Convalescence

XXXIX.

~ chapter vibes! (strictly for the fun of it don't get it twisted)

Lili's phone chimed loudly on the bench next to her legs, making her jump. The room had been so quiet for so long that the ringing echoed like a gunshot.

Niall's name flashed across the screen, making her smile.

"Hey baby," she said in a cheery voice, adding a bookmark to the crease of her book and shutting the cover.

She had the next three days off work due to a lucky break in scheduling and figured she'd try and get some leisure reading done. It had been months since she'd even picked up a book and was hoping to finally get through her long list of potential reads.

The story sounded quite promising, so Lili figured she'd get through it no problem. Except she was having so much trouble focusing that she wasn't even really reading.

Every time she turned the page, she looked at the same sentence over and over again, not really registering what any of the words were saying. She was constantly drifting off into daydreams, distracted by absolutely nothing.

Was her attention span really that poor nowadays?

"Hey, love," Niall said on the other line. Just the sound of his calm voice made Lili's entire day better. His loud footsteps dragged across the floor in the background. "What have you been up to today?"

She smiled. "Nothing, really. I finally got all my laundry done from the trip."

They'd been home for eight days now, and Lili had only just unpacked her suitcase and threw all her clothes in the washing machine this morning.

Unpacking after a trip, especially one as amazing as this one, just sucked so much. It served as a reminder that your time in paradise was over. So obviously she wasn't going to be bothered to clean up or look at the remnants of it all.

"Hey, better than me," Niall said with a laugh. "I haven't even unzipped my luggage yet to make sure all my stuff is there. For all we know, I left half my boxers in another state."

Lili chuckled and pulled her knees up to her stomach, wrapping her arm around them protectively.

She was sitting in the bay window of her front living room, basking in the late afternoon sun. It was nice and relaxing, but she was getting kind of bored. No wonder she couldn't focus on reading.

Dropping her book on the arm of the bench, Lili stood up, making her way towards the staircase.

"I missed you today," she said, as she reached her bedroom and closed the door quietly behind her. If only he could be by her side 24 hours a day. That would be heaven.

The smile was evident in Niall's voice when he spoke. "I missed you, too, my love. I hate being away from you."

He sighed and was quiet for a brief moment, like he was ruminating on his words.

"Anyway, Zayn and Liam are taking their ladies to the beach tomorrow and asked if we wanted to come. I know we were just at the beach every day for a week straight but the weather is supposed to be really nice tomorrow."

Nothing was cuter than the way Niall referred to his friends' partners as 'their ladies'. It was surprisingly endearing. Lili smiled, chewing on the corner of her mouth.

"Yeah, I'd love to. I'll ask Jordyn and Isaiah if they can come, too." She paused for a second. "Actually, Aiden has been saying he wants me to start spending time with his new girlfriend. Maybe we can make it a huge group thing?"