Hope you feel better soon

[remuslupin]

This is a quick little story about this girlie Ana, who comes down with a cold at work, and her boss Daphne. Since I've been working at home for the past year, I definitely don't miss catching the office cold, but I do miss the little moments of vulnerability/caretaking that would come along with it. I hope you enjoy!

...

Ana stared listlessly at her computer screen. She scrolled up and down through the paper she was supposed to be reading without really retaining any of it. Today, her mind was elsewhere. She was more focused on the small tickle in her throat that had grown over the past hour into a sharp pain that intensified when she swallowed. The small tension headache that formed behind her eyes earlier that morning had now wrapped itself around her forehead and had started to pulse rhythmically.

“Ha-Choo!” Ana directed the sneeze down at her lap. It came so suddenly she didn’t have any time to cover it. “Hah-heh-” she could feel another one coming. Quickly, she grabbed a tissue out of the box on her desk and raised it to her nose. “Ha-CHIEW! Hah-ha-CHISHH! Heh-XTSHOO!” Thank goodness I used a tissue, she thought to herself as she wiped her nose, each one of those sneezes was messier than the last -

"Bless you!” Ana jumped - she’d been abruptly yanked off of her train of thought. Her boss, Daphne, had been standing the doorway of her office. “Oh!” Ana laughed sheepishly as she slid the tissue into the trash can. “Thank you,” she averted eye contact as she rubbed her sleeve cuff against her nose. “What’s up?”

Daphne raised an eyebrow and pointed down the hall, “Ready for our meeting?”

"Oh, is it 9:15 already?” Ana cringed at how congested she sounded. Ugh, 'dide fifteed,' she thought to herself, shaking her head internally, why couldn’t our meeting be at 3:30? She picked up her laptop and followed Daphne down the hall. Three thirty, she mouthed silently, I could say three thirty no problem!

She set down her laptop at the conference table and took a seat next to Daphne. "Okay, the first thing I wanted to discuss…”

Ana let Daphne's voice fade into the background. She tried to focus on the task at hand, but the energy she would usually put into paying attention was currently being spent on other things...like trying to hold her head up, or keeping her eyes open, or trying not to- to- “heh-CHOO!” she sneezed wetly into her elbow followed by a sniff. “Bless you!” said Daphne. She paused for a few seconds, looking at Ana intently.

Ana's heart skipped a beat. Daphne must've asked her something, but she was so occupied with sneezing she didn't even notice, "Sorry, could you repeat that?"

But before Daphne could even get a word in, "Ha-CHSHH!" Ana sneezed suddenly, just barely catching it in the collar of her shirt.

"Bless you again!"

“Excuse me *snf*,” Ana replied, sniffling and scrunching her nose - doing everything in her power to prevent her nose from dripping, or worse, sneezing again. “Are there tissues in here?” Ana asked, dabbing at her nose with the back of her hand. “Don’t think so,” said Daphne, peering around the room. “Okay, uh, I’ll just grab the box from my office. Um, *snf* I’ll be right back.”

Crap, Ana thought to herself. This is so embarrassing. She breathed a sigh of relief when she got back to her office, but not before catching a pair of messy sneezes in a tissue, "Heh-CHISHOO! Hih-CSHH!" The tissue in question was promptly reduced to a soggy mess. She grabbed another one and thoroughly blew her nose. As Ana disposed of the snotty evidence, she caught a glimpse of her reflection in the computer monitor. There were dark circles under her eyes and the tip of her nose looked red and almost...shiny. She sighed, tried to touch up her makeup a bit, and took a sip of water before returning to the conference room, tissue box in hand. “Thanks for waiting,” she said, after clearing her throat. Despite the attempt to make herself sound normal, her voice still sounded low and quiet. To her surprise there was a cup of tea sitting next to her computer. She pointed to the cup, “Is this for me?” she asked.

"Yeah,” Daphne replied, “it sounds like you have a pretty bad cold,” she gestured to the tissues.

Ana looked down at the tea as she set the tissue box down on the table and smiled, slightly embarrassed. Well, Ana thought, at this point, I guess there's no point in trying to hide it. "Yeah," she sighed, "I definitely have a cold." She took a sip of the tea. The warm liquid soothed her throat as she swallowed.

"Thank you so much," Ana said, "this is just what I needed." She paused for a second, “Is it that obvious that I’m sick?” she asked. 

"Yes, very much so,” Daphne replied, amused that Ana thought she'd be able to hide it. "The non-stop sneezing and sniffling gave you away."

“Yeah," Ana started fidgeting with the tea bag, "I'm sorry for coming to work sick - I didn’t feel so bad when I left this morning, but it’s been getting worse since I got here.”

"Don't worry about it, these things happen,” said Daphne. “How about you head home early today, and we can reschedule for whenever you're feeling better.”

"Okay.” Ana felt her cheeks blushing, but she wasn’t sure if it was from embarrassment or if she was starting to run a fever. “Are you sure?”

"Yeah, I could use the extra time anyways. I need to run a quick errand.” Daphne looked Ana up and down, surveying her red cheeks and watery eyes. She put the back of her hand on Ana's forehead. Daphne furrowed her eyebrows, “and you need to be in bed!”

“Okay, okay, if you insist,” she relented jokingly, as she picked up her laptop and the tissue box. On her way out of the conference room, Ana felt a hand on her shoulder.

"Wait," Daphne started, "don't forget your tea!" Ana smiled at the kind gesture.

"Hope you feel better soon."

[Likesn]

Short but sweet ☺️ I'd sure be happy to read more about Ana and Daphne. There's definitely potential for some care taking and possible contagion 😁 But of course - you should right what you enjoy and feel comfortable writing.  

[NoV]

Really good chemistry between these two characters - plus love how embarrassed Ana is to be sneezing in front of Daphne. Thanks for posting

[Jettous]

Aww. This was so soft and adorable. 

[Gingersneeze]

Love! More please 

[FireFlower3013]

Super cute! love these two. Would love to see more