Five hours later we arrive in Fez and walk through a very beautiful part of the city to get to the riad. It's really hot in Fez and it's just March! 

The way to the riad amazes me. The small alleys and round ceilings enchant me, I keep looking around me instead of in front of me.

We follow the signs that lead us to the riad. I always wanted to visit a riad when I was younger. Zayneb once showed me some pictures of the one she stayed in back in the summer vacation of high school and I fell in love.

'We're here.' Shawn says, opening the door.

When we walk inside my jaw drops and I look at the mind-blowing architecture and the beautiful tile artwork. On the sides of the big space, there are a lot of bows, forming some kind of portals everywhere around me.

I want to live here. 

I look at my feet and see the beautiful ground. Everywhere I look is mindblowing. Even the furniture is amazing.

'Wooow.' I look up at the ceiling.

Walking through the streets I would have never imagined that this could be behind a door.

Shawn puts his hand on my shoulder when a stunning woman stands in front of me.

'Marhaba.' The woman says with a big smile. 

'Welcome.' She says in English this time.

She is beautiful. I stare at her too. Her light brown hair is short and shines in the sunlight. Where is that sunlight coming from? I start to look around the ceiling, spotting a lot of widows.

'Salaam.' I finally respond when Shawn calls my name.

The woman's smile gets bigger and she looks at me, starting with the same questions as the man at the boat asked me.

'My name is Mina and I will be your hostess during your stay.' 

My breath hitches in my throat at the sound of my mum's name, but I keep my mouth shut. 

'You can check in with my husband at the reception and he will bring you to your room after you fill in some forms.' She smiles.

'Thank you so much.' Shawn smiles at her.

'We are happy to have you as our guests. Where are you from if I may ask?'

'Scotland.'

'Canada.' Shawn and I both say at the same time.

I smile at Shawn.

'But we came from the Netherlands.' I smile at Mina.

'You are a lovely couple. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them.' She puts her hands together. 

'You can take a seat here and we will bring you some tea and the forms for you to fill in. If there are any problems, please tell us so we can take care of them immediately.'

Now I'm even amazed by how polite she is. I have never been welcomed like this.

Shawn and I sit down and wait for her to bring the forms and tea. 

The tea is amazing, it tastes like paradise on my tongue. It's sweet and warm and it makes me feel like I'm at home. Shawn needs to watch out, I may be staying here for the rest of my life.

'Oh, Shawn...' I sigh. 'I'm in love...' My heart glows when I look at him.

'I thought you realised that about a week ago.' He holds the pencil in his hand while looking at me.

'Not with you!' I say as if he insulted me. 

'With this place...' I look around again.

He chuckles and shakes his head while continuing to fill in the form. I do the same and when we are both finished we bring it to the man at the reception. 

He walks us to our room and tells us how the air conditioning works. The man with a lovely smile gives us a piece of paper.

'You can pick what you would like to eat this evening and we will prepare it for you. Please don't take a long time to decide because it will be freshly-prepared and that takes a couple of hours.'

'I will bring it to you within thirty minutes if that's ok?' I smile, putting my purse onto the bed.

He nods before he leaves us alone in the room and I sit down on the bed. The bedroom is also breathtaking. The golden sheets are made of silk and I look at the beautiful sedari in the corner of the room. The room is spacious and also full of amazing architecture.

'I don't feel well.' Shawn says when I look at him.

All the colour is drained from his face again and he runs to the bathroom. 

I hear him throw up and follow after him immediately. I put my hand on his back as he throws up. I try not to look at him before I will be throwing up next to him too. 

I start to gag when I hear the vomit coming out of his mouth. I manage to keep it in and sit down across from Shawn when he flushes the toilet. 

We barely fit together in the small space but we both refuse to get up. I see Shawn shivering.

'Are you ok?' I ask, grabbing his hand.

'Yes.' He sighs.

He's not.

'Did you eat something wrong?' I frown, thinking about the sandwich I bought him.

'No, I don't think so.' He runs his fingers through his hair.

I see drops of sweat forming on his forehead and I stare at him. There is something really wrong with him. 

I reach out and put my hand on his forehead, feeling the warmth radiate from his forehead before I even touched him.

'You have a fever, Shawn!' I raise my voice.

'No I don't!' He says, feeling his own forehead.

'You do. Get up.' I say as I get up myself.

I hold his hand as I pull him to the bathroom next to the toilet. He stares at me when I look at the bath and turn the water on, feeling if it's warm enough.

'Take your clothes off.' I look at his body.

'No, I'm not taking a bath!'

'What? Are you six years old?! Take your clothes off and get in the bath!' I yell.

'I may not be six years old, but you sure sound like my mother.' He pouts while unzipping his pants.

I chuckle at his behaviour and try not to stare at his body as he gets into the bath.

