Wanting My Assistant

Chapter 11

My alarm blares through the silence. My eyes snap open, jerking my body into a sitting position. The beating of my heart rings in my ears, breathing heavily.

The dream I just had, I should not have had.

I blink, the fuzzy sleep slowly clearing from my brain and my vision. The alarm goes off again and I quickly slam my hand down down on the clock. Silence fills the room once more and when I hear a light snoring coming from my "living room", a laugh leaves me.

   There she is. My best friend, still passed out on the couch, snoring softly. Her hair is all over the place, scattered across her still passed out face. The blanket I put over her yesterday is half hanging off her body. Vanessa is going to be here for a long time.

   With a grin on my face I get out of bed, trying not to laugh at Vanessa. She drools a little in her sleep. Her brown hair sticking to her face. She reminds me of Ana from Frozen, when she wakes up early in the morning for Coronation day.

   What? I have little cousins. Leave me alone.

   There is no way that I'd be able to wake Vanessa up and save myself from a slap. So I'll leave her be. We won't be having our morning coffee, I can tell you that now.

I grab my phone off my bedside table and check for notifications. Dawson hasn't texted me. Maybe he just slept in.

It's only 4:25am. I've got plenty of time. Besides, I can get coffee from the café near my office in the building. I hope it's good.

   I carefully grab my workout clothes, heading for the bathroom. I'll do a longer run today.

   My eyes snag on the painting I finished for Dawson and a proud feeling spreads through my chest. I'll give that to him today, in the morning when I get there. I hope he likes it.

—~•~—

   Cars honk and people shout out their windows as I hurry across the street. Running in heels across a street is not something I recommend doing. Dogs bark down alleyways, cats meowing. This city during the day, isn't exactly very pleasant. I clutch the large-ish painting close to my torso as I slow to a walk, panting slightly and glancing back at the road where people are swearing at me through their car windows. Shaking their fists at me.

With a small, not so real apologetic smile, I turn and pull the glass doors to the office building open. Air conditioner slaps my face as I enter, holding the painting close to me as the glass doors close behind me softly. The receptionist desk is empty, the chairs around the waiting room also abandoned. It's quiet in here besides the air conditioning running through the vents.

   Good thing I have a key card.

   If Kelly's not here, then no one is here. Kelly always gets here at least an hour before everyone, but that doesn't apply to Dawson. He might be here.

   Hopefully he is.

   My black heels clack against the marble flooring, walking down the dim hallway to the elevators. The lights are still off, everything dark that's hidden from the suns rays. That's when you know Kelly hasn't set foot in here.

   I mean, I am pretty early this morning. Dawson still hasn't texted me a time he wants me at the office by. That's become a routine. I wake up, Dawson's text is already sitting there on my phone.

But not this morning.

Somehow I manage to press the button and hold up the painted canvas without dropping it. Not easy, but I managed.