The Lonely Egotist (MewGulf AU)

🌞Chapter 14🌻

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I heard the sound of a telephone ringing.

Whoever it was, I thought it was pretty rude of them to call while I was trying to sleep.

As I slowly returned to consciousness and opened my eyes, I saw a family of whales.

"What the---?"

I knew I didn't have anything like that in my bedroom. It took only a second longer for my surprise to break into realization.

The sheets around me were blue. The pillows were navy blue and the walls had cool blue stripes on them. As my eyes swept around the room, my memories returned.

Now I remembered, I came to tour Mew's hotel and then he had fallen asleep, and I'd followed suit.

"Thanks. Could you bring up some lunch, too? For two, yes. Thanks again."

I heard Mew's voice and turned to look at him. He was sitting with his back to me, still dressed in his suit. He was talking on the phone in the bedside table.

He hung up and turned back around, as if he'd felt me looking at him.

"Ah, you're awake. I don't even remember falling asleep."

As far as I knew, Mew wasn't a very expressive person, but he looked almost embarrassed as he spoke.

"What time is it?"

"Twelve-thirty. We slept for almost two hours."

I was shocked I'd fallen so deeply asleep.

"I bet you're hungry. And your clothes are dry now, so I asked the maid to bring them up with some lunch."

As soon as he said the word lunch, I felt my intense hunger. I'd overslept that morning and had only had time to eat a flavorless nutrition bar, so of course I was starving by now.

My stomach grumbled plaintively and Mew smirked at the sound.

"It'll be a few more minutes. But here, you can have this."

Mew dug around inside a pocket of his jacket until he found three cream candies, all wrapped in fancy paper. I had the same thought I'd had yesterday...does he take this candy with him everywhere?

"Thanks."

Suspicion swirled in my mind, but the nostalgic packaging called to me and I accepted one.

I pulled open the translucent paper  and tossed the oval-shaped, cream-colored candy inside it into my mouth. A gentle sweetness filled my mouth with its familiar flavor.

"What's so funny?"

I was smiling to myself and Mew inclined his head in curiosity, popping one of the candies into his own mouth.

"It's just been so long since I had one of these. I told you how I grew up at an old-fashioned in, right? It was on a little island in the Inland Sea with about ten thousand people living on it. There are convenience stores and all kinds of development there now, but when I was little it was the middle of nowhere. There was only one store in walking distance. There wasn't much to choose from for candy. I think all they had were these cream candies and chocolate. I would beg my mother for them all the time, and I remember when she finally bought some for me."

"But didn't the inn bring in its own shipments from the mainland?" Mew asked curiously. I knew exactly the kind of inn he was picturing, something with an older, no-nonsense woman in charge and lots of maids, a cook, and a full kitchen staff. I suppose something like that was more in line with the typical idea of an inn, but the one my family owned wasn't that impressive.

"It was an old inn on a tiny island. It was more like we rented spare rooms in the house than that we had a big, empty inn. My father would catch fish and then he and my mother would cook together. We got all our vegetables from a garden behind the house. And I have five younger siblings, so we were really packed in there. It was really something special to have something to yourself."

As the candy melted in my mouth, I kept talking, remembering more and more.

"The little island is surrounded by ocean, the elementary and middle schools are in the same building and there are more parents than students at the school festivals."

"We had to go off the island for high school, but the boat was canceled whenever there was heavy fog, so we would be forced to miss school. The worst was missing the last boat back to the island at six o'clock, or when the boat couldn't go back out because the water was rough, and we had to stay the night at teachers houses."

"I left home to go to college and then got this job. It has been more than two years since I've been back to the island "

"What a nice memory," Mew murmured. He had listened to me in silence.

I looked up at him and our eyes locked. Was it just my imagination, or did he look somehow sad? Before I could look any further into that impression, Mew turned away quickly.

We weren't friendly enough with each other that I could ask about something he obviously didn't want to talk about, so I didn't say anything. The conversation stumbeld to a halt. Then we heard the doorbell ring.

"Here's that food you were waiting for."

Mew got up from the bed, showing no sign of the expression I had glimpsed a moment ago. He walked to the door with long strides and I hurried to arrange my dishelved bathrobe. Presumably, all I'd done was put on my bathrobe while my clothes dried, but if the maid saw me looking so rumpled, I was sure she would find it odd.

I heard a muffled conversation and then the door clicked shut.

Mew came back carrying a tray with our lunches on it and a plastic bag with my clothes inside.

"Just what you've been waiting for."

I didn't know if he was talking about the food or my clothes---or maybe both?

"Thank you...very much."

I decided to get dressed first, just so I would be able to relax. I took the bag from Mew and turned around.

I picked up my underwear, which had been ironed. I found that bizarre, and pulled them on with a wry smile at the odd luxury. I shuffled into my jeans and t-shirt, then turned back around.

"I asked them to just throw something together for us. I hope you didn't have any special requests."

"Yeah, I'll eat anything."

Mew set two plates of what like  rice pilaf on the honey-colored table. Steam rose off of it---had they cooked it here at the hotel?

I was drooling. I wiped my lips and sat down in the wooden chair.

I pretended not to notice that Mew was watching me indulgently, like someone feeding their pet.

TBC