Inglourious Romance

Back to Work

Amaya awoke to an empty bed and the smell of breakfast cooking downstairs. She had slept soundly through the night, for she had been so tired that she fell asleep almost as soon as her head hit the pillow. She lay in the bed for a moment, reaching under the blankets to check her — Christoph’s — shirt. Naturally, it had ridden up, and she prayed he hadn’t peeked or felt anything when he got up. She glanced at the clock, saw that it was still early morning, and pulled the covers up over her head as she balled up into the fetal position. She didn’t want to get up. At all. Nope. Not going to happen. Getting up would mean her time with him would end and it was back to work.

Amaya lay there for a moment thinking about their trip to Salzburg and her staying the night just now. It was all just too good to be true. He was way too sweet to her, and she didn’t deserve such an awesome and adorable boyfriend. And yet he was downstairs cooking breakfast.

Well, maybe I better get up. I’d hate for his effort to be in vain, she thought, tossing the covers back.

Reluctantly, she slid out of bed, stretched, and fumbled for her clothes. She went into the bathroom, changed, and deposited his nice-smelling shirt into his hamper. That smell had certainly helped put her to sleep, aside from the fact that Christoph had been snuggling her. She then made the bed and headed downstairs to find Christoph frying strips of bacon from his skillet. A man that cooked was way sexy, in Amaya’s opinion, and she couldn’t help her smile.

"Morning, Christoph," she said quietly with a small smile.

He glanced up at Amaya and returned the smile. "Good morning, Liebling. I take it you slept well?"

Amaya nodded. "I did. Thank you."

She grabbed a brush from her purse and started trying to tame her messy red hair. When she was done with that, she grabbed her compact and examined her eyes; she was horrified to find they were red from falling asleep in her contact lenses.

“Ah crap!" she exclaimed. Amaya grabbed her glasses case from her purse along with her eye drops. “Damn it…"

Christoph looked up at her quizzically as he slipped some bacon off of the skillet onto a plate with a napkin to drain some of the grease. He was prepared to make her a cup of coffee before she suddenly became distracted by the dried up contacts in her eyes. Christoph had not experienced falling asleep in contacts, but he cringed at the thought of it not being a great experience.

"Is something wrong?" he asked, concerned.

"I left my contacts in, and now my eyes are...really red." She sighed. “I’ll be right back."

She went back upstairs and to the bathroom to peel her contact lenses from her eyes. They were pretty well ruined since she didn’t have a container or her saline solution for them, but she had some extras back at her room. She hated wearing her actual glasses, though she was somewhat grateful to have the foresight to always carry them with her. When she managed to straighten her eyes out with the eye drops, Amaya put on her black and purple rectangular frames and went back downstairs.

She shook her head as she sat down at the table. “God, I hate it when I do that. Do you need any help?"

Christoph had finished up the rest of breakfast as he waited patiently for Amaya to return. He looked up at her when she sat down and smiled. “Oh no, it’s all finished. You get comfortable, and I’ll get all of this on a plate for you."

He said this with his back turned as he began placing bacon, eggs, and buttered biscuits onto two plates. He turned back around with the plates in hand but he didn’t place them down just yet.

"Are you alright?" he asked, implying her contact situation. “Do you need anything?"

She gave an embarrassed laugh as she removed her glasses to clean them on her shirt. “I don’t need anything, sweetheart. As long as I can resist the urge to gouge out my eyeballs, I think I’ll be fine."