FEVER

My sweat-soaked body felt like I was buried under the bed. Everything going on around me was all blurry, like a lifeline thrown into a raging tempest. Eduardo’s voice felt like he was talking under the water. “Ma’am!” His hands gripped my shoulders and gave me a gentle shake to bring my consciousness back. I imagined myself melting and slipping through his fingers behind my closed eyes because of the feeling wrapped around me. It felt totally dark in my room, and the air was really thick to me. My red satin nightgown was sticking to me, and its straps were all messed up. I tried to speak, but my throat burned, and whatever came out was just this pathetic little croak.

I heard Eduardo calling Lucia (my maid). His panic, wrapped around his voice, flowed in the air; I could even sniff it with every breath. I pushed everything left of my strength to force my eyelids open as I heard the footsteps. I don’t know why, but I wanted to see Eduardo and Lucia and test the tension between them. Yeah, like that was my problem. How on earth had I become some woman who gets jealous not only of her employees but of her servants? And the most shocking part was, I cared about it even when I was almost unconscious of my illness.

“Oh, Dios mío!” he said with a relieved facial expression. “She opened her eyes.” Then he asked me to follow his index finger as he moved it horizontally.

Lucia appeared at the entrance of my bedroom. She was in her PJs, and I could tell she was worried about me; her wide-open eyes gave that away.

“Oh, Dios mío!” she said as she stepped in. “What happened to her?”

“She has a high fever; maybe she is having a seizure. She is almost unconscious. Help me take her to the bathroom.”

His strong yet trembling arms cradled and lifted me off my bed. My head was so heavy, I couldn’t help it falling against his chest. The rapid drum of his chest sang me a lullaby beneath my ear. The satin gown unleashed my thighs, and I felt the cool breeze brushing them as he carried me. Lucia was a step behind us, following to the bathroom and muttering prayers in Spanish.

The cold tiles of the bathroom under my bare feet froze me as Eduardo set me down on the edge of my bathtub. Everything was a blur until his hazel eyes met mine; then it was like I suddenly snapped back to reality. He turned the faucet on; I heard the water hissing, and then my sight went all blank again until he guided me to the water that filled the tub. The ice-cold water made me gasp as my nightgown soaked it up and highlighted my figure, like I had in my dream. The ice-cold water felt like a sharp knife against my skin. I held Eduardo too tight, like I was on the edge of a cliff.

“Don’t resist, please,” he said in a desperate and needy voice. “You need this.”

“It hurts,” I said with my trembling lips.

He grabbed me by my waist and got in the tub with me. “Please bear with it for a little while; you will get used to it now.”

I was holding him like a koala bear holding a eucalyptus tree. My teeth were chattering because of the shivers.

“Stay with me, Ms. Arquette,” he said before I was losing my sight again. He splashed some water onto my face. That helped me open my eyes for a little while to his broad shoulders, covered with a soaked white T-shirt.

My gown clung like a second skin, and my straps slid down… But Eduardo was only focusing on his clinical yet gentle touches. It felt like ages in there, with the shower practically deafening me and my breathing all over the place, until my fever was about to cool down.

“I think this is enough,” he said as he carried me out of the tub with him. We both were dripping water everywhere. Lucia came to me with a towel and held me with it. “Lucia, get her changed; put something warm on her, like sweatpants… I am calling Mr. Arquette about this.”

He lingered, his gaze flicking to me one last time before he departed. Lucia literally peeled off the nightgown after Eduardo left and dried me with the towel in a hurry. Then, she helped me put on a sweatshirt and my sweatpants. I was grateful to her when she dried my hair with the hairdryer.

Eduardo knocked on the door before he entered again. He appeared with his phone pressed to his ear. “Mr. Arquette, it’s Eduardo Garcia. Ms. Arquette is unwell. She has a high fever, maybe delirious. She needs to be in the hospital tonight.”

Then he paused. I think my dad was talking back to him. “Yes, sir. I’ll keep her stable until help arrives.”

He glanced at me; I was covered in layered blankets thanks to Lucia.

“Mrs. Arquette, she’s awake but weak. I’ve lowered the fever some.” So now Mom was on the phone, asking about me. “Understood. I’ll help her prepare,” he said before he hung up the phone.

He knelt on the edge of my bed in his soaked clothes. “Your father’s sending a seaplane to bring you to Beverly Hills Hospital. It’ll be here soon,” he said as he pressed his hand against my forehead to check my temperature. His cold hand felt so good against my skin. Then, he filled a glass of water from the pitcher on my nightstand. “Get up a little; you need to drink some water.”

“I am feeling nauseous,” I said.

“Take little sips then,” he said.

He asked Lucia to bring some cloth, a bowl of cold water, and the first-aid kit from the infirmary as I sipped my water.

When Lucia came back, he checked my pulse with his fingers on my wrist. “That’s too fast,” he whispered. He soaked a piece of cloth in water and laid it on my forehead before he opened the kit, took out a syringe and some ampules… “This will give electrolytes and help the body hydrate,” said before asking my permission to apply it. I never knew bodyguards had medical knowledge, though. That was weird but somehow felt VIP. I nodded to grant him permission.

My mind wasn’t there to think straight, but Lucia was there with her senses; thankfully. “Do you know medicine, Eduardo?” she asked with a concerned voice.

He paused for a little; his gaze took a quick tour around the room, then he answered, “I know some, not much.”

“You go change, Eduardo,” she said after he applied the injection.

“Okay, but don’t blink your eyes until I come back. I will make it quick,” he said. Lucia changed the wet cloth on my forehead after he was gone.

When Eduardo came back, the headlights flashed outside my bedroom. I could tell that was the plane Dad sent. Eduardo lifted me again to carry me down the villa’s steps to the dock. The reflection of the seaplane on the ocean waves in the sharp dark night dazzled my eyes at first. I couldn’t help hiding my head against Eduardo’s chest. Two paramedics met us at the docks. One of them said they could take me from there, but Eduardo kept carrying me to the stretcher. His hands slowly left my body; our hands met at last, and his fingers lingered in mine…

“See you soon,” he said.

“Don’t leave me! Come with me, please. I need you,” I said.

The whole crew was total strangers to me; I needed someone familiar like him. He entered the plane, as if he had been waiting for that. I reached out for his hand to feel supported, and he didn’t refuse while telling the paramedics what was going on. He was speaking as if he had medical knowledge, or maybe my foggy brain tricked me about it; I don’t know. My heavy lids and my consciousness didn’t carry much after all.