'You should get naked too.' He stares at my clothes and tries his usual smirk with no success.

I see the muscles in his arms tense when he lowers himself into the hot water. 

I shake my head and only remove my shoes, taking a seat on the edge of the bathtub, only having my feet in the water.

'Turn around babe.' I tell him.

He turns around and his shoulders are between my legs with his back to me. I touch his head again and decide to ask the hostess about a doctor when he gets out of the bath. 

Shawn softly touches my hands and places them on his chest when I see him closing his eyes. I feel terrible for him. Seeing him with this fever and throwing up breaks my heart.

I grab the small bucket standing next to the bathtub and fill it with the water, pouring it on Shawn's back and shoulders for a couple of times. 

He is way too big for this bathtub and the water only reaches his waist. I feel him shiver between my legs and I softly pour a little bit of water over his head, making his curls wet.

'I feel terrible.'

He still keeps his eyes closed. 

'And I wanted to take you out to the city tonight.' He says with a broken voice.

'Just focus on getting better. There is nothing wrong staying inside for a few days. This place is like a palace. You will be the princess and I will be taking care of you.' I chuckle when he opens his eyes at the word "princess".

'I'm not a princess.' He frowns.

'I know. I'm sorry.' I kiss his wet hair and run my fingers through it.

Half an hour later of just sitting in silence, with me pouring water over Shawn's body he decides he wants to get out of the bathtub and just wants to lay down. 

I dry his body with a towel and he lets me do it to my surprise. When I watch him getting a boner he smiles at me.

'At least we know it still works, even when I'm not feeling well.' He chuckles.

I shake my head and laugh before giving him a pair of clean boxers. When I hand him a t-shirt and a pair of sweatpants he only puts the sweatpants on. 

Shawn walks to the bed and lays down. The moment he got out of the bathtub he started sweating again. 

I quickly fill in what food we want to eat later today and walk out of the room to give it to the hostess and ask for a doctor.

I kiss Shawn before leaving the room, closing the door behind me. When I find Mina I hand her the piece of paper. I explain Shawn's symptoms to her in Arabic and she tells me her husband was a male nurse before they started this riad hotel.

'He can take a look at him later today if that's ok with you?' She says.

'That would be amazing, thank you so much.' I walk back to the room.

Later that day her husband knocks on the door to take a look at Shawn. When he measures his temperature and sees him shiver he tells us that it's food poisoning. He could have gotten it from anything he says, and it will be over within a day or two.

'I can bring the food to your room if that's better?' He says when I step outside the room with him.

'Yes, please.' I smile at him before going inside again.

When I sit down on the sedari I open my laptop and look up some information about food poisoning. Shawn is laying in bed by himself and I catch him staring at me when I close my laptop again. 

I pretend I didn't see him and fish a book out of my suitcase.

'What are you reading?' Shawn asks, rolling over to the other side of the bed.

'Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption...' I read the cover to him.

'What is it about?' He asks, sitting up in the bed.

I stand up and walk to him, sitting down on the edge of the bed. I read the summary on the back of the book and Shawn listens to me with his eyes fixated on me like a curious cat.

'Can you read it to me? I like hearing the sound of your voice.'

'Yes, of course.' I open the book and sit down next to him.

Shawn puts his head onto my lap and I run my fingers through his curls while reading the beginning of the book to him.

"I wasn't prepared to meet a condemned man. In 1983, I was a twenty-three-year-old student at Harvard Law School working in Georgia on an internship, eager and inexperienced and worried that I was in over my head. I had never seen the inside of a maximum-security prison —and had certainly never been to death row." I read out loud.

Shawn listens to me without interruptions as I turn page after page, reading to him for hours straight. Before we notice it, it's already dark outside and someone is knocking on the door. I quickly put a bookmark between the book and close it. 

It makes the sound I love when you close a hardcover book.

'Hi. Is it ok if we bring the food in twenty minutes?' Mina asks me.

'Yes, that's perfect.' I say before closing the door again.

Precisely twenty minutes later I open the door and they set up a table full of delicious food. 

They leave, and Shawn and I sit down next to each other. I open the tajine they put down in the middle of the table and watch the steam disappear in the air.

'That smells amazing, but my stomach is turning inside out.' Shawn says, staring at the food.

'I know, but you have to eat something to get better.' I pick up a piece of bread.

Shawn stares at the food with his arms crossed as if it's annoying him. 

I tear a small piece of bread off the bread and put it in the tajine, grabbing some food and bringing it to my mouth.

'Are you really supposed to eat it with bread?' He asks.

'Yes. It's a part of the culture, plus, it tastes way better than when you eat it with a fork or spoon.' I roll my eyes.

'You do that a lot.' He looks at me.

'What?' I ask, pushing a piece of bread his way.

