All Roads Lead Here (Laurinah)

Chapter Eighteen

The annoying and repetitive sound of the coffee maker is making Dinah anxious.

She's tapping her foot impatiently as the vending machine takes twice as long than it normally should. Dinah bets that the old people she sees occasionally wandering around the hospital's empty hallways were faster than the stupid machine.

Dinah crouches down to take a peek at the coffee tortuously dripping down her paper cup and she groans.

To make matters worse, the coffee vending machine just happened to be at the very end of a very unnervingly silent hallway with the bland color of white plastered on its walls. The lights are oddly a lot dimmer in this part of the hallway and something about that makes the hair on Dinah's skin stand on end.

"Can this stupid thing go any faster?" Dinah murmurs, gritting her teeth.

Where the hell are the people? Why did she have to be alone in a dimly lit hospital hallway at one in the morning getting coffee from a sad excuse of a vending machine?

Oh right, because she's the one looking after Lauren tonight, and also, the brunette didn't seem like she was going to sleep any time soon and was practically begging for Dinah's company. With her droopy eyes and sleepy stare, Dinah could barely keep up with the brunette's energy.

And so she went out to get some well-needed coffee.

She tries to hum a tune to calm her nerves. No use in remembering the last horror movie she watched.

"Dinah."

Dinah screams at the sudden sound, jumping in fright and clutching the vending machine, almost spilling the coffee she had been so patiently waiting for.

She turns around with terrified eyes and meets Clara's amused gaze, her husband Mike is besides her looking just as surprised with Dinah's reaction.

Clara suddenly bursts out into giggles and all Dinah could do is glare as she convinces her heart to settle down.

"What the hell, Clara!" She shouted in irritation. "You scared me half to death. Where the hell did you come from?" Dinah places a palm against her chest and feeling the frantic thumping against it.

"Sorry, dear," Clara says, grinning. "We took the stairs," she pointed towards the stairs just behind Dinah. "We didn't mean to frighten you, promise. It was worth it though."

Dinah glares. "I'm glad you enjoyed it," she says sarcastically.

"I don't believe we've been introduced," Mike says suddenly, a polite smile on his face as he hands out his hand towards Dinah. "I'm Mike."

"Dinah," she smiles politely, shaking his hand.

"So are you my daughter's new girlfriend?"

Dinah's suddenly flustered, she smiles a sheepish smile as her face turns red.

"Umm," she says hesitantly. "Not exactly–"

"You mean, not yet." Clara looks at her pointedly with a smirk playing on her lips. "That's where this is all going after all."

Mike gives Dinah a confused look. "Oh, sorry. All this time I thought you guys were together, with the kissing and everything."

"I agree, those two couldn't stop eating each other's faces since yesterday. I'm actually hesitant to leave them alone tonight, I have the feeling that they're up to no good," Clara says, more to her husband than Dinah.

Dinah turns a new shade of red, something that she didn't think was possible for her given her tanned complexion, but she doesn't bother hiding it because the couple had already started to have a whole other conversation without her, talking about her and Lauren's relationship as if Dinah wasn't even in the room.