The Stand In

Chapter 13

I open them and blink a few times before closing them again. "Ahh, you're naked."

"I've just got out the shower, I'm wearing a towel. For your benefit by the way."

"Really?"

"Yeah, living alone has perks, I normally walk out the shower without one."

"Now I'm disappointed.." I joke.

"I can always ditch the tow-"

"No!" I laugh "Keep it around your waist."

"Are you sure?"

"Positive. I don't need a heart attack this early." I answer, creaking an eye open to help me get off the floor.

"So you broke into my room to tell me thanks?" He says suspicously.

"That and that I have to go. I got work today, sorry."

He nods. "So have I. I'm working from home though."

"Office." I tell him, trying not to marvel at the sight before me. "Hey, I like the messy hair."

He reaches up and touches the damp mess on his head. "Yeah it needs a cut really, I'll get around to it eventually."

"I used to cut hair, not so much anymore. That's not me offering. You work on TV, I couldn't bare the idea of cutting it shorter than you usually have it."

He smiles before looking at me. "I bailed pretty fast this morning.. Around about the time your t-shirt hit me in the face. What's all that about?"

I laugh before explaining to him that I'm a sleep stripper.

"You know how to solve that?" He asks, peaking my interest instantly.

"No, tell me."

"Sleep naked."

"Such a man answer." I reply rolling my eyes playfully.

He's about to respond when I hear my phone going off. "Call?"

"Alarm." I tell him before excusing myself and shooting off out his room and down the corridor.

I don't realise that he has followed until I am grabbing a glass of water. "There's bottles of water in the fridge if you prefer." He says as I turn around.

"No, it's fine. It's just to take a tablet."

"Like birth control?" He guesses.

I bless his sweet heart for even thinking it, but I don't correct him and tell him its to stop my seizures. "Yeah. Birth control." I repeat popping one out and taking it.

He watches and then tells me to sit whilst he makes breakfast.

"You don't need to, I-"

"Ahh." He interrupts and points to the dining table. "You can't go on an empty stomach and you've just taken medication. You'll get a stomach ulcer. They suck, so just accept that you're gonna be a little later into work, which you can do from home and have breakfast with me."

I sigh, and do as he says, accept that I'm going to be a little later and have breakfast with him. "Okay, but maybe put on some pants before you get a serious burn." I laugh rounding the kitchen island and taking the spatula from his hand.

He hasn't even started making anything, so where the spatula has come from, is beyond me.

Zak looks down at himself, still in a towel "Yeah, I better put on something. Be right back."

"I'll be here." I tell him and watch as he grabs the towel at his waist and hot foots it out the kitchen and back to his bedroom.

By the time he reemerges, I've made breakfast and I'm just pouring some orange juice into the glasses at the table.