The Lady Next Door - A Sequel to "The Man Next Door"

Chapter 10: Life Line

The hotel telephone blared throughout his room at around midnight, Patrick jumped up fast at the sudden noise that came from his bedside table. Grumpily he picked it up and held the speaker close, pushing off the covers, "hello?" He hears the chirpy voice of the porter boy on the other line, talking to somebody in the distance.

"Are you expecting any company, Mr. Wilson?" Steven asks.

Patrick stares up at the ceiling as he lets himself fall back into his pillow, "no?" He responds to the phone.

"Right," Steven says regretfully, "I was hoping you were, I had already sent them up to your room as you didn't answer the first time I rang."

Patrick scratches his head, "that's okay, Steven," he says to the young man slowly, picking himself out of bed and throwing on a robe to cover up his bare legs and torso, "can you describe to me who the person was?"

"Yes, I can do that," he says, beginning to describe what the mysterious person looked like, "it was a woman who claimed to know you, she's drunk, dressed in red, and her hair is a dark color."

"Did she tell you her name?" Patrick asks, trudging through his dark room to switch one of the lights on, brightening the room up softly.

"No she did not," Stevens says, "I'm sorry again, Mr. Wilson."

"No it's okay, Steven," Patrick tells him, "I think I know who it may be, goodnight." He places the phone back down, audibly hanging it up.

Patrick ties the strings up his robe tightly as he hears faint knocks against his door, approaching it cautiously before pulling it open with his head down, "Listen, Maria, you need to get the hell away from me-"

"Maria?" She giggles, "so you really do hate her."

Patrick looks up and sees an unexpected sight, a voice he hasn't heard in days. Vera was standing before him in a skimpy red dress, one that he had never seen before. Her hair was in a curly mess and she looked frail and sick, but she continued to lean herself on his doorframe as if she was pretending to be completely in order, "Vera," he gasps, taking her gently and leading her inside, "what happened to you? What are you doing here?"

"Oh nothing, the girls just dropped me off here after I told them where I was staying," Vera tells him carefully, watching as he sits her down on the couch, proceeding to sit closely across from her.

"What girls?" Patrick gulps, swiping the loose strands of hair out of her face, "where is Owen? He was supposed to keep an eye on you, he was supposed to take care of you!"

"Oh, you mean that one guy you beat up a couple of days ago?" Vera smiles, leaning into him and eventually collapsing into his chest. Patrick lulls her softly as he listens close to her stuttery words, "I don't trust him right now, I told him I was staying with one of my friends before I got here."

Patrick looks at her confused, "then why aren't you still with them? Why are you here?"

She looks at him, puzzled, "uh, I don't know." Vera shrugs, looking up at him as she now had her head placed on his lap, "I just told my driver the last location I remembered, and I guess that was your hotel."

Patrick sighs loudly, both hands gently on her face, one massaging her hair while the other rested on her cheek, "what am I going to do with you?"

Vera smiles at him widely and crookedly, making him want to laugh, "maybe it's best we wait for me to sober up," she says with energy, pulling herself up, "I know I have a lot to tell you, but I just can't really remember." Vera mumbles to him, suddenly moving her eyes down his body very openly, "where'd you get that robe?" She smiles, chuckling slightly as her hands shakily maneuver to the very end of the strings, "I want it off."

Patrick's eyes widen, rocking his head back and forth at her. "Ah ah ah," he tells her, closing his robe and pulling back, "we are not doing that, you are going right to bed young lady."

He gets up and takes Vera's hand, leading her to the bed and peeling back the covers for her, "we can talk more about what happened in the morning, okay?" He tells her sweetly, preparing the pillows, "do you want to change?"

Vera looks down at herself, uncomfortably pulling the end of her dress down, losing her balance, "Yeah, a little." She says sadly. The sight of her in such a state of distress made his heart crumble. Patrick quickly sprints to her side and seats her down on the bed, helping her undress up until she was only in her undergarments.

Patrick kneels down beside her, laying the dress out on the bench that sat at the foot of the bed, "just stay here honey," he says to her before going toward his closet, "I'll get you some of my clothes."