It's Maryse who takes me home. She flags down a cab in five seconds and practically drags me into the back seat. She makes me tell her my address and then pays the cabbie when the car pulls up to my building.
I obey her commands like a mindless puppet. She opens the door, peels my clothes off my semi-conscious body and forces me into the half-full, lukewarm bath where the scrubs me raw with a washcloth and half a bottle of shower gel.
"Never go to bed without showering after work," she says as she bustles around the bathroom looking for a clean towel. "It's full of germs. The last thing you need right now is MRSA, am I right?" She lets out a laugh at her own joke. I can't even bring myself to give a wan smile.
Then she towels me off and tucks me into bed, with a bag of frozen peas to press to my lip. The icy touch wakes me up a little.
"Why are you doing all this?" I ask hoarsely through the fog.
