Beauty and the Pharaoh

Chapter 28 - [Beauty and the New Job]

My body was aching like no tomorrow when I woke up the next morning. I had a headache, my shoulders were sore from sleeping upright, and my legs were numb though Atem was nowhere in sight when I woke up.

At least I was still a virgin, right?

I found myself in my bed, but assumed that I only recently got there since it was still pretty cold. When I stretched, I just made my body feel worse. So I stayed there for a bit, staring at the ceiling.

And then I thought of Atem.

After all that craziness that happened in one night... from dissing my grandfather to telling me that he thought he was in love with me... of course I wanted to see him.

So I got up and made my way out of my bedroom.

He was walking out of the washroom right then. He had a towel on his head and he looked a lot fresher this morning than he had in a while. When he noticed me, he stopped to look at me.

We looked at each other for a moment and I noticed that he was still wearing my aunties' ankh necklace. Judging by the fact that he looked better, I assumed that my magical aunty had gotten it to work.

And when my eyes drifted back to his face, he let out a chuckle and looked away.

I was gonna ask him why he was laughing. I was hoping he would say something nice, especially after all that happened the night before. And of course, I wanted to know what he was thinking.

But I didn't need to ask.

"Oh Amun," Atem started as he looked back at me. "You always look so horrible right when you wake up."

Without thinking, almost out of instinct, I kicked him in the shin.

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Of course, Atem was infuriated with me for kicking him. And to be honest, I'm sure it didn't hurt as much as he was making it out to be. I didn't kick him that hard.

So yeah, we were fighting now.

Though it was only a couple hours ago that he told me he thinks he loves me.

Of course, I didn't try to bring that up again. He was drunk last night and I didn't want to say something that may embarrass me.

So I ignored him all morning.

But eventually, as the day went on, I gave up on pretending to be mad and sat down next to him on the couch. "So, did you sleep well?"

"Fine," he mumbled. He was clearly still mad.

"Oh c'mon! I didn't hit you that hard!"

"You never put your foot on a Pharaoh."

"Those kinds of rules don't apply to a Pharaohs' girlfriend–" I really liked the sound of that, "–besides, you shouldn't be calling me ugly."

"Well I'm not going to lie," Atem argued back, "you're not particularly appealing in the mornings. I didn't say all the time!"

I rolled my eyes, "okay, forget it!" This guy was never going to change. "Did the necklace help?"

He shrugged. "I guess," he said before downing another glass of water. This was like, his hundredth cup. He must have had a bad hangover.

I was pretty fine now, thank goodness.

"So no nightmare?"

He shook his head.

I smiled, "good." I then turned in my seat to face him, sitting in the exact same spot I was sitting in last night, "so... what were these nightmares about?"