He stared at me for a moment, his eyes narrowing just slightly. I held my breath, afraid that I had gone too far. Then, he ambled over to his desk and sat down.


    He folded his hands and looked up at me. “I never said that I was bitten by a cat. Mike saw my neck when I came back to the apartmentst night, and that was what he assumed happened since I was gone for so long. He must have told Gai.”


    Of course, I knew that he wouldn’t actually go to the hospital to get a rabies shot that he didn’t need. I knew that he had only called me into his office to stop Gai gossiping about him. I shuddered, thinking about how angry Alexander had gotten when he had discovered that I’d been gossiping with Gai about him and Naomi. One of his biggest pet peeves was being gossiped about.


    “Do you actually have to go to the hospital?” I asked him curiously.


    “I do.”


    My blood turned to ice. Immediately, my mind jumped to the worst- case scenario. Was he sick? Did he have some incurable disease he has been hiding from me? My heart mmed against my ribcage as I began to spiral out of control. Despite his unique talent for pissing me off, I couldn’t imagine a world where he wasn’t in it.


    He must have seen my pale face and sensed my anxiety. “I’m visiting a patient,” he assured me.


    My shoulders slumped. “Oh, okay.” I paused as he turned to hisputer and began typing. “Well, if that’s all…” I backed out of the


    0.00%


    11 43


    office, my back drenched with cold sweat.


    As soon as I shut Alexander’s door. I ran into Gai


    “Is he foaming at the mouth from his rabies?” she asked with wide


    eves.


    A strangledugh escaped my mouth. “No. He’s fine.”


    She pursed her lips and crossed her arms. “Are you sure? Because I came into the office early this morning, and he was already in the waiting room. He was standing in front of the mirror there and examining his neck. Then, Mike texted me about the feral cat that attacked him.”


    “I am taking him to the hospitalter, but he’s fine,” I assured her.


    “If you say so…”


    The morning was busy with meetings and calls. It felt like I’d only been at work for ten minutes when Alexander came up to my desk and said that it was time to go to the hospital.


    He had me drive his car while he continued to work on his phone, answering emails. Halfway there, we got stuck in a traffic jam. We were at a standstill, and eventually, I had to put the car in park. There was a man who took advantage of the sea of cars and began selling flowers on the sidewalk.


    “I’ll be right back,” Alexander said, and before I could protest, he hopped out of the car.


    He came back five minutester with a beautiful bouquet of white chrysanthemums wrapped in ck paper. My stomach stiffened as I stared at the flowers. Usually, white chrysanthemums were reserved for funerals. The ck paper didn’t help with the eerie feeling that had


    <b>37.55</b>%


    11:43


    288 Vouchers


    My mouth became as dry as sandpaper when the traffic eventually started moving, and we drove the rest of the way to the busy hospital. When we were almost there, I mustered the courage to ask Alexander who he was visiting.


    “A highly respected older gentleman,” he answered, not meeting my eyes but looking down at the funeral flowers.


    A feeling of dread settled low in my stomach. Could this man be dying? Was that why he had bought those kinds of flowers? A lump the size of a golfball developed in my throat.


    We parked, then entered the busy hospital. Arriving at a ce that did its best to prevent funerals with chrysanthemums didn’t make us very popr. As we walked past doctors, nurses, and patients, they gave us a wide berth, not wanting to even get near the man with the death flowers. It was almost like these flowers were cursed, and the hospital staff and patients wanted nothing to do with them.


    75.32%