Graceful Deception

7. And I Thought The Decoder Was Snazzy

Chapter 7

And I Thought The Decoder Was Snazzy

 

 

The next morning when I woke up, I was entirely too comfortable, almost too much that I didn’t want to move.  John was behind me, his chest pressed up against my back with one arm cushioned underneath my head and the other wrapped around my waist, holding me to him.  I could feel his warm, steady breath brushing along the top of my head since it was nestled underneath his chin, so I knew he was still sleeping.

Trying not to wake him, I twisted under his hold so that I was lying on my back and looked over at him.  I smiled slightly, biting my lip to keep myself from laughing at the look on his face, his face relaxed and mouth opened slightly.  Even though he was the one who’d said that we were going to have to be up at a decent hour, he could use a little bit more sleep.  Besides, he was the one who was whining about how he had been up for thirty-seven hours straight. 

As I moved off of the bed, I put one of the extra pillows in my place, watching as he tightened his hold on it in his sleep, burying his face into it.  Smiling again, I leaned down and ran my fingers through his hair once before bending down to kiss his forehead, which was the only thing exposed by the pillow. 

After I went to my room to brush my teeth and through my hair, I went downstairs and could hear voices coming from down the hallway in the kitchen once I reached the foyer.  When I looked at the clock, I realized that it was a lot earlier in the morning that I’d thought.  No wonder the sun had just started peeking through the windows and wasn’t already shining.

The smell of breakfast cooking greeted me when I walked into the kitchen.  Marta was at the stovetop, Paul was reading the paper at the table with a mug in hand, and Stella and Ren were sitting opposite of him, looking at something on Ren’s laptop. 

“Morning,” I said, smiling as I walked toward the table. 

Paul was the first one to greet me.  “Good morning, Emmy,” he said before taking a sip from his cup.

“You’re up early,” Stella smiled with a wink.  She moved her chair slightly pushing back the other one beside her for me.  “I would have thought you’d sleep later.”

I sat down, shrugging.  “Well, I’m up anyway,” I said.

“Is John still asleep?” Paul asked, raising an eyebrow. 

“Um…”  Did they think that I actually slept in his room with him instead of the room that I’d been given?  Sure, they knew we were together, but did they think that I would do that?  By the looks on their faces…yes.  Yes, I would have.  “Yeah, he is.  I don’t think he’ll be up for a little while.”

“Well, he’s was up for a long time before, so he should be able to catch up on sleep before you guys leave,” he smiled as Marta set down a cup of tea in front of me with a smile. 

“Let the guy get his beauty sleep,” Stella grinned. 

Ren snorted.  “Lord knows he needs it.”

I just rolled my eyes, though Stella and Paul both started laughing. 

There was just random chatting over breakfast.  Paul and I were the ones talking mostly, while Stella and Ren continued doing whatever it was they were on the laptop.  He wanted to know what had been going on with me over the past three month with life and school and I wanted to know more about what had been happening since I hadn’t been here.  Most of what he said John had already told me the night before, but it was good to get a little more information that I was actually able to focus clearly on.