How to love

fifteen: Wake up calls

We were like passing ships, when he sent me a message during the day in Hong Kong, it was the middle of the night here and by time I replied, he was already asleep. He checked in on me, asking how I was and if I was overworking myself. His constant concern made me smile and involuntary blush.

I craned my neck to all the passing shops as Hannah continued to speak about her stress of finals, peaking at the window displays and colour co-ordinations something that happened naturally when my steps halted. I earn a grumble and a bash on the shoulder at my abruptness and quickly scarper closer to the small little shop that would be so easily overlooked by all the big names that surrounded it. My eyes landed upon the item, and the gleam tickled my ribs. I was supposed to be shopping for work purposes, but this was a opportunity I couldn't miss.

"Hey Hannah?" I murmur, my numb fingers pressing against the frosty glass. "I'll call you back."

Before I could receive a response, I end the call and shove my phone back into the depths of my warmed pockets. My heart jiggled at the bell which rung above my head, the soft announcement that I had entered the leather smelling shop.

"Can I help you ma'am?" The elderly gentleman questions as I push inside, a cocoon of warmth curling around my numb fingers. I smile.

"Yes, yes you can."

| | |

It was still dark outside, cold and a drizzly rain coating my foggy bedroom window. I knead the dull ache that soared through my neck after rising in panic at the blare of my phone. I roll from stomach to back, squinting sleepily at the caller that awoke me from my deep slumber and caused my eyes to sting from the screen brightness.

Jason.

I clear my throat from the tired croak, suddenly all my senses coming to life. It baffled me constantly why I was always so nervous, it wasn't our first conversation but it certainly felt like it.

"Hi."

I cursed myself for the grogginess that coats my words and immediately shoot upright, letting my crumpled blankets pool around my waist.

"Hi." He sighs lightly, although he wasn't hinting at any sort of tiredness, I could hear a faint waver of exhaustion. "Sorry, did I wake you?"

I hum slightly, rubbing the sleep from the corner of my eye. "A little, but it's fine. Are you okay?"

"Shit - crap, I forgot the time difference." He mutters angrily beneath his breath. "I'm so sorry, Frankie. Shit."

Minus the curse words, his words made my tummy flutter and caused me to involuntarily tug on my pyjama top that was risen above my hips. He didn't bother to mask his concern in any way, and it made me shy at the fact he was so open. In work he was a very stern spoke, authority stricken, rash person while speaking to me - he was a entirely different character.

"No, don't worry." I quickly eject. "Is everything okay? Where are you, it sounds loud."

I could hear the faint rumble of what sounded like tyres, and confirming that was the honk of horns. "I'm fine, everything is fine. Well, except the fact I woke you. I just - shit, I thought I would ring you while I'm on my way to the airport. I haven't had the chance to ring you in the past few days but now I just sound really creepy and overly eager to hear your voice."

My throat was tickled with the breath that was caught, a fuzziness succumbing my chest as the tiny little thoughts in my mind were waving the red flags in hope to clear a pathway to let my scrambled word break free.

"But now I feel like a idiot for not realising the time difference and waking you up, what is it like, six-am?"

"Five." I grin when I hear him groan. "It's fine, I'll be getting up soon anyway might as well get up that bit earlier to get ready. I was going in earlier too, I still need to add the finishing touches to your office. Are you excited to see what I've done to the place?"