The Eleventh Hour

Chapter 48

“Wakey wakey, rise and shine!”

The sound of my curtains being pulled apart hit me a millisecond before the blinding light burnt through my closed eyes. I grumbled sulkily and pulled the duvet over my head to regain some darkness. I was so not ready to wake up yet, but the sound of Melody’s enthusiastic voice told me I was getting up now whether I liked it or not.

“Come on sunshine, it’s gone 10am. You’ve slept most of the week.”

I grumbled again as my tired, clouded brain started to become clearer. I was waking up and I was unable to stop it, I’ve always hated that feeling. “Fine, I’m up.” I mumbled groggily, keeping my eyes closed.

I heard Melody sigh, and a second later the warm, snug duvet was ripped off me.

“Hey!” I yelled, snapping my eyes open. The shock of the sudden coldness woke me up completely and I bolted up into a sitting position, hugging my knees with my good arm. “Melody,” I moaned, closing my eyes again.

“A-ah,” she scolded mildly. “I know last week was a bit of a hard one, what with exploding buildings and dislocated shoulders, not to mention your crazy but heroic billionaire boyfriend nearly killing himself during a spontaneous rescue mission, but...”

I completely zoned out, she was talking at 101 miles an hour... 100 miles too fast for my just-woken-up self to be able to register. I appreciate her not wanting me to lie in bed all day, but it’s not like that. I didn’t have a lot of sleep last night, my bad arm’s been keeping me up a lot, and there’s so much I’ve been worrying about, not to mention Nate not coming to bed until the early hours –

“Lola, are you even listening to me?”

I furrowed my eyebrows together as I yawned widely. “Huh?”

She tutted impatiently. “I’m just saying that although you had a hard time a few days ago, and you’re gaining your strength back for your bad arm, I don’t think it’s suitable for you to continuously spend most of the day in bed  –“

The sound of someone clearing their throat loudly by the door grabbed both of our attention. I whipped my head to the left and my body immediately warmed and glowed as I looked at the most beautiful face I’d ever see – Nathaniel’s. I’d always had this reaction when I saw him, especially when he turned up out of the blue like that, just looking at him made me marvel.

He was stood in the doorway wearing a crisp white long sleeved shirt and a metallic grey tie, matching the colour of his trousers. I did a double take when I really looked at his face – he was livid. But he wasn’t looking at me, he was looking directly at Melody. I immediately felt worried seeing him looking like that and was about to voice my concern when he spoke, his eyes never leaving Melody.

“You are not professionally qualified to make those comments, Miss Connor.” His voice was low, deadly low, and the hairs prickled on the back of my neck. I swallowed hard as I watched him stroll slowly into the room with his hands in his trouser pockets. “There is no valid excuse for you to be waking Lola Rose at all.”

He stopped a few feet in front of her, and I could only look on in confusion. What was wrong with him? Why was he acting this way? Something else must be up, it’s not like him to jump down Melody’s throat just because she woke me up.

“Nate...” I began, but I trailed off, unable to form any more words. He didn’t even move, let alone acknowledge me. Something was definitely up. Sure, he’d been a bit tense these last few days, but it hasn’t been anything like this.

Melody appeared stunned on the spot, staring back at Nate with wide eyes. “I... I’m... I – I’m sorry – I...” she spluttered, clearly struggling for words.