12 You Make Me Sick

Ren Wei finished his five-mile run on the treadmill and wiped sweat from his face. What a day. Bailey Gallup brought out the worst in Chase Meadows and made Ren downright sick. The last time he had run into her, he'd ended up in the emergency room with heart palpitations and cold sweats. He wasn't about to let her get him down this time. He couldn't afford to with his genetic predisposition.

He chugged some water and made his way to the kitchen, where he opened the cabinet next to the sink. Other people stored medications in the bathroom. He kept his in the kitchen cabinet on a three-tier shelf. The top row was devoted to maintenance medications, both the Western medicine and the traditional Chinese herbal remedy varieties. The middle shelf held vitamins and supplements. He reserved the bottom shelf for his emergency meds, which he rarely needed, but when he did, he wanted them easy to reach.

He'd already hit the emergency anti-anxiety meds the minute he arrived home. Between those and the run, he'd managed to avoid hiding in the back of his closet. The back of the closet was his answer to a decompression chamber. He would sit in the quiet dark and clear his mind. This had been his go-to answer to stress since he was a kid trying to escape the pressures of demanding parents.

What was with Bailey attacking them? Did she think they would hurt her? All Chase meant to do was protect her from the press and Reyes. Ren agreed with Chase about one thing, though. Bailey should have pressed charges against Marcus Reyes. No one who called himself a man should ever force himself on a woman. If one woman wasn't willing, a good-looking, healthy, and wealthy man like Reyes would find fifty others who were more than willing to date him.

Of course, that was in theory. Ren considered himself okay looking, at least for now, and he didn't have women lined up to date him. For that matter, he'd not dated in so long that he was pretty sure he had forgotten how. The schedule he kept working as Chase Meadow's personal assistant didn't allow a lot of time for dating or prioritizing a family, not that he planned on having a family.

Huntington's disease ran in his family. He'd watched his grandmother and father waste away from it, and he was doing everything he could to fight off the onset as long as possible. He wouldn't put a new generation through the same kind of hell. He was always on the lookout for a new symptom, and he had his doctor on speed dial. There was no way he would be the last one to know or acknowledge he was on a countdown to death. Worse than death was the countdown to the inability to care for his basic needs without help.

As infuriating as Bailey Gallup was, she would throw him into early symptoms. If he were honest with himself, though, he was too old to claim early signs at thirty-five. The onset of Huntington's typically happens between the ages of thirty and forty. And now Chase wanted him to let the woman go back to live streaming.

Ren disagreed with Chase's decision. In fact, if he had his way, they would end her contract immediately. With her temper, she was a liability. He was still trying to determine why no one had reported her nasty nature before. He had a hard time thinking she only behaved this way around Chase and him. He would have to order a new investigation to see what he could uncover and use against her.

He made a mental note to watch more of the past episodes of The Happy Homemaker. For the life of him, he couldn't understand the show's popularity unless the man bashing he took the other day was the reason. As far as he could tell, both women had always been single. They had a full staff of employees to take care of their home and grounds, and both worked long hours, which would make it almost impossible to supervise any home. They regularly offered advice on taking care of children and managing a husband, yet they had neither. But none of these factors affected their ranking.

He gathered his evening dose of medication and took a packet of the herbs that Ren had specially blended to treat his condition. The herbs were added to the spinach, banana, apple, and avocado for a green shake in the blender. A shake in the morning and one at night made up the brunt of his daily nutrition.

With a quick blast of the blender, he poured the contents into a glass and chugged it on the way to the shower. He had to wash away the daily grime, or he wouldn't be able to sleep. He could almost feel the bacteria on his skin eating away at him like a billion bugs. He shook away the imagery. His psychiatrist would be so upset if he relapsed into germophobia, and if Chase found it, he would likely fire him again. Without his job, he would be lost for a purpose. He had no hobbies unless taking care of his health could be classified as a hobby.

While Chase had instructed him to put Bailey back to work, he hadn't laid down any other specifics. Ren would use that to his advantage. If he played his cards right, She would walk away and take that neurotic sister with her. Judy Gallup called him at least twice a day to pass on a message to Chase, who had stopped taking her calls long ago. Never mind how many layers of management stood between her and the CEO. Judy made it clear she was accustomed to skipping the chain of command.

Ren could use that to his advantage as well. He had already discerned that Judy was the driving force behind The Happy Homemaker and probably the only one who had any control over her sister. If he caused friction between the sisters, they may splinter naturally and take the show down with them. He was almost ready to pay the breach of contract fee for them if they would walk away. He could afford it.

He took off his clothes in the bathroom, careful to put his clothes in the hamper. Everything had a place in Ren's world, and he was careful to stay organized. He kept his pre-wash, his antibacterial wash, and his moisturizing soap in the shower. His shampoo and conditioning regime was even more detailed, but at least when he was done, he could sleep on clean sheets without scratching holes in his skin. He had tiny scars all over his body where he had done just that in the past.

He'd feel sorry for himself and all his neurosis if he weren't so rich and happy working with Chase. Chase gave him the purpose he failed to find satisfying as a youth when he let everyone else decide what he should do with his life.

After his shower, Ren dressed in sterilized pajamas. He opened the door to his bedroom and stepped out of his after-shower slippers and over the threshold. He never entered his bedroom until he was clean, and he never left his bedroom until he had thoroughly cleaned it each morning. This was his sanctuary. No one was allowed in there, not even the housekeeper who took care of the rest of the house.

He had decorated the room sparsely with navy and gray linens. A bookshelf took up two walls. The shelves were filled with his favorite books. There were no pictures, no figurines—nothing that would collect dust without a purpose. The floor-to-ceiling windows were tinted to allow him to look out without anyone seeing in, so Ren avoided heavy drapes or blinds that might harbor dust mites. He felt allowing the books to stay was already a luxury that went against his nature, but each book had paid a price to be there. Each book went through a multi-step sterilization process which included quarantining each book in a vacuumed sealed bag and undergoing disinfection.

That was another problem with dating. He couldn't see a woman going through all the steps necessary to welcome her into his bed. In his experience, as soon as he mentioned the Huntington's, which he tended to do upfront, they never made it to a second date.

Maybe that was key to dealing with the Gallup women. If he dated one of them and scared her away, they would both disappear like the women in his past had. But which sister? The psycho or the neurotic one? At least he could commiserate with the neurotic one long enough to get through the one date it would take.

Chase must never know. Chase liked to maintain control of everything that had to do with MGM. If he found out Ren was plotting behind his back, he'd put the hurt on him like nobody's business. What Chase did to Bailey today was nothing compared to what Ren would have to go through.

It would be worth it, though.