Into the Shadows

Chapter 27: The Morning

There was an incessant ringing beside my head when I woke this morning and a similar, though much more painful ringing, inside my head. 

With the little strength that I had, I reached out for the phone to answer it. It wasn't my cell phone, but the hotel's room phone. Strange, I'm not sure who could be calling. 

"Hello?" 

"Good Morning Madame Andrews. This is the 9 am wake up call your-" it was the concierge. 

"Wrong room, you should be calling 426 not 422." I told him. 

"I apologize, Madame, would you allow us to send you a complimentary breakfast for the trouble. We're terribly sorry for disturbing you."

"No, that's okay, I needed to be up anyway, I have a train to catch." I mumbled with a half hearted laugh. 

"Enjoy the remainder of your stay, Madame, and thank you for your generous understanding." 

"Thank you, bye now." I hung up the phone and rolled out of bed. My back wasn't aching which felt like a miracle, after all the train rides recently it had begun to hurt like crazy. 

"Lili? Lili, what time is it?" I heard a sleepy voice from the other side of the bed. My face started to burn as I realized I was not alone. 

As Thomas sat up, I slammed a pillow down over his face, nearly smothering him. 

"Woah!" he yelled, suddenly wide awake as he grabbed my wrists, pulling the pillow from beneath them and letting them fall back down to the mattress on each side of his head, "Good morning, Lili."

He gave me the same kind of look Laura gave to Nath and I felt my cheeks start to burn. 

"What are you doing in my room?" I asked him trying to change the subject and distract myself from the embarrassment I was feeling.

He laughed and sat back on his side of the bed. He was wearing the same shirt from last night, but all the buttons were undone. I didn't dare look further down after the color registered with my groggy mind and I recalled he had not been wearing bright blue pants. 

"This isn't your room, Lili," he was still laughing at me. 

"Yes, it is, this is room 422! Why are you here and not with Laura?" I stood from the bed and headed over to the closet. I was still in my skimpy dress from last night, I thought putting a robe over it might make me feel better. 

The phone rang and Thomas leaned over to answer. He waited for a moment as I heard the muffled voice of the concierge desk on the other end. 

"Good Morning, yes this is room 426. Sorry for the confusion, my wife was the one who answered the phone, she mixed up the numbers." 

"I am not your wife!" I yelled and threw a pillow at him. 

"Oh, don't worry about her, she's just exhausted and not looking forward to another long train ride. We're heading down to Rome today to see her uncle." Thomas was waving his hand at me all innocently like he wasn't just lying about our relationship to the concierge. 

I threw my hands up and the frustration started to take grip on me as I paced, waiting for him to get off the phone. I wanted to grab it and slam it down, but they would probably call us right back. 

"Breakfast sounds wonderful, what do you have?"

At least he was getting food. After the screaming match that was about to ensure I would definitely want that food. 

"Petit Déjeuner for 2 please, and when can we expect it? ........ 10 minutes, fantastic! Merci Phillipe!"

Tommy hung up the phone, scooched over to sit on the edge of the bed and looked up at me, waiting for the inevitable earful. I was determined to make this the worst ten minutes of his life.