The Author and Her Bodyguard

Chapter 37

I woke up and instantly wanted to go back to sleep. My body ached. Head hammering with a pulse of its own. My throat hurt when I swallowed. A pinprick of pain stung my face. I reached up and found a small bandaid sitting across my cheek. It took me a long groggy moment to realize why I felt like the Hulk had thrown me around like Loki. The stalker.

I reached for my phone and called Tate. He answered on the fourth ring. "Do you have any idea what time it is?" he responded, groggily.

"No," I said rubbing my eyes.

"Three... AM!" he groaned. "Please tell me you are fine so I can go back to sleep."

"I'm fine," I answered.

"Good" he muttered.

"Hey, Tate," I called before he could hang up.

"Yeah?"

"How'd I get to the hotel room?"

"Just call him Laliana." Then Tate hung up like a little unhelpful, yet totally justified jerk.

I stared at my phone, and after a long pause, called Aiden. The person I had actually wanted to call. The phone hadn't finished its first ring before I heard him pick up. "Summers?"

"Hi," I said.

There was a long pause. 

"Something wrong?" I heard him shuffling and then there was a gentle knock on the dividing room door I hadn't noticed before. I had forgotten that my hotel room had a door that attached two rooms together.

"Can I come in?" he asked.

"Yes."

Aiden walked in, sporting a pair of sweatpants and a worn-out grey shirt. His hair poked up at odd ends. He hung up the phone and stopped a foot from my bed, silently taking me in. I still wore my clothes from earlier, my blond hair a wild mess of tangles. 

"I didn't mean to wake you."

"I wasn't sleeping well," he replied quietly.

We both stared at each other for a moment. I wasn't sure what to say. I just knew I had wanted to see him. But now the spontaneous phone call felt idiotic. Nothing good happens after 2 AM.

"Does it hurt?" Aiden asked, motioning to my cheek. To the small cut that the stalker had left behind. 

I shook my head. "Not really." Out of all the things that had happened, the cut felt small. The cut was temporary where the fear felt like a permanent edition to my psyche.

"How'd I get here?" I asked rubbing my temples trying to calm my throbbing headache.

"You fell asleep in the car. I carried you up."

"Oh." It seemed to be the only word I was capable of saying. "Thanks," I added after another long pause. 

He moved back towards the door. "Night Summers."

"Night Aiden," I echoed behind him, watching him go.

He stopped at the door, his back towards me. "I shouldn't have let you walk out there by yourself," he said quietly.

"I shouldn't have kept going the moment I realized I was walking by myself." My hands shook and I wove my fingers together to keep them steady.

"He can't hurt you anymore," Aiden said, hand on the doorknob.

"Does that mean you are leaving?" I asked into the darkness.

"You want me to," he replied before closing the door between us.