I had to rush to catch the only train running today. Thank you so much for taking care of me, and for being so kind. I am sure we will meet up again sometime. Shelly.’

Of course, it told him nothing, and he just knew that phoning her would yield no reply.

He did not know what had gone wrong – but his sixth sense was going into overdrive and he had the heart-breaking feeling that he had just been dumped.

He dropped his phone onto the sofa and took the flowers into the kitchen to dispose of them.

“I can’t just leave you here on your own,” Kelly said stubbornly.

“Yes of course you can,” Shelly smiled stiffly. “I am perfectly well now, as long as I don’t start overexerting myself, and I just need a little time and space to myself now.”