~~~
“We’ve slept the whole day.”
His voice woke her. She sat up. The room was dim, it must’ve been dusk, and someone was knocking on the bedroom door while his phone was ringing.
“Shit,” he said, looking at the screen on his phone. He jumped out of bed, flicked on a lamp, pulled open a drawer and then got into a pair of boxers before opening the door a crack.
“Dinner is about to be served in the dining room, Sir.” It was Esther.
Kyla pulled the blankets up over her nakedness.
“Make my apologies to our guests and then send dinner for myself and Kyla up. Leave a cart in the hall for me and knock when it’s here and just leave it.”
Kyla went to the washroom. Her hair was a knotted mess after having fallen asleep with it wet. She tried to pull her fingers through it but caught sight of her throat and shoulder and both were marked up really good and they both stung. Her jawline looked slightly bruised. She put the brush down, found some antiseptic ointment in with the things that had been bought for her and dabbed antiseptic soaked cotton balls on the sores, wincing at the sting. Tristan came in and frowned when he saw what she was doing.
“Let me,” he said. He took a washcloth and gently rinsed the antiseptic off, “Here, this is better,” He put his lips to the bite on her shoulder and held it there for a moment and it started to lighten the burn. Then he did the same to her throat. The marks were still there but the pain was pretty much gone. He was right. That was better. The pain was gone and the feeling of his lips on her skin was so much better, the best Band-Aid ever.
He kissed the sores and her bruise gently, “Sorry, baby.”
“You weren’t supposed to drink from me for a few days,” she whispered, rubbing her jaw with one hand and running her other hand up his back.
“Yeah.” he looked sad. He looked in the mirror and quickly ran his fingers through his hair and then kissed her on the top of the head and then kissed her jaw again. They both walked into the closet. She put on a bra and underwear and then a t-shirt and some capri yoga pants. He got into a pair of jeans and went to the desk, still shirtless, and started clicking on the laptop. His washboard abs and big shoulders and arms were a sight to behold. Kyla walked over and kissed his shoulder and curled up to his back and just leaned on him, as he clicked through to his email. This felt so natural to her. She felt so magnetized to him. There was a knock at the door. He ignored it. Someone knocked again.
“I heard!” he bit off loudly, “I’ll get it in a minute.”
“Sir?” It was a male voice.
Tristan strode quickly to the door and opened it an inch, “I need to talk to you.” It was Joe’s voice. Tristan motioned for her to sit before opening the door. She sat on the sofa and looked toward the window so she wouldn’t be face to face with Joe. Tristan let him in.
“Can we talk? You said she was finally in line so I thought we’d be okay to talk here.” He pushed in the dinner cart and leaned against the wall, “Sorry to disturb you.”
“I was just working,” Tristan motioned toward his desk, “What is it? Watch TV, Kyla,” he called over to Kyla. She looked around herself for the remote but didn’t see it. She quickly padded to the night table and fetched it and then resisted the urge to scurry back to the couch, careful not to look at Joe but trying to be casual, so he wouldn’t think she was purposely avoiding his face.
She flicked on the TV and Three’s Company was on. She stared at it, preparing to act like a laugh track at appropriate moments, remembering that Julia had laughed when the others laughed that day.
“There’s been an… incident, err accident,” said Joe.
“What accident?”
“Becca. She snapped the girl’s neck.”
Julia?
Kyla felt the blood drain out of her face and it felt like her heart plummeted down into her bowels. She resisted the urge to hold her breath and stared straight ahead at the TV.
Could this day get any better?
“By accident?” Tristan’s voice was laced with sarcasm.
“Hmpf, Yeah.” Joe muttered under his breath.
“What happened?” Tristan asked flatly. His voice sounded emotionless and Kyla’s heart, still down in the bottom of her gut, skipped a beat.
There was laughter on the TV. Kyla was trying too hard to not react to news of Julia to react the way she’d planned to the laughter on the TV.
“You know Becca; green with envy,” Joe sighed, “Got dramatic in an argument with Andre at dinner. I’m goin’ with Sam to deal with the body. Before we leave I’ll call in Jeff and Leonard to head over here for duty in case you need anything.”