His Touch

Chapter 3

I woke with a start, my heart pounding in my chest as the eyes from my dreams stayed vividly etched into my mind.

I looked around the room to find myself still in the New York apartment of my brother and his best friend Dominic, that part hadn't been a dream after all. I was laying on my side and found my book still open with my hand holding my place. The bath and this bed had relaxed me to the point I hadn't even put away my book before falling asleep.

I climbed out of the large bed, setting the book on my bedside table before making my way into the bathroom for my morning routine.

My stomach was grumbling, prompting me to leave my room in search of food. I found Max out in the hall coming towards my room. "Morning." I smile up at him.

"Morning." He smiles back. "Did you sleep alright?"

I nod. "Best sleep I've had in years."

Max nods. "Good. I'm off to the gym, help yourself to anything in the kitchen." He tells me. "I'll be back later and we can go do some shopping for your room."

"Ok. Thank you."

"Of course." He smiles at me. We walk down the staircase together before we go our separate ways, him heading off towards the elevator while I head into the kitchen.

I look through the pantry and the fridge before deciding to cook some poached eggs. I grab two eggs from the fridge before I begin my hunt for a saucepan, which took me way longer than it should have. I fill the saucepan with water before putting it onto the stove top to heat up. I get out a plate and cutlery while I wait for the water to come up to temperature.

I hear the fridge opening behind me, causing me to whip my head around to find Dominic pulling out the orange juice. "Morning." I say to him. Why is he always sneaking up on me? How is he even able to move around so quietly.

He glares at me as he pours himself a glass of orange juice before putting the bottle back into the fridge.

"I'm just making some poached eggs if you want some?" I offer.

Dominic shakes his head once. "No." He says bluntly before he turns and leaves the room.

I let out a breath as I turn back to my saucepan of bubbling water, I use a spoon to create a whirlpool before breaking the eggs into it one at a time. I cook my eggs for 3 minutes so the yolk is still running on the inside. I season the eggs with salt and pepper and eat standing at the bench, looking out at the blue sky that surrounds New York.

After breakfast I clean up my dishes and wipe down the bench before I go to head up stairs to get ready for the day. I almost jump out of my skin when I see Dominic sitting at the breakfast bar with his glare fixed on me. I offer him a small smile as I head out of the kitchen.

How long had he been sitting there for?

I pick out my outfit for today and curse myself as my eyes rake over the crinkled items of clothing hanging in the closet. I had completely forgotten to ask Max where the iron is kept and now he has gone out.

Swallowing the lump in my throat I head back down to the kitchen to try to find Dominic, hoping he would at least be kind enough to tell me where the iron is. In the kitchen I find Dominic at the breakfast bar still, but now he's munching on a dry bowl of cereal. His head turns to me as he seems to sense my presence, a slight look of annoyance crosses his face. "What is it, princess?"

I gulp. "Sorry, I just wanted to know where the iron is kept?" I ask softly.

He laughs lowly and flashes me a look as if to say 'You can't be serious.', he shakes his head. "We don't have an iron." He says bluntly.

"Oh." I nod once. Who doesn't own an iron? "Ok, thanks." I turn on my heel to leave.

"Max can send your stuff out to the dry cleaners for ironing." Dominic speaks up, causing me to turn back to look at him, only to see he's already focused back on his bowl of cereal.

"Ok." I mumble and head back up to my room. What am I going to do? I don't want to wear wrinkled clothes. My jeans are fine, it's just my tops are all wrinkled. And Max wants me to go to an office dinner tonight but all my dresses are wrinkled too. Maybe we can pick up an iron at the shops today.

I slip on a pair of my dark blue jeans, a bra, and grumble to myself as I pull on a wrinkled blouse. I head into the bathroom to do my hair, pulling it into a neat ponytail, and brush my teeth.

In the bedroom I grab my Jane Eyre off the night stand and walk over to sit in front of the window wall.

A soft knock comes to the bedroom door, pulling me out of the book and back into the present. "Ellie?" Max's soft voice calls from the hall.

"Yeah, come in." I reply, staying put on the floor at the window wall.

The door clicks open and I hear his footsteps coming into the room. I turn my head to look at him, he's now dressed in trousers and a white button down. "Hey." He smiles at me. "What're you doing on the floor?" He asks coming to stand next to me.

"Reading." I show him my book. "Plus I'm loving this view." I smile up at him.

Max helps me to my feet. "Are you ready to go out?"

I nod. "How was the gym?"

Max raises an eyebrow at me. "Do you really want to know?"

I laugh. "Not really."

Max laughed too and nodded his head. He went silent for a minute. "Dom said you might have some stuff that needs to be ironed?" His eyes trail down to my wrinkled shirt.

"Yeah, I figured we could just pick up an iron today?"

"We have all our stuff pressed at the dry cleaners." Max tells me.

I shake my head. "I don't need them sent out to the dry cleaners, I don't mind doing it all myself."

"Little miss OCD as always." He smirks at me teasingly. "We don't do the laundry ourselves, everything gets sent out for dry cleaning, it's the american way."

I grumble slightly. "You don't have your own laundry?"

He shakes his head. "Dry cleaning gets sent out Tuesdays and Fridays in the morning. But we can take down some of your stuff today if you'd like?"

"I don't want to be..."

"You're not." He tells me slightly firmly. He nods his head towards the closet. "Come on, let's grab some now and take it on our way to the shops so it's done for when we're coming home."

"Thank you." As we put a few of my tops and dresses into a bag I turn to Max. "Dominic really isn't that friendly, I thought you were exaggerating but no apparently not."

Max laughs lightly. "Yeah, he's a bit like that sometimes."

"Not with you. I heard you two last night before I came into the dining room, you were laughing about something."

Max tenses slightly for a minute before he eases up again. "Well he is my best friend so he can laugh with me. He's just uptight with most people though, especially people he doesn't know." He pauses and puts a hand on my shoulder. "Don't take it personally Ellie, he's just a grumpy wanker." He chuckles to himself.

I couldn't help but take it personally though.