This Fever Isn't Real, It Represents How I Feel

Joey was thrilled to see Jeanie, when he went to New York during one of the off-weeks. Jeanie had promised to show him New York from a resident’s view, Joey really didn’t care what they did; he was only looking forward to seeing her because it had been months.

 

Matt answered the door when Joey got to Jeanie’s apartment.

 

“She’s in her room.” Matt told him nervously.

 

Joey walked to her door and knocked, when he didn't hear an answer he almost immediately jumped to the worst conclusions. What if she's with another guy?

 

“Jeanie?” he asked when he opened the door.

 

All he heard was a soft moan.

 

“Are you okay?” He closed the door and walked towards her.

 

“Shhhhhhhh.” Jeanie whispered. “This is a quiet zone.”

 

“Are you sick?”

 

“However did you figure that out?” Jeanie asked sarcastically.

 

“It took you longer than usual to make a witty remark.” Joey responded with a smile.

 

“I meant to call you and tell you not to bother coming. I’m so sorry.”

 

“I think you texted me.”

 

“Then why did you come?”

 

Joey laughed. “Because what you wrote wasn’t English! It said ‘fpmt xpmr.’”

 

“I may have missed a few keys.

 

“Well, it’s fine. I’m here anyway.”

 

“Yeah, but you shouldn’t have come. I don’t want to get you sick.”

 

“Okay.” Jeanie groaned and coughed.

 

“How are you, besides sick?”

 

“Sick.”

 

“Other than that?” Joey laughed. “Written any programs?”

 

“Oh yeah. I’ve got one that the user enters an arithmetic problem, the program converts it to postfix, which is when the operator comes after the two numbers it operates on, then the program solves the problem.”

 

“How long did that take you?”

 

“Like…2 days? I sort of went in reverse, I did the solving postfix then did the standard to post fix. But it took awhile because processing the input is sort of weird.” While Jeanie was talking, Joey sat down next to her. “What are you doing?!” she asked,  startled.

 

“Sitting next to you.”

 

“But I don’t want to get you sick!”

 

“You won’t.”

 

Jeanie sighed and sat up so that she was shoulder to shoulder with Joey.

 

“That program sounds super boring, no offense.”

 

“I admit that while writing, it was somewhat interesting, that it was super boring to debug.”

 

“I’ve been meaning to ask, do you ever write smart phone apps?”

 

“Occasionally for clients. But not much. I’d probably do it more if I had a smart phone.”

 

Joey nodded. “Has  anyone told you that you have the sexiest voice when you’re sick?”

 

“No.” Jeanie said with a small laugh as she leaned against Joey. “Matt didn’t tell me.”

 

“You can sleep if you want.” Joey said.

 

“Thanks.” She murmured and leaned further into him.

 

Joey watched her fall asleep against his shoulder. She looked so pretty, even though she looked pretty sick.

 

Once Jeanie was fast asleep, Joey carefully got up and walked out of her room.

 

“Is everything okay?” Matt asked.

 

“Yeah. I just wanted to get her something to ear or drink.”

 

Matt got up. “I’ll help.”

 

“Thanks.”

 

Joey and Matt looked through the fridge for something for Jeanie.

 

“Can I ask you something?” Joey spoke up.

 

“Shoot.”

 

“Who was the last person Jeanie dated?”

 

“Oh gosh. It was in college.”

 

“What happened with them?”

 

“He died.”

 

“How?”

 

“Drunk driving.”

 

“Who was the driver?”

 

“He was.”

 

“Oh.” Joey nodded. “Was Jeanie with him?”

 

“No. But she was the reason he was driving.”

 

“Wait, what?”

 

“I can’t remember if they were at a party or what but he was being a jerk and she had enough so she left even though she was supposed to be his designated driver, when she was leaving she asked people to make sure he didn’t try to drive but somehow he ended up stealing someone’s car and getting into an accident.”

 

Joey sighed. “Oh gosh.”

 

“Look, don’t make a big deal about it with Jeanie.”

 

Joey nodded “Sure,” he grabbed the plate and walked into Jeanie’s room.

 

When he got in he saw Jeanie sitting up, alert and looking sad.

 

“Are you okay?” Joey asked.

 

Jeanie nodded. “Yeah, I’m good. Where did you go?”

 

“Just getting you something. Here.”

 

Jeanie’s smile faded fast.

 

“What’s wrong?”

 

“He told you, didn’t he?”

 

“Yeah, he did. I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying to pry.”

 

“It’s fine. It’s in the past.”

 

“Okay. I believe you.” Joey sat down. “But I want to talk about us.”

 

“Oh?”

 

“Jeanie, I’m crazy about you. I want to take a step with you.”

 

Jeanie looked confused. “That’s a tad cryptic, but if you tell me exactly what you want, okay.”

 

“Okay…I want to be exclusive. I don’t mind that we’re hundreds of miles apart, I just want to know that we’re together. And when I’m around I want to spend time with you-no matter what.”

 

“So you want a long distance relationship?”

 

“I guess so.”

 

“Okay. I’m in.”

 

“There’s one more thing I want.”

 

“Yeah?”

 

“A kiss.” Without waiting for Jeanie’s response, Joey went for it.