Don't Love Me, I'm Straight

Chapter 20

A/N: The image above does not belong to me. It belongs to the person who uploaded it on the internet.

Poom's POV

"The doctor said you can be discharged now," the ER nurse informed me after taking my vital signs. 

"These are your aftercare instructions." she added as she handed me some papers with some stuff printed on them.

"What about the hospital bills?" Boat asked, feeling for his wallet, I guess with the intention of paying them for me.

"Your hospital bills have been paid," the ER nurse informed me.

"Oh, don't worry about it" I reached out to touch Boat's arm. "Mek had said that he would charge it on his credit card and I can just pay him back when I get my salary."

"You should have waited until I got here," Boat said, not looking too pleased with the information I gave him.

"Let's go home," Boat said, helping me up from my ER bed.

"Take it easy," he said when I wobbled a little on my feet.

He placed one arm around my waist, his other hand holding my upper arm to support me as we walked out into the lobby.

He let me sit on one of the couches in the lobby while he made a transportation arrangement with a cab company.

We walked to the lobby exit when the cab arrived.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," I protested to Boat when I heard him giving instructions to the driver to take us to our hometown.

"I told you earlier that I was taking you home," Boat said, raising an eyebrow at me.

"No, we can't do that," I protested. "The master will be expecting me to go back to his house when I am discharged from the hospital."

"But you won't be able to work anyway while you are recuperating," he countered, looking disappointed that I was going against his plan.

"I should at least call him to let him know and then wait to see what he thinks about it," I said, pulling my phone out of my pocket.

The cab driver turned to look at me, looking a bit impatient.

"He needs to call his boss before we decide where we're going," Boat explained to the driver.

I waited for Up to pick up my call. The ringing seemed to go on forever.

Finally the phone stopped ringing and I got directed to his voicemail.

Boat suddenly grabbed my phone and said into it, "Sir, this is Boat. I wanted to let you know that Poom has been discharged and I will be taking him to my home to help him to recuperate. When he gets better and able to go back to work I will take him to your place."

He cut the call before I could say anything.

Then he said to the driver, "Let's go to my original destination instructions."

"I'm not feeling too good about your decision," I said to Boat upon getting back my phone from him. "I could get fired for doing this."

"That would be fine with me," said Boat.  "You and I can run an agricultural business in our village. It might not give us much money but we can survive on it instead of depending on a salary and being at the beck and call of a master who does not care about your health needs."

"But he was there at the hospital watching over me." I reminded Boat.

"Yes, but he left right after I arrived," Boat reminded me.

I felt too weak to argue. I leaned back in my seat and closed my eyes.

Boat immediately placed his arm under my neck to support me.

"I will let you lie on my bed as soon as we get to the village," he whispered to me, as if not wanting the driver to hear him.

When we got to his place, he led me immediately to his room.

"Where are your parents?" I asked.

"They are at the commercial center buying materials for our business," he replied.

After he helped me to lie down on his bed, he left the room saying that he was going to fix breakfast for me.

My stomach started to grumble. At least I knew that having an appetite meant that I was not in an unhealthy state. My wound infection just needed to be taken care of. And good nutrition was an important factor for wound healing.

After a few minutes, he came back to the room holding a tray in his hands.

He set it on a bedside table and then helped me to a sitting position.

He scooped out some soup with the soup spoon and brought it to my mouth.

I took the spoon from him, saying, "Don't baby me. I can feed myself."

"But you're my baby, sweetheart," he said, looking deeply into my eyes

Suddenly we heard his parents' voices and someone else's voice, a voice that sounded too familiar to me, a voice that suddenly made my heart skip up to my throat.