Nimbus

Chapter Seven

The morning arrived all too soon. In the middle of a very sweet dream starring Marcus, my phone rang and startled me awake.

At first, I was completely disoriented. I was in what had to be an Alaska king-sized canopy bed with the curtains drawn. But as the unceasing ring of my phone drove me to retrieve it as quickly as possible and my arm throbbed with every beat of my pulse, the previous day's events flooded back to me in seconds.

I made the mistake of throwing open the heavy curtains in my rush to get to the bedside table. All the light in the room flooded into my unsuspecting pupils at once, making me clench my eyes shut and hiss at the offending sunshine. Blindly, I slapped my hand down on the antique wooden nightstand until I connected with my phone.

"Hello?"

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" shouted my mother through the speaker directly into my eardrum.

I hissed again at the noise and held my cell as far away from myself as I could. Hitting speaker phone so I wouldn't have to endure her volume up close, I let my phone drop to my lap as I replied groggily, "Aw, thank you, Mama."

Truthfully, I had almost forgotten about my own birthday. Oh, yeah, I have a dinner reservation tonight, I thought as I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and started waking up enough to fully engage in the conversation.

"If you hadn't answered your phone I was going to call the police. You didn't check in at all yesterday! What's gotten into you?"

Her question immediately brought Marcus to mind and made me smile. "Sorry, yesterday got a little crazy. I'll be in touch more, don't worry."

"Is everything okay?" When she was concerned, her southern accent would become more pronounced.

"Well... it's a long story, but I broke my arm and started dating someone." She gasped sharply on her end, and I knew I needed to cut her off at the pass before she could turn this conversation into a lecture. "I'm fine, it was a clean break. You're actually keeping me from eating and taking my meds right now. And the guy's Marcus, I'll tell you more later when I have some time. Call me this afternoon, I can't text well with this cast. And remember not to call tonight because I'll be at dinner."

"Annabel, if you think I'll accept that flimsy answer then you have another thing coming! Who is this strange man? How old is he? What's his last name? What's his number and address? How do you know he isn't a serial killer? And how did you break your arm?!"

I winced at her rapid-fire questions. Time to play the old in-another-country-so-the-call-dropped card. "Mama? You still there?"

"Annabel? Did you hear me?"

"Mama? Listen, I don't know if you can hear me, but I can't hear you. Just call me later, or I'll call you, whichever. Love you!"

"Anna—" Click.

With a heavy sigh, I placed my phone back on the nightstand now that I was used to the light. I really did love my mother more than anything in the world, but being an only child to an over-protective single parent of her caliber was practically a full-time job by itself. As a grown woman, I needed my space, and that was exactly what drove me to use my savings on a trip by myself to Tuscany for my birthday. It was an especially nice perk that my birthday almost always coincided with Spring Break, so I wouldn't have to use PTO from work.

Getting out of bed was torture. How could anyone have a bed like this and not live in it? I was ready to give up my life and be like Grandpa Joe from Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, but alas, the throbbing in my arm demanded attention that required prying myself from the luxurious comfort of my goose down comforter and featherbed.