0.7| Better At Buttoning Buttons
2407 Words
Elliot thanked the heavens above when Nigella finally emerged out the doors of the hellish bathroom.
That door had to be leading to another dimension, he thought, or it wasn't practically possible to take so much time in changing. Or maybe it was a power only females possessed.
Once again, for the tenth time in the last half an hour, he checked his watch. It was already ten thirty.
"You took your own sweet time." Elliot commented, he was lying on the bed and until a minute earlier his eyes were closed except for the occasional time checking and continuous mumbling under his breath about females and their bathroom adventures.
He opened his one eye when Nigella did not honour his words with a sarcastically armed reply of her own. He pushed himself up into a sitting position. The bed made a creek sound under his weight as he moved over it.
"Why are you standing there? Is that a shower cap on your head?" He pointed towards the transperant plastic bubble over her head. It looked funny on her, with all her blonde hair bunched up. She rolled her eyes, and Elliot knew everything was fine.
Under the cap he caught sight of the gauze on her forehead.
"Is that for - you know." He awkwardly made a small circle on hia forehead hoping she would get the idea of what he was saying. Nigella tilted her head to the side.
"What?" She asked.
"The thing on your head. It's this -" he tried again. He couldn't push the words out of his mouth. It was infuriating!
Realisation dawned on her face, Elliot was the one relieved, "You mean the wound?"
"Yeah! The shower cap is for that?"
She nodded.
He nodded to himself as well. The gauze had to be protected. All on it's own, his eyes proceeded to check the other wounds on her body, which were also covered in some sort of plastic wrap to keep them from getting wet.
He hadn't thought of those things when he was waiting impatiently for her to get out. The half sleeve top exposed the white layer of bandage on her arm, now secured in plastic as well.
His teeth dug into his lower lip, she must have had a hard time putting on all that plastic all by herself. He felt like an absolute a*sshole for keeping a check on time and telling her to hurry. Oh well, what's done is done.
She was still standing by the door. He blinked and smiled reassuringly.
He stepped down from the bed and wore his shoes that he had removed before climbing up on the bed, "Why are you standing there? Let's go."
A heap of hesitation poured from her eyes, throwing him off-guard. She licked her lips, immediately catching his attention with that single move. His eyes fixed themselves on one particular location on her face.
"What is it? Tell me." He asked gently. With the way she always kept dissing him, he seemed to constantly forget that she was in the hospital and for a very valid reason at that. And that he was responsible. He should keep his attitude in check, especially if she was going to be this nervous around him for whatever reason it was.
Although he didn't like it, that's what he should do.
As his eyes kept pinned to her lips, he saw them moving as if she was talking. But surprisingly no sound reached his ears. Either she had spoken very very low or he had grown some kind of hearing problem. He didn't know which was more worrying. Nigella never spoke so low. She was loud as heck, when speaking and when cursing.
"What did you say?" He leaned his head forwards as if it was going to help him hear her better. She looked to the side at his head leaning and scoffed.
"I said can you help me?" She gritted out.
Elliot smirked victoriously when he caught the exact words and with the emotions that they were said. He could hear her pride drop to a few floors down from her high tower. A huge sacrifice.
She needed his help? That was what he was trying to convince her since they first met and now she was saying it herself. Should he mark this day and time in a diary? But Elliot never wrote a single diary worthy word in his entire life, so that was not even a considerable thought.
Maybe he should just settle with helping her. That was a much better reminder than any diary.
"Of course. That is what I am here for, Nigella. Don't you remember? I am here to help you." He said with so much sincerity that it must have looked fake. Judging from her disbelief, it had to look fake. But there was some genuineness in those golden eyes which she caught under the exaggeration.
"This is not the kind of help you offered earlier. It's ... um.... different." She mumbled. If Elliot had not seen Nigella as an attacking ballista of words and glares, he would have fallen for her innocently wide eyes and embarrassed red cheeks.
"What is it? Just tell me." He said, this time slowly to get it into her head. What was so bad? She wasn't going to ask help in showing was she? Not that he wouldn't help, bug she was already showered and wearing clothes. So he didn't see what was so embarrassing.
Nigella screw her eyes shut and opened them again, then she sucked her lips in and released them. Elliot failed to understand what was going on with her. She was the one who asked for his help, why was she so silent?
Elliot spend most of his time asking himself questions about Nigella. In her presence, her actions were the cause of the tsunami of questions and when he was alone, her existence in general brought the questions. They varied, of course.
He did not understand the way she behaved. He could only compare her to his to be sister in law, Amara, who was practically a saint like lady who was physically incapable of hating anyone. Nigella was quiet the opposite of Amara. She disliked everyone and particularly Elliot.
"Suits!" He was brought out of his analytical thoughts on the behaviour patterns of Nigella by the subject itself. Nigella was frowning at him.
"Yeah?" He pocketed his hands in his pants in a casual manner, as if he had not just zoned out on her. "What did you say?
"I said, just get me a nurse instead. I will ask her to do it for me." She clarified. Elliot arched an eyebrow in defiance. Was it something Elliot was incapable of doing? But she had asked him first, that had to mean that he was an option.
"Calling a nurse now will waste a lot of time." He checked his watch again, "And it's already later than the time of your discharge. Just get this over with Nigella."
"No! I can't let you! Just get me a nurse!" She snapped at him, her ears growing as red as her face, going all the way down to her neck. Elliot blinked twice, fast.
