Hope is a dangerous thing for a Woman like me to have

Chapter 40

Lando's POV

I stood frozen in the door frame as the waiter looked at us confused. 

"Is everything ok?" He asked slowly, looking between me and Edom clearly starting to recognise who we are. 

"Yes." I said definitively. Edom stayed shocked in place and I could sense the cogs in her mind racing to process the situation. 

"Can I have a signature?" The waiter asked bashfully, holding out his orders notebook and pen. I took it and scribbled my signature. I gave it back to him, but he held it out hopefully to Edom, who was still yet to move. 

"Ms Hakimi?" He enquired. Edom didn't show any response and we were left in an awkward silence. 

"Excuse her." I offered. "She's not very responsive just after waking."

"I didn't know you were a thing." The waiter replied innocently. As I went to dismiss his interpretation of the situation, Edom suddenly lept into action. She pushed past me and started running down the hall in the same direction Charles had left. 

"I've got to explain to him" She screamed so we could hear. We watched her with surprise as she ran bear-foot through the hallway, messy blond hair streaming out behind her. 

"And me and Lando are not together." She screamed even louder as she disappeared round the corner. 

The waiter looked back at me. I started to explain how me and Edom were just friends and had a sleepover as friends. 

"I get it." The waiter interrupted my ramble as he looked at his watch. "Do you still want this?"

"Of course! I'm starving."

Edom's POV

I sprinted to the elevator and pressed the button to go down, but the little screen above the lift showed it was already on its way down. That must be Charles. In a split second decision, I chose to take the stairs and beat him there, sprinting so desperately I was almost falling down the stairs. I got to the bottom, completely out of breath and I could feel the warmth in my cheeks which indicated I was red. Which was great. Super great.

As I burst through the door into the lobby, the elevator door opened and Charles got out with some other people, who must've got on at other floors which allowed me to catch Charles up.  Charles saw me, and went to walk past me. 

"Hear me out and I'll hear you out." I jumped infront of him, acutely aware I looked like a mad woman. 

"Why should I do that? Doesn't look like I need to hear much considering I've seen everything I need to." He walked round me. 

"Because I ran down 10 flights of stairs for you. Without a bra. Because I'm standing bare foot in just a top and shorts in the middle of a busy hotel lobby just for you." I said loudly causing a few people to look our way. Charles turned around as I mumbled "Not that you deserve it".

"What was that?" Charles strode back towards me, ending up less than a foot away from me. 

"I said I'm not sure why because you don't deserve it." I said more confidently, tilting my head up to look him in the eye. 

"Ok, if I hear you out, then you have to listen to me." He was somehow even closer to me; I could feel his breath on my face. 

"Agreed." I breathed. 

We made our way to the lift, because my exhaustion trumped my fear of lifts and we went back up to my floor. We waited in silence as I stared straight ahead, forcing myself to not look at him like I desperately wanted to. I could feel him looking at me.