Heart on Fire | Noah Sebastian

Chapter 13

I woke to the sound of stirring. I took a few moments to realise where I was before I realised I was in heaven. But when I rolled over to reach over, Belle wasn't beside me. I sat up from the bed and found Belle standing at the end buttoning up her work shirt. "Good morning Beautiful" I said with a hoarse morning voice. My T-shirt was missing.

"Good morning Sunshine" Belle smiled back at me and made her round to my side of the bed. I met her with a small kiss before I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her into the bed. She cried for me to stop but I teased her with kisses all over her face, neck and body and held her close earning multiple giggles and calls for me to stop. The way she giggled my name playfully sent me reeling.

She eventually escaped my embrace and stood up. "What are you doing?" I asked, turning over in bed. I missed her presence in this bed.

Belle smiled, "I'm going to work, silly" she smiled at me.

I thrust myself out of the bed immediately and held her shoulders before she could finish the last button of her shirt. "Excuse me, there is no way you're going to work after what happened less than 24 hours ago" I argued with the intention of her safety. "Belle you've got so many bruises and you need rest" I gestured.

"Noah I'll be fine" she giggled as her hands held either side of my cheeks. "It's just another day at work," she offered. I tried to argue with her but there is only so much weight an argument coming from a half naked lanky tattooed guy holds.

"No you can't go to work" I complained, "I'm taking you on our date today!". Belle tried to argue with me and eventually called her boss to clarify and prove a point to me, that her job and hazards come with the paycheck, that she can't have a day off for a romantic date. She put the call on speaker to prove a point but was shut down by her boss, who said 'Belle you know you know you're not allowed at work for 48 hours for a traumatic event rest period. You were discharged from hospital less than 24 hours ago'. Whilst I barely understood what that meant, I knew that I'd won, I was taking Belle out on a date today. This was it, today was the day. Belle was going to become my girlfriend today.

Admitting defeat, I ordered Belle to change into comfortable clothes ahead of our date. She tried to deny the date, but I danced around her in excitement, squeezing her shoulders and leaving tiny kisses all over her cheeks and lips. Belle poured us a cup of coffee and I drank it way too fast in anticipation. I was like a puppy, I was so excited, so giddy. Whilst our date didn't include a breakfast option, Belle and I settled on a bowl of cereal without milk because the milk in Belle's fridge expired a few days ago. Belle eventually drove me to my place so that I could change.

After an argument over who is driving and walking (because she wouldn't let me drive her car and I haven't bought a new one yet), Belle drove us to our first stop of the day, the Natural History Museum. I chose this museum because, one, dinosaurs and natural history is cool as fuck, but two because I thought it would be fun for Belle and I to explore and discover new things. It was a neutral safe zone. To my delight, Belle was excited to visit the museum, explaining she'd wanted to see this place ever since she'd moved here. I paid for our entry and we began wandering.

We looked at various installations, sharing our excitement over particular artefacts and pointing out interesting things. Belle ventured towards the ice age part of the museum. "Noah, did you know that Sid the Sloth was not an actual being to walk this earth" she points out to me sarcastically as I join her side, wrapping an arm around her. "Now I'll be sad to learn if Diego and Manny aren't real also" she laughs and continues on. My heart throbbed at how much Belle genuinely enjoyed the first part of our date.

"Isn't it weird to ponder that there was a 65 million years ago?" I asked as we looked upon a pre-civilisation exhibit. "It kind of feels fake to me".