Invited

Thirty-Eight - Wicken

The door to the apartment opened. I drowsily raised my head to find Layla standing in the doorway, her gaze fixed on the bed in a glare. What was her problem? For someone who understood that I didn't want to sleep with her and all that, she sure acted a lot like a jealous lover. I was tempted to spout off something snarky, but decided to lay my head back down and close my eyes. It'd taken forever for me to fall asleep.

Once Talia'd zonked out, I'd stayed awake and stared up at the ceiling for a while. I tried to read one of my books, but had a hard time focusing. It made me regret not having the TV in my teeny-tiny living room. So I went back to staring and trying to count sheep. The problem is, my imagination isn't all too great, so visualizing sheep wasn't happening. Instead, I counted, slowly, trying to take deep breaths. Eventually, that worked. Don't think I got enough sleep, though. I felt like I'd been hit by a bus.

"Eh-hem," Layla said.

I groaned and rolled out of bed. "Okay, I can take a hint. What do you need?"

"I see you had a good night," she said, nodding her head to the bed.

"Not really seeing as how I got about a handful of hours of sleep."

"I can tell by the mess."

I frowned. "Mess?" My gaze moved to the bed. The pillow barrier I'd made to divide the bed in half was still present but crumbling apart. To me, it still resembled a wall of seclusion. To Layla, it probably appeared to be a wild night.

Letting out a heavy sigh, I made sure her gaze met mine. "Listen to me carefully. I have a girlfriend. She," I pointed to Talia, "is not my girlfriend. I'm not interested in being with anyone else but my girlfriend. Who isn't you, I should add. So all of this jealous rage you're projecting is pretty annoying to me."

"My mistake," she said, her tone terse. "Get dressed, don't worry about breakfast. I have food in my quarters which is where we will be meeting."

I nodded and went to start picking out some jeans and a fresh t-shirt. "Okay, I'll be up after a shower. Shouldn't be longer than twenty minutes, if that's okay with you." I felt gross still from my rumble with the blonde. The whole past few days had been long. Showering last night didn't seem like a good idea. Might have been a little too much awkward in a short period of time.

"If you'd rather, you can just do that in my room. I'd hate for you to disturb your guest," Layla said, a tiny smile twitching onto her lips.

Say no. That's what my logic screamed at me to do. But could I? She'd made the statement as a suggestion, yeah, but was it really a suggestion or was it an order?

I shifted and piled my clothes into my arms. "Sure, I guess? I don't think she's going to wake up, though. Seeing as how she hasn't stirred since you got here."

"If you would rather not be courteous..."

Sighing, I nodded for her to get out of my apartment already. Today, I would play her stupid game. After the fiasco with not collecting Timber, I was pretty sure I was on some thin ice with her as it was. Taking a shower in her room was a small price to play to not get myself eaten, maimed, or worse.

I followed her with my stuff to further down the hall and then up one floor to Layla's quarters. She opened the door and motioned for me to go in first.

"The bathroom is just down there," she said, pointing to her large bedroom. I could see the door to the bathroom off in the far corner. "Would you like me to draw you up a nice bath? I'm sure it's been a while since you had one of those."

It had. Since before I left home. Showers on Salvation had been quick, otherwise the hot water ran out. My showers now were more normal, but the space was cramped. Baths weren't a regular thing for me. Every so often, I liked to chill in the tub and soak after a hard day of work. It was good for the muscles. Didn't so much feel like taking a bath at the moment, though, let alone having Layla set it up for me.