Who is Batman?

Andrea reclined back on the couch and took a moment to look the man over. Tilting her head slightly, she pursed her lips in though.

“What?” He asked, squinting at her slightly as if the light was bothering his eyes.

“You look slightly familiar as if I should know you,” Andrea told him, “but I can’t place where I’ve seen you before. Of course, I’ve only been here for two weeks, so…” she shrugged.

“Mm, well, I can’t help you until I know who I am myself,” he told her. He glanced around, looking slightly uncomfortable.

“Just ask. I’m an easy-going person,” Andrea informed him.

Returning his gaze to her once more, he asked, “I hate to impose, but could I sleep on your couch tonight? Maybe by morning, my memory will have returned, at least maybe enough to know where home is anyway.”

Andrea nodded and stood up as she replied, “Let me just go find a pillow and some blankets. Would you like to use the bathroom first?”

The man huffed lightly as he slowly stood, weaving backward and forward slightly before getting his balance.

“Will you be okay, or do you need my help?” Andrea asked worriedly.

“I’ll be fine,” the man muttered as he turned, “at least I think I will. My ribs are beginning to feel as if a semi-truck might have run over them at some point. Actually, I think my whole body is beginning to feel that way. I believe I must have put up quite a fight before they got me down.”

“Good for you,” Andrea told him. Standing up, she watched him make his way to the bathroom before she went to her closet and pulled out blankets and her extra pillow. By the time she had laid them on the couch for him, he was leaving the bathroom.

The man was pale and breathing hard as he slowly made his way to the couch. He collapsed on it and softly chuckled as he said, “Who knew going to the bathroom could be so hard.”

Andrea laughed with him as she covered him up with the blanket. She agreed with a nod. “Yeah, who knew. Maybe that’s what happens when a semi-truck runs you over,” she teased and gave him a wink. “I’ll let you rest, and I’ll see you in the morning. If I happen to get up before you, I may run to the shops for some food, so if you awaken and I’m not here, you’ll know where I’ve gone.”

He softly hummed as he squinted up at her before asking, “If I have a concussion, should I be alone?”

Andrea sighed and replied, “Probably not, but I have nothing to feed us in the morning, and if I keep checking on you in the night, hopefully, you’ll be fine by morning.”

He gave a slight nod as his eyes closed once more, saying, “I am tired, but I feel as if I was tired before this happened. Hm, maybe this is fate’s way of telling me I need a vacation.”

“If it is, I don’t think much of fate’s humor,” Andrea told him dryly. “I’ll wake you in roughly four hours.”

“Goodnight,” he said.

“Goodnight.”

The man grunted as he swung his feet to the floor the following day and slowly sat up. His head still felt like someone had hit him with an anvil, his body like someone had tried to pulverize him, and he still remembered nothing.

Standing slowly to his feet, he took a deep breath, smelling the goodness of bacon frying. He figured that must have been what had awakened him. He began to make his way to the bathroom slowly.

“Holy back muscles, Batman!”

He stopped moving, shocked at the exclamation coming from behind him. He slowly turned his head to find his hostess standing and staring.

She was holding up a fork, her eyes wide on her red face as she bit her bottom lip.

He raised an eyebrow as he said, “Excuse me?”

Andrea laughed, her eyes now on the floor as she said, “Sorry. I wasn’t expecting you to be shirtless since you had a t-shirt on last night, and the view of your back is awesome, by the way, despite the bruising.”

“The batman comment? What was that about?” He asked.

“I guess my co-worker Jennette is rubbing off on me. She doesn’t use what she calls dirty words. She just…”

“Has outbursts about batman, like the one you just had?”

“Ah, yeah, something like that,” Andrea muttered. Clearing her throat, she told him, “I found you a robe to wear if you want to take a shower. I also put a few things in the bathroom I thought you might need this morning. If you’d like I can wash your clothes, although I think that shirt you had on is nothing but rags now, so I bought you a cheap sweater to wear. And when I say cheap, I mean cheap. I looked at the name tag on the dress shirt you were wearing, which told me it cost as much or more as I make a week. In other words, it is one expensive shirt.”

He rubbed a hand down his face before he started toward the bathroom again. He muttered, “So, even if we know nothing else, we know I’m rich.”

“Yeah, I guess we do.”

He closed the bathroom door behind him. Twenty minutes later, he was back out feeling a little more lively than when he’d gone in. It always amazed him how good a shower makes a body feel.

“It smells nice in here,” he commented as he took a seat.

“Thanks. My mom believed us girls should know how to cook,” she said.

“Mm, I can cook if I have to, but these days Alfred…” he stopped talking as his eyes widened.

Andrea grinned as she mentioned, “You remember something.”

“I do, but I have no idea who Alfred is, just that he cooks for me more than I cook for myself.”

“Hey, that’s more than you knew five minutes ago,” she informed him, “so it’s something at least.”

He nodded, and they silently ate their breakfast.

Once they were finished, she stood up and fixed two cups of coffee before saying, “I have no idea how you take your coffee, so I’ll give you cream and sugar to put in it.”

He stared down at the coffee cup, feeling a mild distaste for the dark substance in front of him.

Andrea laughed, and when he looked up, she inquired, “You don’t drink coffee, do you?”

“Um… actually, I don’t think I do,” he agreed.

“It’s okay,” Andrea told him. “I’ll just give you more juice or water for now, and I’ll get some tea for you later. Um, I don’t suppose you know what kind of tea you drink? There are so many flavors of tea to choose from. I have a friend who drinks hot tea, and I know she’s pretty particular about what flavors she’ll drink.”

He sighed softly, closing his eyes, and tried to will the headache away. Suddenly, he remembered and smiled before telling Andrea, “Earl Gray is good.”

“Then Earl Gray you shall have, my friend,” Andrea told him. “So, it’s Sunday. What should we do?”

“I honestly don’t feel like much right now,” he told her. “Perhaps later I might, but for now, getting a bit more sleep sounds like a wonderful idea. There is something inside me that says I don’t relax much, always too much to do and so very little time to get it done in.”

“Mm, remembering how tired you looked last night and how tired you still look, I think I can agree with that assessment,” Andrea told him as she reached over and patted his hand gently. She then murmured, “So, go and lie down. It won’t take me but a moment to clean up, and then I have some laundry to do. After that, I have a book that has been calling my name for quite some time, and I might actually get around to reading it all today.”

He nodded, finished his juice, then stood up to slowly make his way back to the couch.

“You can watch TV if you like; the remote is on the coffee table.”

“No, no TV, that might make this headache worse,” he told her. “I wouldn’t mind a pain pill, though, if you have some.”

“Sure, give me a moment, and I’ll get them,” Andrea said as she headed for the bathroom. When she walked back out, she had two pills in her hand, which she handed him along with a bottle of water she’d brought from the kitchen.

After swallowing them, he sat down on the couch and lay his head back on his pillow. Within moments he was once more asleep.