The Night Watch ✓

11 / irresistible

To say it was a dreary day would be the understatement of the year. Thunderous clouds hung heavily in the sky, pelting bullets of rain at the grey town and sending streaks of lightning bolting down to the ground. The weather forecast had predicted a wet day: this was something else entirely. For three hours now, thunder had rolled overhead and approximately one hundred and eleven minutes ago, it had deafened Bree to the sound of her alarm as she slept soundly.

Storms had never bothered her, but they usually woke up her up. Today, however, she lay stomach down with her face pressed against the pillow that she hugged, the duvet tangled around her limbs. After eight o'clock, her phone had chirped every five minutes until it had given up at half past, having failed its duty of waking Bree. An almighty rumble right above the building didn't even faze her.

What did manage to rouse her was a knock on her door at five past ten. She opened her eyes to a dark room, not used to her curtains being closed, and her initial reaction was to smile as she recalled last night. Then she rolled onto her back and let out a yawn.

"What?" She turned on her bedside lamp and felt around for her phone as she squinted against the light, holding the mobile at arm's length as she unlocked the screen and saw the time. "Oh, fuck. Fuck." Scrambling to get out of bed, she found that her duvet was more tangled than she had thought, and she fell to the floor in a heap.

"Bree?" Gaia pushed open the door and cast her eyes down to the floor. "Are you alright?"

Bree pushed her hair off her face and looked up at Gaia from her pathetic position. "Absolutely fine," she said as she grappled with her covers. Gaia covered her eyes and turned her head away.

"Oh, you're naked," she said. With her hand obscuring her vision, she continued to speak. "I thought you were at work but then Petra rang to ask where you were, so I said you were ill. I haven't even seen you since Saturday. Are you ok?"

Bree stood and wrapped the duvet around herself for Gaia's sake before she sat on the edge of her bed. "I'm fine, I guess I just slept through my alarm. And thanks, by the way. I hope Petra wasn't too much of a fuckwit." She frowned at her phone, which confirmed the unsnoozed reminder. "Shit." Then she looked up at her flatmate. "Are you ok? Don't you work today?"

"I called in sick," Gaia said, one hand over her stomach. "If my boss asks, I have the flu. He doesn't believe in period pain. I mentioned it once and he said that I don't use my 'lady parts' to work so it shouldn't affect anything."

Bree stared. "Wow. What a prick," she said, leaning across her bed for a towel she had thrown over her chair. While Gaia glanced away, she stood and replaced the duvet with the towel. "You could probably get a doctor's note or something."

"I feel like he wouldn't believe it if I gave him one," Gaia said. She leant against the doorframe with her arms folded, and she looked awful. Ever since she was young, she had suffered from horrendous cramps every month that could render her nauseous at best and immobile at their worst, and none of the treatments she had tried had ever done any good. "Are you gonna go in anyway?"

Bree struggled with motivation when it came to work. Though she went along each day that she was due in the office, it was hard to care. It didn't happen often, but on the occasions that she found herself running late, she tended to write the day off, and today was one of those days she decided, shaking her head in response to Gaia's question. "I have a couple of viewings from five to six, though," she said. "Until then, you have me at your beck and call."

Gaia chuckled. "Nothing like skiving work together for the perfect girls' day in."

*

After a shower and a bit of effort put into her appearance, Bree emerged from her room at eleven o'clock in the morning with a shiver. The weather showed no signs of improving. Rain splashed off the pavement below though from so high up, she could hardly even see it as she peered out of window and watched people sprinting across the courtyard with their umbrellas turned inside out, coats pulled up over their heads and feet sploshing through puddles.