'Rolling your eyes.' 

I roll my eyes and chuckle.

'You have to eat something Shawn.' I say again.

'Can you feed me?' He asks.

'Why?' I frown.

'Because I don't want to lift my hand. It takes so much effort to even sit straight. I could be falling off of this chair any second, I would watch out if I were you.' He says with a soft smile.

'You're such a drama queen.' I laugh, bringing a piece of bread to his mouth.

'Mhm.' He closes his eyes. 'That tastes amazing!' He smiles at me.

We finish dinner and I change my clothes, getting into bed next to Shawn. 

An hour later Shawn runs to the toilet again, throwing up everything we just ate. I put a wet flannel on his forehead and lay down again. He turns on The Big Bang Theory and we watch it together in silence.

'If there's anything I can do for you, just let me know, please.' I look up at him.

'J-Just hold me. Please.' He shivers.

I wrap my arms around him, never wanting to let go of him.

Shawn's POV

I keep turning around in bed in the middle of the night, and when I reach out for Beth I don't feel her next to me. I open my eyes and look around the dark room. 

There's a little bit of light coming from outside the room, enough for me to see something.

'Beth?' I see her standing in the middle of the room.

I rub my eyes and blink a couple of times. Am I imagining this or is this really happening? 

I slowly climb out of bed, walking to Beth. She's standing in the middle of the room, reaching for the chandelier that hangs three meters above her head. There is no way she can reach that. I stand still and stare at her. 

Is this really not a dream?

Beth is just standing still with her right hand in the air, reaching for nothing. Her eyes are partly closed. Is she sleepwalking?

'What are you doing?' I stand still in front of her.

'I need to get the towels off the roof.' She says with a sleepy voice.

Ok, this shit is starting to creep me out. Am I hallucinating?

'Why? There are no towels on the roof.' I tell her.

'The rain is going to make them wet. I need to get the towels off the roof.' She repeats.

A scared expression forms on my face and I am too afraid to touch her. My mom always told me that if you touch someone who's sleepwalking they turn into a zombie. 

That may not be true, but I'm not even sure this is really happening so I'm not risking anything.

'Beth. There are no towels on the roof! Get back into bed.' I say again.

Something changes and it looks like she snaps out of it. She lowers her hand slowly and her eyes open completely now. I still stare at her with a creeped out expression. 

She looks me in the eyes and blinks a couple of times.

'I was supposed to get those towels.' She says again.

'You have lost your mind! Get back into bed!' I say again.

She turns around and holds on to the bed while walking back to her side of the bed. She lays down and pulls the sheets over her body. Her breathing changes and I'm sure she has fallen asleep again.

I still am in the same spot. Have I lost my mind? 

I walk to the nightstand and pick Beth's phone up, opening her Samsung notes.

"I did not dream it." I type.

If that's still there tomorrow I'm not crazy.

-

I climb out of bed the next morning, grabbing Beth's phone is the first thing I do and I open her Samsung notes. 

The note is still there, I didn't dream it. It actually happened!

Beth is still asleep and when I want to give her a kiss I jump out of bed, running to the toilet again. This throwing up has to stop, it's making me crazy.

Elizabeth's POV

I wake up to the sound of Shawn throwing up again. 

I climb out of bed and walk to the bathroom, putting my hair in a ponytail when I see Shawn brushing his teeth. He starts to brush his tongue aggressively.

'Shawn, stop. You're going to throw--' I try to say when he gags again and throws up in the sink.

Good morning to you too...

I quickly walk away when I start to gag myself.

'Once upon a time there was a woman named Mina, she was the best person you ever met...' I whisper, trying to take my mind off all the vomit I have seen these two days.

I hear Shawn throw up again and I start to gag again.

Oh god, I hate this feeling.

'She always holds you when you cry, she always hugs you when you arrive, and she always has the biggest smile when she looks into your eyes.' I continue.

'Nope, this is not going to--' I run to the toilet and throw up too.

All the gastric acid that formed in my stomach overnight comes out of my mouth, burning like crazy. It hurts so much my eyes start to water from the pain. 

I sit down next to the toilet again and try to breathe slowly, hoping for the burning pain to disappear.

'Beth.' I hear Shawn call my name.

'Yes?' I say with my head against the wall.

'I lost my stomach down the drain.' He chuckles. 'How about you?'

How can he still be positive and make jokes while he has been throwing up all day?

'I just burned my oesophagus with all the gastric acid in my stomach.' I say, flushing the toilet again before getting up.

'Ah.' He touches his throat while walking back to the bed.

I wash my face and brush my teeth. I change my t-shirt and sit down next to Shawn. I put my hand on his forehead and he doesn't feel hot today. I look at him with a smile.

'Your fever is gone.' I say with a smile. 

Thank you for reading!

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