The two headed back inside.
Sage helped Rowan sit down, truly like a worried husband. He showed his acting off a bit more: "Already, your complexion is returning," he said. "See what happens if you listen to me?" Sage fake scolded. It felt a little easier when Sage knew Rowan was not texting his ex-wife for some reason. Though he had no idea who, it did make things better in the back of Sage's confused mind.
"Right. Sorry."
Sage shook his head and tucked a loose strand behind Rowan's ear. He didn't know what came over him, but the corners of his lips tilted upward in a smile, and he placed his hand on his cheek, gently stroking with his thumb. Instead of pushing him away, Rowan hummed softly, leaned closer, and let himself be pet like a dog with its tail wagging. The look in his eyes was seemingly replaced with infatuation.
"Your love is still in its prime even after so many years of being together. It's quite nice to see."
Both froze. Sage retracted his hand slowly and bit down on his lower lip, shrinking back into his seat. He had moved so easily without thinking, doted on Rowan like a lover actually would. His mind told him it was acting, but his instincts told him it was something else. Not even Rowan could muster a reply.
"Oh, don't be shy now!" Carmen said. "You two are truly a lovely couple." Her smile was bright and genuine, making them feel a couple things.
First off, guilt. They were lying and weren't in a relationship. Let alone were they married. Secondly, if she had found such genuineness in their act, how much of it was an act? How much of it was true and how much of it was fake? Both felt guilty toward her and awkward with each other.
"Ah, yes, it's true. But if you point it out, he gets kind of shy—ow."
Sage stomped on his foot under the table. They didn't read into it; they merely laughed.
The dinner ended after lots of business conversation. Sage had no interest in listening either. He sat quietly beside Rowan and talked to Liwayway through text about updates. She vented to him about her anger. The older patients at the hospital were getting quite upset that Sage was still gone.
Where was Doctor Gannon?! A three month trip?! How can this be?! He'll be out for another month and a half… oh, everyone in the city would die by then. Surely. Liwayway was tired. She had run out of different ways she could assure people.
The update from Carmen and Hong was on a good note. They mainly wanted to thank Rowan for his advice and praise his talent in multiple fields of business. Rowan was quite humble, however, and said he knew quite a bit but would fail to do any of it himself. No one bought his words. Even Sage had to admit that the guy was brilliant in what he did.
After the dinner, they returned to the inn room. Sage was always first in the shower, and then Rowan hopped in after. The doctor waited on one side of the bed, leaned back while playing the number game on an app on his phone.
Rowan emerged from the bathroom. That time, he put on some real clothes. He walked over to the sofa and picked up his laptop.
"Are you ready?" he asked.
"Are you ready?" Sage asked him back, giving a slight snap, but it was only to hide his own nerves with stubbornness. "Come on." and he invited him to the bed.
Rowan looked at him and blinked a few times. Eventually, the smile curved on his face, and he walked over. He tucked a leg under himself as he sat down and placed the laptop open in front of them. On the screen was a blank, default icon surrounded by a white background. When Rowan struck a button on the keyboard, small waves started to shoot out from around the blank profile icon as a call rang to the other side. Sage was a little nervous. He tugged the blanket up on his lap a bit further and stared at the screen. Who could it be?
The call picked up. In the bottom of the left corner, Sage could see himself and Rowan sitting on the bed. Meanwhile, on the larger portion of the screen, a little girl sat. She had her laptop on a desk, and she sat in a large pink and white chair. On her face was a large smile, and when she looked at the screen, she immediately got excited. Then scared! She slipped off the chair to the ground to get out of view of the camera.
"Wah, you meanie! You never told me he was going to be here!"
Rowan laughed and said, "You wanted to meet him."
"You didn't warn me! I'm messy! That's mean! I was playing outside." The black head of hair popped up over the edge of the desk. Her eyes were large and dark. She peered over and peeked.
Sage felt like an idiot. It wasn't his ex-wife. Rowan had a child—a daughter. He was a father who just kept in close contact with his daughter whom he missed. There was a strange warm feeling that took over Sage's chest as he looked at the screen.
The girl on the other side pouted with fatty cheeks. She got back up into the chair and tried fixing her messy hair, which was not very messy considering she was a young girl with lots of energy. One of her front teeth was missing. Like Rowan, her eyebrows were a bit on the darker and thicker side. She had a small resemblance of Rowan in her face. "You're so mean. You could've given me a warning."
"I'm sorry. You were asking so much, I didn't think about it. Won't happen again." He raised a hand and said, "I swear." Rowan suddenly nudged Sage on the side. "Say hi," he whispered.
"Ah—hi," Sage nervously stammered.
She did not skip a beat: "Papa talks about you—"
"Hey, Pen, come on now," Rowan muttered immediately.
"It's true-e-e-e! Is it embarrassing?" The young girl protruded her lip in thought and laughed. "Hey, Sage-y, are you really such an impressive doctor? Papa said you're really, really, really, really, really, super-duper smart."
Even Sage couldn't hold back a laugh. How come Rowan was a menace and his daughter was the sweetest thing in the world? He did not want to say her father was lying to her, so Sage was forced to accept the compliment.
"I guess I am."
