Salubrious part 27

Charlie woke up with a terrible migraine and nausea. Charlie put Allan in his bed for rest but decidedly slept on the couch to avoid temptation.

“Charlie? Charlie? Where are you?”

He heard the familiar nasally voice.

Charlie rubbed his eyes and his temples, trying to wake up. “Fuck I didn’t even drink that much last night,” Charlie muttered.

Suddenly as he walked to the bedroom, he saw an eyeful of Allan, looking bright and shiny and apparently not hung over.

“Dude, are you okay? You look like you got hit a by a trash truck,” Allan said concerned, touching Charlie’s face softly, “Good morning, Charlie. Why didn’t you sleep next to me last night?”

Charlie frowned, feeling dizzy, nausea settling in the lower pit of his stomach. “Hmm, Christ, I’m sorry… I wanted to… but you were too drunk,” he burped, gagging a bit.

Allan took Charlie’s sinking frame into his arms. “You’re gonna be sick. I can tell,” Allan said as he helped Charlie into the bathroom. Charlie immediately went to the toilet and vomited.

“Christ, Charlie, you’re overflowing the toilet with your sick…”

Charlie took in a breath shakily, “I’m not so hot anymore looking like this, huh?”

Allan rolled his eyes, looking for a cloth, “Where are all of your washcloths and towels?”

“Um, I usually have a few things laying around…” Charlie muttered, gagging again before throwing up.

“You are incredibly disorganized. I will have to clean your bathroom today. But first, why don’t you get in the shower and rinse yourself off.” He helped Charlie up, and turned on the shower, checking the temperature.

“I’m sorry…” Charlie muttered, wiping his face with his sleeve.

Allan suddenly leaned down, looking at him with an intense expression. Charlie gave him an exhausted sigh.

“Dude, look, if this is gonna work you’re going to have to stop being hard headed. I can handle one gross morning with you.”

Charlie laughed in a pained way, “What if this gross morning turns into more than one?”

Allan laughed. “You’re disgusting for thinking like that.”

Charlie laughed. “You have no idea, man.”

“I think I do. I’ve been here for the last few days with you. I’ve seen how you, ‘brush your teeth,’ and now I feel prepared for practically anything.”

Charlie laughed. “Putting toothpaste on your finger works fine. I swear you’re stuck up.”

Allan’s eye twitched. “I think the water temperature is warm enough now. Your water heater really is crappy.”

Charlie threw up again, but then got up, looking at Allan sadly, “You said you didn’t want to go home last night.”

Allan frowned. “Do you think that this temperature is good?”

Charlie sighed. “You just asked me that, dude. I usually don’t care about the temp, honestly. Why does it feel like you should’ve been a nurse? You’re too good at this.”

Allan shrugged. “You didn’t answer the question. I usually use scalding hot water. So I need to know what’s normal.”

Charlie gave him a questioning look of concern. “Scalding hot?”

Allan nodded. “Yeah so don’t use all the hot water up.” Allan threw a towel at him. “Go clean yourself up. I’m starting laundry.”

“I may not have laundry detergent. Fuck. Allan, how are you not hungover?” Charlie was lazily getting undressed, still feeling dizzy.

Allan gave him a sweet look but it was glossed over as he continued cleaning. “I can handle alcohol pretty well. Though I don’t drink often.”

Charlie paused, looking at him with a smile, but felt his stomach lurch, running to the toliet again.

“Damn-it, Charlie!” Allan ran over, wiping up the floor with a paper towel. He had some antibacterial spray in one hand and a roll of paper towels in the other, looking like was in pain from how dirty everything was.

“Fuck, Allan, I don’t know if I’m going to be able to stand in the shower.” Charlie smiled slightly, holding onto the wall. “Do you enjoy taking care of me or something? This is like the fifth time you do this stuff for me.”

Allan sighed, getting a trash bag to collect all the trash. “I can’t believe you’ve survived this long. I’m afraid you’ve built up a tolerance to filth.”

Charlie chuckled, “You like it. Admit it.”

“Someone has to keep you alive. If not for yourself, for our friend Pim, you know he’d just die if something happened to you.”

Charlie shrugged. “I already died once.”

“I remember. It was shitty. More shitty than how this apartment looks,” Allan said calmly, still cleaning.

Charlie gave him a narrowed look, almost as if he was trying to see if he was being sarcastic or honest.

“You actually missed me?”

Allan frowned, looking at him with a straight face. “No, I was bursting with happiness and I had a fucking parade.”

