Or maybe he wasn't happy that Mark was saying he was about ready to pull his cock out of his scrubs to reenact it right there.
But that was insane! That would mean that it had actually happened, and that Cole was here, listening. Like some kind of ghost.
Yep, I finally concluded, it's got to be the drugs making me believe this shit. Either that or I hit my head when I passed out. Cause otherwise I was just bat shit crazy.
I shivered at my own thoughts and felt a finger of chills run from my elbow, up my arm, over my shoulder and tease my neck, almost like a caress.
Stop it, Hannah! Now you are imagining things, I scolded myself.
Finally the allergist, Dr. Greene, started speaking again after setting everything up.
"We'd normally start with the skin test, or the prick test, as it's also called, but you still have too much antihistamine in your system for that to be accurate, and a blood test would take days, so we’re going to do what's called an oral food challenge.
You said what you ate right before you collapsed was a mixture of nuts, butter, sugar and nutmeg, so we're going to test you for various nut allergies. Since nut families are so varied, I'm guessing you either had a nut you'd never had before, or you had an adult onset allergy to a nut you could have had before. Since adult onset nut allergies are so much rarer, I'd guess it was a new nut, not a new allergy, so we're going to be sampling nuts."
"Is that safe? What if what happened before happens again? It almost killed me, or so you guys have said."
"We're prepared for that, all of the same shots you had before are on hand, and we're going to start with very small amounts and monitor your reactions. Are you ready?"
"I guess. It's not like I've got anywhere else to be, let's figure this out."
"I'm going to start with a whole peanut, to rule it out. I'm almost positive you're more of a tree-nut allergy person, so let's rule peanuts out first."
I took the little, plastic, pill cup he offered me and dug the peanut out with my fingers, rolling my eyes internally as I did so. I was quite convinced this whole thing was silly, I'd eaten nuts all my life and had never had any issues, but whatever.
I placed the peanut on my tongue and started to chew as he stared at me.
I chewed it up real good and swallowed it, trying not to let him see how awkward I found it as he watched me for any sudden signs of death.
"We'll give that about fifteen minutes and see what happens. My understanding was that your reaction before happened very quickly, so fifteen minutes should be plenty."
I just nodded. Whatever you say, Doc.
When I didn't keel over and die, he started busying himself with other things, jotting notes, preparing the next sample, and checking his phone.
I started taking a bored inventory of everything in the room.
Wow, some of the posters on the wall were horror-story graphic. Damn, who knew allergies could cause some of the disgusting rashes and whelps covering the walls?
I felt a tiny brush of something on the curve of my neck and shrugged, thinking it was a tiny bug, and the movement caught Dr. Greene's eye.
He looked me over but then returned to his paperwork.
I felt it again, but this time it felt less like a bug grazing me and more like a barely there kiss. I managed to not react this time and just stayed still, hoping it would land and I could kill it with one quick smack.
The feeling changed from a grazing kiss to a more brazen kiss. Not just the brushing of lips, but this time it almost felt like an open mouthed kiss, and the teasing flick of a tongue. I heard myself inhale sharply and I smiled reassuringly at Dr. Greene when his eyes popped to me once again.
"How are you feeling?"
"I'm good. Just jumpy, I guess."
He smiled back, giving me a more thorough once over with his eyes, and turned back to what he was doing.
When the kiss-like feeling on my neck happened again, I made sure not to give any outward sign of it. I kept my breathing purposefully steady even as what I would have sworn was a tongue teased my skin slowly, from the opening of the hospital gown's neck hole draped over my shoulder all the way up to the hollow just behind my ear.
The very same hollow that Cole had always made it a point to kiss.
"I love how you purr every time I kiss you there," he'd say.
I was quite certain my mind was playing tricks on me. Mark never kissed me there and it had been so long since that particular spot had been kissed like that, so I just went with it.
Maybe I am allergic to peanuts after all, and I only think this is happening, but really, like before, I'm passed out cold. Maybe I'm dying again, and this is how my body reacts to dying, I thought, not really caring much either way. It felt way too good to care if it was real or not.
I felt teeth graze the same sensitive spot the tongue had just kissed, and it was all I could do not to moan out loud. I leaned my head to one side, giving whatever was nibbling on my neck more access to do so. Death be damned if kisses like this were waiting for me on the other side.