"What do you have with you there?" Barry snapped back to his senses when he saw Selah come inside. She was cradling a package between her hands.
"Gauze bandage, a wound tape, and a hemostatic agent,
she answered and sat by the foot of the bed. Barry hesitated briefly. He then reluctantly extended his hand so she could treat it.
Selah carefully unraveled the gauze that covered his wound. She frowned when she saw fragments of glass inside it.
"It hurts me when people like you are reckless," she expressed angrily and carefully took out the pieces of glass using a pair of tweezers. She cleaned the wound with sterilized water. "You're so lucky. You have such a healthy body."
Barry wanted to argue, but thoughts of Ray came to him. Ray had weak eyes. He couldn't help but notice the tinge of resentment in Selah's tone as she spoke. Barry sensed that it must be because she was thinking about her son. She was a good mother.
Barry felt angry at himself as he reflected. It was crazy what he did, asking Selah to be his woman.
But crazy or not, he couldn't let her go now. He was determined to make Mary feel pained about everything. Maybe she would come to stop his crazy behaviors.
"Whoosh! It hurts!" Selah ignored his pain and applied some medicine to the wound. She drew his hand to herself, blew on it gently, and quickly bound it up. The bandage was nicely fixed.
Barry blinked rapidly as he recovered from the pain. He looked at Selah's drooping head and cute short hair. He managed to blurt out, "Keep your hair long!"
"Hmm?" Selah was packing up the first aid tools. She raised her head quickly to hear him. The calm expression on his face almost made her think that she misheard. "What?"
"Ahem..." He looked away awkwardly, leaned back into the pillow, and said slowly, "Your hair is too short. Whenever I wake up at night, I might think for a minute that it's a man lying next to me. That's what I said. Now come to bed!"
Come to bed? Right now?
"I..." She quickly stood up from the edge of the bed and blushed uncontrollably. Her voice came softly. "I'm not feeling very well today. Please spare me tonight."
She lowered her head down to her chest.
If she had looked up, she would have been confused because she would have found that Barry's face was redder than hers.
Her expression amused him a lot. He was surprised to see how she blushed. His heart thumped in his chest uncontrollably. He had asked her to sleep in his room earlier that day. She had been in the room that Mary used to stay. He was still angry about everything, but he didn't want to do anything to hurt Selah. She was such a silly woman. Why was she being so presumptuous?
"What do you think I'm talking about?" Barry concealed his embarrassment with a loud voice. "I meant for you to sleep next to me! That’s all! You know I just had an operation yesterday. I'm still very weak. Even if you wanted me to, I couldn't have sex with you!"
Selah was stunned. The red color on her face instantly spread to her ears. She looked like a boiled crab! She turned around to hide her embarrassment and ran to the bathroom. She yelled as she ran, "I'm going to take a shower. Mr. Gu, you can go to sleep."
"Jeez." Barry was speechless for a while. He shook his head helplessly at the woman. As he was about to unbutton his shirt, he thought of something and changed his mind. He lay down in his clothes instead.
Selah rushed into the bathroom, leaned against the door, and took deep breaths to calm herself.
Gosh! Did that just happen? She felt humiliated. Why did she have to say that out loud? She was ashamed about how she jumped to conclusions. How could she have said that? Holy smoke!
Looking at herself blush in the mirror, Selah patted her cheeks quickly and calmed herself. "Calm down, Selah! Chill! It's okay!"
She started her shower and rubbed herself slowly. She wanted to stall for as long as she could so that he would be asleep by the time she returned to the room. It wasn't until more than an hour later before she stepped out of the bathroom.
Click.
She gently opened the bathroom door. Barry seemed to be sleeping soundly. Quietly, she tiptoed towards the bed, glad that he was asleep. She climbed in and tucked herself underneath the quilt.
As she lay down, Barry's voice suddenly jolted her. "You spent such a long time in there. I thought you had passed out or something."
"You are awake!" Selah pulled the quilt closer and screamed.
"Don't bother to cover yourself. My eyes are closed. Besides, it's dark. I can't even see you," he pacified sarcastically.
'How did you know I was trying to cover my body if your eyes were truly closed? Are you trying to fool me?' Selah clutched the quilt tighter, not believing a word of what he said.
"I apologize for what happened earlier today," he said. It was an apology, but he still managed to make it sound like a blend between humility and arrogance. He also sounded sincere and that made it meaningful to her. 'Tm sorry."
Selah opened her mouth but said nothing. How could Barry apologize to her? How did he become so mushy all of a sudden? Was it because she had just bandaged his wound?
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