Blessing in Disguise

Chapter 13: Neighbours

“Where is James?”

Elinor and Randy stared at their daughter, but said nothing. The amber eyes turned to Randy, pleading him to tell her, but the man, ashamed and guilty, looked away.

“Where is he? Tell me!” Nyx propped up in the bed, wanting to get up, but Elinor pushed her down and covered her with the quilt.

“He didn’t come.”

***

When Nyx opened the door, James, who refused to let go of the key that he had inserted in the keyhole, was dragged along by the door. The alcohol had numbed his brain and sense of balance, and James stumbled forward, tripping over the threshold. His legs gave in, and his knees hit the floor with a loud thud. James stretched his arms forward to protect his face, but Nyx was right in front of him, blocking his face’s way to the floor. In a last desperate attempt at stopping himself from falling, the hands that were stretched forward grasped Nyx’s clothes. The waistband of her pajamas to be more precise.

Nyx saw all this with wide open eyes, unable to comprehend how things developed like this. The last thing she expected was for James to tumble forward like that. Even less that he would try to steady himself by clutching on her clothes.

When she opened the door and saw James falling like a cut log, her first reaction was to get the hell out of the way. Just like Murmur’s reaction, even though the cat’s reaction was also to cry out loud as it ran to the living room as if her tail was on fire. However, the moment Nyx stepped back, James grabbed her clothes. The man was a head taller than her and heavier, there was no way a mere waistband would hold him up. Her pajama bottoms slipped halfway down her ass before the heavy weight of the grown-ass man took her down with him.

Both of them fell on the floor. James was on top of Nyx, his face resting on her stomach while the latter groaned in pain because of the numbing pain in her butt, yet she couldn’t suppress her laugh. Her arms unconsciously wrapped around James’s body, her hand patting his back.

“You really sent yourself to my arms, little rabbit. Don't blame this wolf for eating you up.”

The fall further muddled James. His nose filled with a soft powdery scent with a hint of lilies. The scent drowned him, making him feel like he was deep in warm water, so peaceful, so comforting, so familiar… He raised his head to look up at Nyx, and it took his brain a while to recognize the woman in front of him. His eyes glued to the mass of blue that was her hair and those amber eyes that almost looked like liquid gold. Those eyes for some reason always managed to stir up his emotions, but he wasn’t sure what those emotions were. To avoid those eyes, he looked at the messy blue hair again and his lips bent downwards in a frown. “Blueberry...” 

That one single word was mumbled so quietly and clumsily, Nyx almost thought he was talking gibberish.

Calling me nicknames, I see...

James's dark brown eyes that looked pitch black under the dim light coming from the corridor of her apartment narrowed and his thick brows furrowed.

“Why is you doing in my apartment?”

Nyx almost had a stroke hearing that question. Yet she was more bothered by the sudden bitter taste the way James looked at her left in her heart. Even as drunk as he was now, he didn’t like seeing her. Her heart thumped heavily and painfully slowly in her chest as she tried her best not to show how much that look in his face hurt her. The only thing that comforted her was that at least he didn’t push her away.

James simply stared at Nyx with those black eyes narrowed at her, but his chin rested on her stomach, and both of his arms were on both sides of her waist, his fingertips barely grazing her body.