Do I look stupid to you?

Enrico let Livia go through the medicine cabinet. Bringing his face closer to the shorter woman's brown strands, he could smell the peach scent in Livia's silky hair.

 

"What are you doing?" She asked when she felt that Erico was very close.

 

"You're taking too long to get your fucking medication".

 

Livia turned, holding the pot with painkillers and another of anti-inflammatory. She gave him a pill and a capsule to relieve inflammation from the gangster’s wound.

 

"I need water". He popped the two pills into his mouth.

 

Lívia went to a small fridge in the corner of the room  and took out a bottle of water. She had never been so outraged about taking care of a patient.

 

"Do you have other clothes?" Enrico drank the rest of the water.

 

"This isn't a clother's store".

 

"Change it!" The mobster's blue pupils looked at the bloodstained bandage.

 

He sat in the armchair when Livia took the alcohol, cotton and gauze.

 

She spread the material on the table and sat on the chair. Livia began to unroll the suture and noticed that two stitches were broken.

 

"You sewed badly!"

 

"This isn't my fault! Instead of resting, you keep pointing that gun at me and pull me like a toy".

 

Enrico smilled at the comparison, if Livia had known how he used to burn and break toys in childhood, she wouldn't have faced him like that.

 

"Ouch!" He felt the sting.

 

Livia placed the cotton swab soaked in alcohol over the suture and squeezed it deliberately. After asepsis, he wrapped his left arm with a clean bandage.

 

"Can you put on the surgical apron?" She avoided looking at the half-naked man. "Please!"

 

"Haven't you ever seen your boyfriend naked?"

 

Enrico believed that a woman as beautiful as Livia should have someone waiting for her at home. The thought generated a concern, if any relative or boyfriend missed her, they could call the police.

 

"I work hard in the clinic". She pushed her chair back. "I'm caring for people and saving lives most of my day".

 

"You're a spinster!" He said. "I don't understand how such a beautiful woman lives for work and doesn't enjoy life".

 

Livia squeezed her lip. She could have a boyfriend if she gave Mattia a chance, but she felt nothing for him but friendship. Ignoring the patient, she took the remote and pressed the button to turn on the air conditioner. Within minutes, the room became colder.

 

"Turn it off!" Enrico ordered.

 

"I'll not get hot and sweat inside this locked clinic just because you want to walk in your underwear".

 

"You can also take off your clothes".

 

"No!"

 

Enrico stretched out his arm from the chair. He became more relaxed after taking the painkiller. When he came out of the couch, he took the surgical apron and put it on.

 

"I have a dog!"

 

"Good!" he exclaimed, disinterested.

 

"I always put food and water in every morning before coming to work".

 

"It isn't my problem". He was more worried about Lívia calling the police than about a hungry little animal.

 

"I spent the night here, and my dog must be hungry". She sat on the chair.

 

"Do I look stupid to you?" He touched the pistol and looked into the woman's pale face. "You're not leaving here!"

 

Livia sighed as she thought about the little dog that should be at the door waiting for her, but faced with yet another threat, she didn't insist.

 

"Close the curtains!" He pointed to the window.

 

Livia had ten patients scheduled for that day, but the gangster didn't allow her to see or talk to anyone.

 

...

 

Around noon, her stomach made noises that embarrassed her.

 

"Are you hungry?" Enrico asked.

 

"Of course, I haven't eaten anything since I left Mattia's house".

 

"So you have a man?"

 

"Mattia is my best friend".

 

"I've fucked a lot of my pretty friends", Enrico smiled as he remembered high school.

 

Closing her eyes, she tried to erase from your mind those absurd things the mobster told.

 

"There's a room where I usually eat and sleep during shifts,” she confessed in a low voice.

 

"Come on, your stomach is growling so much, I'm getting hungry too." He stand up.

 

Lívia go with Enrico to the other room. He took two pots of cup noodles and put them in the microwave, typed the cooking time on the panel and waited with his arms crossed as he watched Enrico lock the door and pull the phone cords.

 

After eating, they were both quiet. Livia looked at the closed blinds and the broken telephone wires, her only cell phone remaining in the bag she had left in the car the night before.

 

Enrico removed the surgical apron and lay down into the only bed in that large room as he watched Livia's tired face.

 

"I can share the bed with you!"

 

Livia's forehead was creased, she didn't remember being so disrespected by a man.

 

The gangster stretched his back on the white sheets and put his hands behind his head.

 

At a certain point, tiredness began to overwhelm her, Livia felt her eyelids slowly close and open.

 

"You can lay down here!"

 

"I prefer to sleep on the table," Livia said, furious.

 

She took the pillow out of the closet and lay down on the table after removing the objects that were on the furniture. Livia was so exhausted that she fell asleep quickly.

 

Enrico couldn’t take his eyes off the woman who was sleeping in front of him. Livia was a different girl from the women who were in her bed to satisfy him.

 

Most of the women knew who he was and none of them rejected him when he invited them to spend the night with him.

 

He was amazed by Livia’s serious and professional posture. Enrico was lost in his thoughts until he fell asleep.

 

...

 

The room was immersed in darkness when the sounds of gunfire broke the silence. Livia covered her ears with her hands; she was never in the middle of a crossfire.

 

"Get down on the ground!" Enrico shouted.

 

Livia threw herself on the floor behind the table and lay down. The gunshots struck the objects and threw them to the ground.

 

She didn't know how the unknown patient was injured last night, but concluded that Enrico’s whereabouts were discovered and some people wanted to exterminate him. At that moment, she was sure that this could be the end of her life.

 

On the other side, Enrico crawled to a place where he could protect himself from the bullets. As much as he tried to ignore this feeling, he was worried about the trouble he was bringing into the good-hearted woman's life.