"Well, I won't! You asked me for help first! What can she do that I can't?" That was probably the worst thing to say, Elliot realised. Because there were about a million things that a well trained nurse could do better than him. But he wasn't going to back down. It was a showdown of pride in the way he understood it. If he made up his mind, then it was going to happen.
People might call him a rich brat of good breeding for that foul play but he did not care.
Her eyes narrowed at him. Elliot resisted the smirk that was inching it's way on his face. Did she know that her cheeks kind of puff up everytime she narrowed her eyes or try to glare? He doubted that she did, or she must have stopped it the moment she found out. Should he tell her? Nope.
"I won't! You are such a terrible person!"
"You aren't the best person I have met either, Nigella!"
Her nostrils flared, "Can you get off your swanky little high hourse and just do as I say for a minute?!"
"Swanky -!" He scoffed in disbelief. "Why am I even arguing with you?"
"You should know better!" She replied, "Maybe because you are an i***t, suits."
"Seriously? How long did it take your brain to come up with that?" He laughed despite the fight that was going to break between them. Nigella pinched her mouth to keep the smile off her face as well.
They were really idiots for fighting like a bunch of immature high school students. Elliot somberer up and took a deep breath, Nigella folded her hands together before her. There was nothing but silence in the room. At a faraway distance, a crow made some annoying sound and light breeze flew in through the window.
The silence was roaring in his ears. So he decided to just give up and move ahead with their day. Elliot couldn't believe he was th one to give up first, that was a rare occurance which only took place when his family was in the equation and he was failing miserably under their valid arguments.
"I'll call the nurse -"
" - Help me button the top from the back."
They said at the same time.
Elliot's eyes widen a fraction and Nigella closed her eyes shut. This time she did not open then quickly, she kept them shut. The redness grew a few shades darker on the tip of her ears and her cheeks.
That was why -
Elliot felt like every curse world girls would come up with when they met guys like him. He agreed with her statement Nigella had made earlier about him being an a*sshole.
Now that he looked properly, a little closer than usual, the top was a little loose from the upper part around her neck. The buttons.
He felt his own face grow hot.
"Will you help or not suits?" He heard Nigella grumble. He nodded and then almost smacked himself because her eyes were closed and she could not see him nodding the life out of himself.
"Yes. Um, ugh, okay." He struggled with his vocabulary. He staggered ahead to where she was standing. As he reached close, she opened her eyes and stared at him with her eyes full of uncertainty.
Her doubtfully eyes send a pinch in his heart. She did not trust him enough.
"I'm trusting you to not behave like an a*shole that you are, suits." She warned him and turned around abruptly, revealing her back to him.
His years of experience in speaking vanished when his gaze landed on the exposed skin of her back. It wasn't even a big exposure.
How could three buttons reveal that much skin? The smooth fair skin was left uncovered. Elliot pressed his teeth on his bottom lips and shook his head.
But a few inches of bare back which was perfectly normal in a casual way. He had relationships with girls before. This was nothing for him, he had seen much more. That's what he told himself to keep his heart from leaping out of his throat.
Yes, he did have relationships before and yes he had seen much more than a few inches of bare backs. But something about seeing Nigella like this made him beyond nervous. She was stiff before him, her muscles clenched as if afraid he will do something.
What she did not know what that Elliot was just as nervous as she was, if not more. He was freaking on the inside just by the thought of having his fingers touch the fair skin. What if he damaged her? What if his foul self touched her and tainted her?
What a ridiculous thought to think of when he was this close already. Elliot should go searching for his doctor's number. He must be suffering with a mental illness, or a disease of heart which makes it beat violently.
"Suits?" She called. Elliot unfroze in his place. He was just standing there like a freaking statue, contemplating how to fix a few buttons. His patheticness was despicable.
His fingers reached up to the lowest button. It was very small and he had to struggle to close it up. In the process his fingertips and knuckles touched her skin, she stiffened further and arched away from him.
He focused on the other two buttons and made sure this time his fingers did not touch her. She was trusting him, he did not want to loose that.
Once the buttons were done, he immediately retracted his hand and cleared his throat.
"Done! What was so hard about that?" Elliot said casually, his inner hypocrite was laughing at him for acting like it was no big deal. On the inside he was an absolute mess, which he shouldn't have been. The nerves to his heart must have combusted, he didn't feel like his heart was beating anymore.
Yup, he was in need of his doctor. Something as trivial as buttoning three buttons had put him in a situation. What was that? And why was that even happening?
As he had mentioned earlier, Nigella made him question everything and the answer was nowhere to be found in the nine worlds.
Nigella seemed as unbothered as he was from the outside. She fixed her top and gave him a smile that had a pinch of awkwardness in the corners.
"Yes, no big deal. We were arguing for nothing, suits." She chuckled to lighten up the warming atmosphere. Both their faces were hot and red. Elliot was behaving like a freckled virgin, it wasn't like him at all!
"Excuse me," They were interrupted by someone coming in through the door, "I'm here to change the dressing for Miss Spencer." A nurse peeked inside, her eyes dancing from Elliot to Nigella, taking in their flustered self with interest.
"What a great timing." Elliot commented with a waterfall of sarcasm flowing with every word. The oblivious nurse smiled and came in.
Elliot and Nigella gave each other a knowing look, what a great timing indeed. They they both cracked into a humorous laugh.
- Writer
