I sigh and shake my head. “No, I want to help. I’ve just never done this before,” I say more gently.
“The disinfectant. In the orange bottle. Yes. And the gauze. And some tape. That green stuff. Yes.” I pull each item out as he lists it.
“Should I wipe most of the blood away with a cloth?” I ask.
“Yes, use the hand towel. Soak it in some water.” He groans as he sits on the side of the bath. While I wipe the blood away, he holds a piece of gauze over the wound and applies pressure to stop it from bleeding more.
I kneel in front of him, sitting between his legs as I try to be as gentle as I can while cleaning the blood from his body.
“I’m not that fragile, Blair, you don’t have to treat me like glass,” he muses.
I roll my eyes and scrub at him a little more vigorously. It is easier and goes quicker to get most of the blood cleaned away.
“Now the disinfectant,” he says. “It hurts like a bitch, but you have to pour it right into the wound.”
“Will it get deep enough?” I ask nervously. “What if there is an infection inside?”
“I’ve got antibiotics I can take. It won’t be a problem.”
As I splash the alcohol disinfectant over him, he growls and grips the edge of the bath so tightly it turns his knuckles white. His muscles flex from his stomach all the way up to his neck and along his arms.
I’ve used almost half the bottle to clean the wound he looks more pale than usual.
I decide to try to talk to him to distract him from the pain.
“Your rival, Jaco, what did he do to you to make you want to hunt him down?” I ask. “You mentioned the other day you were tracking him and his men. That’s a pretty elaborate plan to carry out on your own. He must have done something pretty bad?”
“Jaco and I used to be friends,” he says through clenched teeth as I wipe one last piece of alcohol-soaked gauze over the wound.
He lets out a sigh of relief.
“Friends?” I encourage him.
“Yes, we were really close. I thought we were anyway. But over time, I realized that he wasn’t the type of friend who was happy for you when things went well. He’s more the jealous type.”
He pauses and takes a slow breath as I begin to bandage the wound. At least it’s not bleeding anymore.
Simon keeps talking.
“I’d never had a real girlfriend before. I was friends with Jaco when I got my first genuine relationship. I feel pretty hard for the girl. I mean, I’d never been in love before. I thought this was it. I thought we’d get married and have a life together. But Jaco got jealous. Long story short, he seduced her. They ended up going behind my back, and at the same damn time, he screwed me out of a big business deal we had been working on together for a long time.”
“Fuck,” I mutter, horrified that someone who calls themself a friend would do that to another person. “I’m so sorry.”
“Usually, I don’t give a shit about competition. I know my worth. I don’t exactly have self-confidence issues. But this was just below the belt, and it was the two people who I thought were closest to me in the world. My best friend and the girl I thought loved me. It hit me a lot harder than I was prepared for.”
“Did you argue with him?” I ask, looking up at Simon, who stares straight ahead, lost in memory.
“No, I walked away. I thought it was best. But it began to eat away at me. It began to fester inside me, and I couldn’t let it go. What was worse was that even with the business deal, Jaco knew I couldn’t retaliate because his family is neutral and doing anything to him or them would cause massive issues for my family.”
“So that’s why you’re sneaking around trying to make a one-man revenge plan?” I ask, understanding his pain and how hard it is to let go of things from your past when people hurt you.
“Yeah. I don’t want my family involved in my drama,” he sighs with relief as I finish taping the last bandage down.
“Good job,” he smiles, looking exhausted.
I stand up, still between his legs, and offer him my hand. “Come on, I’ll make you something to eat, and then you should probably get some rest,” I say.
He takes my hand and stands up, close to me, looking down at me with a grin.
“Alright, Nurse Blair,” he says with mischief in his tone that makes my cheeks flush pink.