Charlie grinned. “That’s better. I love fucking parades.”

“Now get in the damn shower so I can disinfect that too afterwards.”

Charlie got in the shower, feeling the perfect warm temperature. He enjoyed staying under the water for longer than usual.

Suddenly, he heard Allan cursing.

“Fuck! My contacts. Charlie!”

Charlie yelled back, “What’s wrong?”

“Only everything! I lost my contacts when I was adjusting them. You have no soap. You have no laundry detergent! I need to go to the store!”

“Ah, shit, I’ll be there in a minute!”

“No, it’s okay!” He heard Allan come in the bathroom, creaking the door slightly. “Charlie, may I borrow your car?”

“Uh, sure. Keys are on the counter. I have some twenties you can get that from my wallet. Get yourself something to eat. And whatever you need to buy.”

“Uh, okay. That’s generous.”

Charlie coughed, feeling nauseous again. “Did you find your contacts? Dude I had no idea you needed contacts.”

“Yeah. I do. I have glasses in case I lose them.”

“I bet you have those big nerdy glasses. I gotta see that…”

“Are you feeling any better?” Allan asked, feeling a bit warm from Charlie’s comment.

“No. What time is it?”

Allan paused, then said, “Shit. We’re going to be late for work.” Allan grumbled a few curses under his breath, his phone buzzing. “It’s our boss,” he tells Charlie, answering the phone.

Charlie said nothing, closing his eyes and trying not to vomit again.

“Yeah hi, Mr. Boss. Charlie is feeling sick.”

Charlie heard Allan near the bathroom door.

“Yeah, that’s right. It’s real. I think it’s more than being hungover. No, I won’t let him play video games. He’s actually sick, yeah. No really. Yes I know you can hear the sincerity in my voice, I know, yeah. No I’m staying here to make sure he’s okay. Yeah. Well, send me over the list and the details over email, I’ll just do that remotely. Thanks.”

Charlie felt his whole body panic with the words: remote work.

When they had stopped speaking, things had gotten so bad between them that Allan was considering not working in the office anymore. This fear was buried deep but now it resurfaced like a dead body.

“Remote?” Charlie murmured quietly, eyes wide.

“Okay bye.” Allan said on the phone and went to the slightly ajar bathroom and said, “You need anything?”

Charlie got quiet.

“Charlie? Don’t.. did you faint?”

Charlie felt his head buzzing with pain and a fear that overwhelmed his thoughts.

“Fuck. I hope you didn’t fall.. Okay, I’m walking in now, don’t yell at me …” Allan warned. “If you cracked that hard head of yours… I fucking swear..”

Allan felt himself closing his eyes, peeking only a second.

“Oh, you’re not fainted.” He closed his eyes. “I’m just going to go now.”

Charlie felt his heart lurch from the fear and potential loss of Allan for the day.

“Wait, Allan, are you… where… you’re not going to the office anymore?”

Allan perked up, looking at Charlie weirdly. “Huh? It’s just for today.”

“You gonna do that more.. often?” Charlie said in a broken speech.

“No, you’re sick. What are you talking about, man?” Allan asked, genuinely confused.

“But, like, really?”

“Dude, I’m not going to work while you’re here practically dying!” Allan exclaimed. “I swear it’s like you are not listening to me, dude!”

“I can’t believe that. Just when you … when we… ugh!” Charlie rubbed his eyes hard, angry at first.

Allan heard the crack in Charlie’s voice and what sounded like unmistakable emotion, and then… soft crying.

Allan got closer, but Charlie put his hand up.

“I’m not crying, don’t look at me. I look fucking gross …” Charlie said in a broken voice.

Allan’s eyes widened as he heard that. He gave him a bittersweet smile, then said seriously, “Charlie, what the fuck are you going on about?”

That seemed to snap Charlie out of his stupor of sadness, suffering and despair.

“What?” Charlie said, blinking.

“Are you.. did you think I was going back to my home to work remotely today and the rest of the fiscal year?”

Charlie frowned. “I overheard that you wanted to work remotely when we weren’t talking. And now, I heard you say it again. I know I’m a slob. I don’t clean. I’m just.. gross.”

Allan sighed. “I guess there’s just one thing left to do.”

Charlie hiccuped, wiping his face and running nose. “What’s that?”

“Become gross too.” He put a wrapper on his head. “There, now I’m a trash can too!”

Charlie laughed. “Fuck off.”

“Never. You’re stuck with me.”

Charlie gently smiled. Nothing was going right yet everything seemed perfect anyway.