Let Me Be the One by Christa Maurice

yes—I—yes, I am.” Oh God. Dork alert.
    “What’s it about?”
    “An incubus.” Suzi could feel the blood rushing to her face. He was going to ask what that was, and she was going to have to explain.
    “What’s that?”
    Damn. They were both staring at her. She could not say the words “male sex demon” to them. “It’s a kind of demon.”
    Jason nodded. “Cool.”
    Suzi fidgeted. Jason had moved on to stare out the window at the house, but Brian was still watching her. She carried the jar over to the counter and found a teacup. After heating up water in the cup, she stirred in a generous spoonful of orange goop from the jar.
    “What’s that?” Jason leaned over her shoulder, watching her.
    Suzi tensed. “It’s a reasonable facsimile of citron tea.”
    “A what?”
    “It’s close enough. I couldn’t find actual citron tea so marmalade will have to do.”
    “That smells great. Can I have some?”
    Suzi bit the inside of her lip. Jason was standing so close she could feel the heat of his body. “If you want.” She reached up for more cups. Logan would want some, too. Too bad the cups weren’t across the room, giving her an excuse to move. Jason continued leaning over her shoulder, watching her rotate cups of water through the microwave and adding a large spoonful of marmalade to each.
    “Suzi, what are you doing here?” Logan demanded.
    Suzi turned and gained a few inches from Jason. “John sounded a little off this morning so I went to town to get some tea.”
    Logan came over to check the cups, and Jason shifted back a step. “I’m glad you came in. I missed you.” He kissed her temple.
    “I missed you, too.” She handed him a cup. “Drink up. I don’t want you getting sick, too.” She handed another cup to Jason and set one on the table in front of Brian. She should have asked him if he wanted it first, but she couldn’t bear to get a grunt for an answer.
    Jason took a deep breath of steam before taking a sip. “This is fantastic, isn’t it Brian?”
    “Yeah.” Brian cradled the cup in his hands, letting the steam rise over his face.
    Suzi carried the remaining cups down the hall to the others. Wan and breathing through his mouth, John was slouched against the wall. If he’d been this bad at breakfast, she wouldn’t have let him leave the house. “John, you look awful.”
    “You are here. Logan said he thought he heard you,” John said.
    Greg took the cups out of her hands. He was a little pale, too. Whatever they had, it was going around.
    Suzi checked John’s temperature and felt the glands in his neck. Swollen, just as she’d suspected. He was in bad shape. “You should be in bed.”
    “You coming, too?”
    “You should be in bed alone.”
    Jason walked in, followed by Brian and Logan. “All right boys. Back to work.”
    “John needs to go to bed,” Suzi said.
    “He’s not dying, and we have work to do. You can work through it, can’t you John?” Jason asked.
    John gave him a thumbs up.
    Suzi braced herself. Some battles were worth fighting, and this was one of them. “He could work through it, but he shouldn’t. He’s got some kind of nasty virus his body isn’t prepared for. He needs rest.”
    “Honey, it’s just a cold. It’ll pass.”
    Suzi bristled at the patronizing tone in Jason’s voice. “It’ll pass sooner if he gets some rest. He can’t do any good here, anyway. What he can do is pass his germs around so every one of you gets sick. And then you’ll all be down for the duration.”
    “There’s no need to baby him,” Jason said. “Sometimes you just have to do the job.”
    “We don’t all have to be here,” Logan said, no doubt trying to avert disaster. “And we planned to record guitar, anyway.”
    Suzi held out her hand. “Come on, John.”
    “And who made you a doctor?” Jason asked.
    Suzi opened her mouth to tell him who made her a doctor, but Brian strolled between them and said, “Don’t be a bastard, Ebenezer. We can work