Whispers of thy Heart

Chapter eleven

Chapter 11

Derek lay on his bed, looking at the stars through the skylight. Through the years, he had gotten around to changing the apartment a bit. Now, he had a walk in closet and a huge skylight. These were in his room. The rest of his apartment he left pretty much the same. His mother had been extremely surprised when she had seen the upgrade his bedroom had got. He had brushed it off saying the landlord got it done in all the other apartments too. What she hadn’t known and what he didn’t bother telling her was that for the last three years, he was the landlord.

It was a warm night and he had foregone a shirt, the cool satin sheets pleasant against his heated skin. The funny part was even though he had spent the whole evening with Elpis, it was Vivian that he was thinking about. She had looked so innocent even in a dress that was the antithesis of pure but he couldn’t exactly place the emotion he felt for her.

Sighing, he rolled over and fell asleep. Dreaming about his mother’s reaction when she found out all his secrets.

He woke up to sharp rays of morning sunlight trying to burn his eyes out and somebody banging insistently on the door. Groaning, he ran a hand through his hair and pulled open at the door glaring at the person who had broken his beauty sleep. “What!” he shouted, before realizing that it was Vivian standing in front of him with her luggage in hand. He groaned again. How had it slipped his mind that Vivian was moving in today? The guest room wasn’t even ready. Heaps of his old work and other stuff had been stored in there forever. He frowned wondering how he would sneak all of that past her.

Vivian, bored of waiting for him had pushed him aside and was now searching for what would be her room. Seeing a door opposite to Derek’s room, she opened it only to close it again.

“Please tell me that you have a different guest bedroom? That junkyard I just saw wasn’t the place you expect me to stay!” she said turning to look at him an eyebrow raised.

He scratched his head looking sheepish. “Well I have been sort of busy these days, so I couldn’t get around to cleaning it. You can take my room for now, I’ll take the couch. I think I should be able to clean it out by tomorrow.”

She made a face at him, “Seriously Derek, how could you forget?”

Sighing she pulled her bags into Derek’s room. Her face brightened a bit as she looked around the room. It was a shade of dark blue with  a huge mural of a forest on one side, courtesy of Leila. The bed was a simple dark wood one with white satin sheets, that had black and blue highlights. The comforter too was of the same shade of black and blue. The bed had dark wood side tables that had a white laptop on one side and a weird statue for Derek to keep his glasses on the other.

Off to the side was a desk with a huge flat screen TV hung on the wall opposite to the bed with a maze of woodwork around it. In the unique case were the largest number of books she had ever seen. The side opposite to the mural had two door, one that led to a walk in wardrobe and the other to a huge bathroom.

She smiled and plopped on the bed. “Why wasn’t your room this amazing when I was here last?”

“That’s because this is a very recent change. When you came all that time back, only the walls had been painted. The mural was covered and I had a closet here that I used to use because this one was still getting built. Also the flat screen wasn’t there.”

Vivian nodded, running her hand over the various bound copies on his shelf. She smiled at him, “So want to hear my assessment on your behavior at the ball?”

Derek nodded. "But first you should get a shirt on. As much as I love staring at those amazing abs, they are way too distracting,” she winked at him and he smiled, pulling a t-shirt over his shoulder.