Saving the Doctor
Part 3. The Games we Play.
Jon woke up the morning after the party to a bright ray of sunshine from a clear blue sky coming in through the window. The pristine smooth white sheets and the soft expensive mattress coddling him underneath.
He felt like shit.
The sounds of vomiting from the bathroom had woken hip up.
He had a headache, a parched mouth, and a bit of a sore back and knee. He squinted and turned away from the light. The party had gone late, he had drank way more than he had intended, it had been fun though, what time was it that everyone left again?...
The events at the end of the night dropped in from his memory and hit like a ton of bricks.
Fuck.
He took a split second to decide it hadn't been a dream. It had been all too real.
He lay there staring at the wall. Replaying the events in his head. The slow build up. Their hands under the blanket by the fire, the hot tub, the laundry room, her beautiful body, the feel of her skin, her kisses, her moans, feeling her affection and lust for him. It all washed over him, and it still felt good. He almost had to convince himself to feel guilty about it after the fact instead of basking in how amazing she was. The warring feelings stopped him from feeling the remorse down into his core like he thought he should. Instead, there just seemed to be an emptiness, a vacancy in his self-identity that he wasn't sure what to fill with, if he even could.
He felt like he could have laid there all day wallowing in his thoughts, but another sound of dry-heaving from the bathroom snapped him out of it.
He got up and opened the door to their bathroom gingerly.
Elaina was bent over the toilet with both hands on her head, holding her hair back. An open bottle of gravol was on the counter and an empty glass. He gave her a supportive rub on her shoulder, but without looking at him she told him not to touch her and get her some more water. Her voice sounded croaky and painful.
He went downstairs for two big glasses of water, handed one to her and helped himself to one of the gravols. He opened the cabinet and found an ibuprofen which was what he needed more.
She sipped the water carefully and then sat on the floor against the wall.
"Look at your beautiful mature fiance," she said sarcastically. "Getting drunk like a college girl and paying for it even though she should've known better."
"I had forgotten how badly your body reacts to hangovers," he said.
He had only seen it happen a couple times, but he remembered similar Sunday mornings when they were still just dating.
"Please tell me I didn't make too big a fool of myself last night," she said.
"What? No, honestly I didn't think you had gotten that drunk. I mean you were pretty competitive with charades, and you got really giggly and handsy for a bit there, like when we came back to the bedroom..."
"Oh yeah..." she said, clearly just remembering. "God I can't believe we did that. Do you think anyone heard us?"
"No honey, don't worry about it. In fact, I think more than a few people were happy to see you loosening up and having fun."
She gave him a concerned look, "Okay... Well I guess I'm relieved then. I was worried I had embarrassed myself in front of a bunch of colleagues."
"No way. I think it was a good party, everyone had a lot of fun," he said, putting his hand on her knee supportively.
He succeeded in getting a slight smirk out of her, and she grazed her fingers over his hand.
"I'm gonna go downstairs and find some breakfast, do you think you want to try any?"
She thought for a few seconds and then suddenly grabbed the toilet bowl again and pulled her face overtop of it.
"Sorry. Never mind," he said, leaving her alone again.
A slice of toast and a glass of juice later, and he was already feeling some life. It was a bigger hangover than he'd had in a while, but not unbearable. He started a pot of coffee, began wiping counters and sweeping floors, he washed all of the glasses. The physical movement felt good, and it kept him distracted. Thoughts of last night kept creeping back into his mind, but he willfully ignored them and tried to focus on the tasks instead.
The doorbell rang at 11:30.
Jeff and Grace smiled and said good morning, each with a coffee in hand. Their faces were a little washed out but otherwise they seemed to be in good spirits. They had come by to pick up their car and wanted to say thanks again and see if they could help clean up. He explained everything had basically already been done, and thanked them again for their help at the end of the night. They asked if he and Elaina wanted to join them for brunch on their way home, but he explained Elaina's current state in the upstairs washroom. They wished her well apologetically and left with another friendly thank-you.
He went back to the kitchen and started to think about lunch.
"Who was at the door?"
He turned around, surprised to see Elaina cautiously walking down the last few steps, and looking very pale, but at least she was upright and clearly trying to put on a brave face.
"Jeff and Grace," he said, "They were picking up their car and offered to help clean up and go for lunch but I politely declined."
"Thank you," she said. "That was kind of them though."
"Yeah, They're a great couple, they were a lot of fun last night." Jon said.
Elaina paused for a moment. "Well Jeff's certainly an excellent man. I'm not as certain about Grace, to be honest, but maybe she'll grow on me."
"Why's that?" Jon asked.
"Oh nothing really specific. She just... seems a little immature for her age."
Jon shrugged, "We seemed to get along okay. I guess she can be a little crass, but overall she's a nice person."
"If you say so," Elaina said. "Honestly I would've thought a man like Jeff could've done a lot better than her."
"Jesus honey, I know you're hungover but that's kinda harsh."
She shrugged, "I just don't know what he sees in her."
"They seem to love each other a lot, isn't that all that matters?"
She sighed, and said "I suppose," seeming to disagree with him but being tired of talking.
They had lunch on the deck. The fresh air felt nice and he wolfed down a huge sandwich that tasted incredible.
Elaina only sipped a half bowl of soup, but kept it down.
"I still can't believe you let them have a bonfire in that gross old thing," she said, shaking her head looking down at the fire pit on the lawn.
"They all wanted it, and they all enjoyed the hell out of it. What did you want me to do?" he said, in exasperation.
"That group wasn't the only one at the party Jon, though you didn't seem to notice from what I recall."
