Love & War

Chapter 7

(Third Person)

“So, sorry about the gun earlier, I forgot you were here. Did you sleep ok? Why are you carrying your shirt instead of wearing it? Are you hungry?” Anna breaks the silence.

“Shall I answer those in order?” He laughs and she mumbles an apology. “Firstly, it’s fine, about the gun, I’m just happy you didn’t shoot me. Secondly, I apparently slept like the dead. Thirdly, it’s missing most of its buttons. And lastly not really, I could use some tea if you have it though.”

“Well, I believe I do have tea and if you want I might have an extra shirt in the training room that would probably fit you. If you want it,” she replies as she walks to the kitchen.

“If you have a shirt, that would make my walk into the hotel a lot easier,” he jokes as she hands him a box of tea bags. Anna slips out of her front door leaving it wide open and Tom can hear another door open down the hall. After a few minutes she comes back through her front door carrying 2 shirts and what looks like a pair of sweat pants.

“Try these,” she tells him as she sets them on the counter.

“I didn’t know you had a gym in this building, but, pray tell, why do they have extra clothes?” Tom asked her as he held up on of the dark grey shirts looking at the Belle Security logo on the front of it.

Anna laughed at him, “I own the whole building. It was the first site of Belle Securities. When we were able to get a new building 4 years ago, I converted half the space into my apartment. I kept the training facilities and one office space. It seemed like a better opportunity, financially at the time. That way I didn’t have to pay for an apartment that I’d hardly ever use. And all the guys have access to the training room if they want to use it. There is also a smaller studio apartment above the facility side for Ranger when he needs it. Usually if any of our out of towners visit, they stay there. Want a tour?” He nods in agreement and 10 minutes later he’s been through the training room, the other apartment, the office and the rest of her apartment, including her room, which he found out, had a balcony overlooking the river and the guest room he stayed in. He also found out there was a small patio just beyond the wall of glass in the living room. “Well I need to get you back to your hotel, I need to see Elsa for a bit and I’m needed on base this afternoon. I’m going to go get showered and changed. Help yourself to whatever you find in the fridge. Like I said if you want to shower, you can in the other apartment, or you can watch TV or whatever.” She informed him as she grabbed an apple and headed up stairs.  

Twenty minutes later, Tom was showered and dressed in the borrowed clothes, sitting on the couch scrolling through his phone drinking a mug of tea, when he heard the clunk of boots hitting concrete. He looks over at her, she is wearing blue camouflage pants with boots that go up mid-calf and a gray t-shirt tucked in. Her hair is done in a braid wrapped into a bun that sits at the nape of her neck.   “Are you rea-“ she starts as her phone goes off. “Hey Chris, whats goi-“ she gets interrupted. Tom can hear him through the phone, but he can’t make out the words. “Ok, hold up. I’m 30 goddamn years old. I can take care of my damn self.” Silence. “So, the fuck what? Nothing happened Chris. He was in the fucking guest room, I wasn’t going to leave him that drunk by himself.” Silence. “You know what I’m done with this conversation. I’m an adult, I will do whatever the fuck makes me happy.” Silence. “Yes I fucking like him. Happy?” Toms eyes light up in shock over the conversation. “We haven’t even talked about last night yet, now you know more than him. We’ll be at the hotel in about a half hour. We’ll finish this then,” she hangs up her phone a swings her steel grey gaze to Tom and then the floor. “I am so sorry, apparently there is a photo us kissing online. It doesn’t affect my career as much as it could affect yours.”