Moving Forward

Chapter Twenty

I screwed my face and made sure my expression was clear for him to see. Then I burst out laughing.

"You've got to be kidding me." I folded my arms and regained a serious look on my face.

"What?" He asked. His face actually looked like he genuinely didn't know.

"You almost killed me on the beach today..." I paused to recant my statement, "Yesterday... By trying to pull me into the water. Why on earth would I let you help now?"

"You know me and I am a trained lifeguard."

I squinted my eyes. My mind tried to wrap itself around the million things he did as a profession. It confused the living day lights out of me. "What?" I probably didn't hear right.

"I'm a trained lifeguard."

His body shivered a bit and I peered beyond him. The rain was drizzling.

"Um... Can I come in?" He hugged himself. Rion was still wearing the attire from the beach. I hadn't noticed until he started shivering.

I glanced back at the clock on the wall and decided there and then that it was a bad idea. "Uh... nah. It's late and you should go home."

"What about my request?"

I chuckled at his effort to try again. "You are definitely crazy to believe that I would take you up on that offer. Goodbye Mr Bowles."

I closed the door gently, careful not to wake any neighbors. I knew I was being a hypocrite for doing that after I had laughed out loud at his request, but I didn't care.

I pulled my curtains near the door. The rain was falling heavier with gusty winds. Rion ran through the rain splashing an immense amount of water from puddles in the road. He finally met the inside of his van and drove off.

The nerve of him to even ask me about the beach. Why on earth would I allow him to help me. I would rather drown. The apartment was much cooler as the rain pounded outside. I had left the windows open earlier in the day for the bedroom to circulate. But now it was stuck from the high winds barreling outside.

Using all my strength, I tugged the window hard. Then handle released in my hand. Shit! "Now what?" The unruly breeze was blowing water all over my bed head.

Papers were useless because the rain soaked it through and a plastic bag was too light to hold anything in place. I unraveled some duct tape I found in a drawer and plastered it over the frame.

I looked over at my bed, it was soaked. Ugh! No... Sleeping on a half soggy mattress was a recipe for pneumonia. I grabbed my pillows, a blanket and headed to the couch. Back to square one.

I huddled up into the couch and covered from head to toe with the pillow awkwardly placed under my neck. After adjusting my body's position a million times, I finally fell asleep on my back.

~~~~~

"Ugh!" I rubbed the back of my neck.

"Are you ok Mals?" Anya asked as she packed files in her mini cabinet.

My neck was sore from sleeping three nights straight on the couch. Monday morning I had dragged the mattress outside for the sun to dry it. But the rain came just before I left work the evening. The entire mattress got soaked leaving me to sleep another night on the couch. Feeling lazy to move it, I left it in the same position to dry for another day. Things got worse when it absorbed my neighbor's smoke from the fire she lit to burn her paper waste. The mattress smelt like charcoal and death.

"Not really, I've been sleeping on the couch since my mattress turned on me."

"Why don't you just buy a new one?"