Sage learned the young girl's name was Penni. She was adopted under Rowan's name too, so her full name was Penni Mayle. He made sure to tell her she had a beautifully cute name, and she giggled when he did. Like father, like daughter, Penni had a cute and wide smile that was almost contagious, and she had a knack for making quick and witty jokes. Though she was still only a young girl; there was nothing she could say that would throw Sage through a loop like Rowan could. She was happy to hear Sage comment that her behavior was a bit like her father's behavior; she clearly loved him very much.
Eventually, the young daughter and the doctor talked so much that they moved off the topic of Rowan. The father was completely pushed out of the conversation! He felt a bit bitter. With a grumble, Rowan sank down where he sat on the side of the bed and put his attention to the television instead.
They talked for a long while until it was near nineteen-thirty. Penni suddenly gasped and covered her mouth.
"Oh, no! I'm going to be so sleepy for school," she said sadly. "Can we talk again, Sage-y!?
"Of course. Just ask your papa if I'm available," Sage said with a nod.
"Okay! I have to go brush my teeth and sleep. Oh, I wonder what I'm going to wear tomorrow... Goodnight!"
"Mm. Goodnight." and the call disconnected.
Sage gently closed the laptop, which was nearing its end on its battery life. He glanced over to check on Rowan, having completely forgotten he was there. The doctor was a little shocked to see Rowan had fallen asleep. He laid on his back with his arms folded on his chest as if he went to sleep pouting, but his head was tilted to the side. Sage sighed and got up from the bed. It looked like the bed would be Rowan's for the night.
He stood up and plugged in the laptop for Rowan. Then he gathered the other's phone and put that on charge as well along with his own. As he walked to the sofa and picked up the blanket draped over the back of it, he glanced back at the bed.
Rowan was completely on the right side, and they both perfectly fit without touching one another. Despite what he said, he did not roll around in his sleep at all. It had been a lie to avoid sleeping in bed with a stranger. After almost five weeks, Rowan most certainly was not a stranger, and he had no problem with physical contact with him either.
So, Sage took a quiet, deep breath and headed over to the other side of the bed with the other blanket and laid down beside Rowan to rest.
They slept in the same bed for the first time in the whole five weeks of traveling with one another. Sage realized it was not the worst thing in the world despite him being the one who forced them to separate and take turns between the bed and the sofa. It made him feel guilty that he put Rowan through suffering back pain because he was being too stubborn. Being fair to the doctor, they had been complete strangers. If Rowan didn't have an open-minded personality, he wouldn't have offered to share a bed with Sage either.
Nothing happened—not that anything would have happened. Sage pretended as if Rowan wasn't there. The bed was quite large. It was easy to do. They did not even run into the issue of accidentally bumping into one another either. Both used a separate blanket and stayed on their own sides of the bed. For the first time in five weeks, both got a comfortable sleep on the same night.
Still, Sage felt a bit strange sleeping so close to Rowan. While he had no problem with it, he still felt like it was a bit unprofessional. Then he had to think about what was considered professional for a fake marriage. He suddenly wanted to stop thinking about it. So, Sage did by pushing it to the back of his mind.
He had to work at the hospital for the remaining days, so he decided to not return to the inn room at all. The doctor texted the other about what he was planning on doing so that he didn't send for him or order too much take out food. Luckily, it was a very busy city. The doctors there were not worried about needing something for Sage to do. Sage could turn his head and find something to busy himself.
As a distraction, he worked from day to night, took breaks when someone forced him too, but for the most part, Sage had worked nonstop for quite a while. It was almost humanly impossible, but his body was used to it.
At least, he had been used to it. After falling into a regular forty-hour work week, Sage found it difficult to get through the last day of continuous working. Before it had been easy. Now, he struggled. His naturally half-lidded eyes were dropped even lower. By the time the end of the day neared, Sage was unsure if he could even call a ride to get him back to the inn. He fell asleep on one of the tables in the eating hall of the hospital.
It was unsure how long he had been resting there. The staff at the hospital had three straight days of learning how Sage's character was. They did not want to wake him up, so no one had. So, the only person left that was brave enough to do so was Rowan when he showed up after getting no response from Sage for an hour.
He asked around for where Doctor Sage Gannon, the travel doctor, was at. An older nurse gave him the directions for the eating hall. Rowan thanked the man and sped off.
It was relieving to learn that he was only sleeping, not hurt. Rowan quietly sighed and approached the doctor sleeping on the table. He kneeled in front of where he sat and peered up at his sleeping face, observing him for a bit. The dark circles under his eyes, his parted lips threatening to leak drool. Rowan had a thought that Sage was cute before he decided to wake him up.
"Sweetie Sage," he teased, to get it out first without being heard. "Sage, come on. Wake up."
"Huh?" Sage blinked his eyes open, his eyelids feeling heavy. Typically, he wore a long sleeve under his scrubs while he worked, but he had been running around and discarded it somewhere along with the doctor's jacket since he had gotten too hot. So, Sage was cold, goosebumps aligning his bare arms, when he woke up after not moving around for a long while.
Rowan took off his jacket and wrapped it around Sage, speaking low to him, "Come on. We have to leave, or I won't make it to my next meeting. Your things are in the car already."
Sage was too tired to think about what was happening. All he knew was that someone he trusted was in front of him, so he let Rowan wrap him up in the jacket, gently pull him up from his seat, and guide him out of the hospital.