Mr. Lawson's Assistant

Chapter 24

Damon guided me gently through the house, with his hand firmly on my shoulder, as we moved through the throngs of people. I felt much more secure with him beside me, especially when there were so many people around me.
Still, relief washed over me, when the front door was in sight.
Damon opened the door for me, ushering me outside, and I made my way down the sidewalk towards the street.
In the darkness, I reached up and straightened the back of my shirt, feeling the breeze on my back, and my mind's numbness slowly wore away. As I dropped my hands, Damon came up beside me, and in the moonlight, I could see the muscle in his jaw working.
"Are you ok?" He asked quietly, his voice shockingly close in the darkness.
Inhaling, I nodded my head, and reached up to tuck some of my loose bangs behind my ear. "Yes."
I could feel the energy radiating off of Damon as we walked, and I wondered how he had done so well at concealing it until now.
"I'm sorry, if I would have known sooner-" Damon began, but I cut him off before he could finish.
"You didn't even know I was there. What you did was plenty, thank you." I said quietly, clasping my hands together in front of me. Damon paused, glancing down at me. "Why did you come?" He asked me, and I realized I had forgotten all about the power issue. It seemed so insignificant now, that I almost wanted to make up another reason. But I didn't. I was a horrible liar.
"The power for the house, shut down, so I came to see if you had the electric company's number." I laughed dryly to myself. Saying it made it seem even less important.
I should've stayed home.
Damon didn't say anything else, as we passed the second house, and the driveway for ours came into view. We finished the walk home in silence, and when Damon let me inside and tried the switches, he made his way upstairs to the matenience closet. I watched, as he flipped a single switch in the metal pannel, and suddenly, the house was flooded with light once again. Sighing, I turned back towards the living room, and mumbled a good night to Damon, as I headed for the couch. There was no way I was going to sleep for at least another two hours.
"I'll stay up with you, if you don't mind." Damon told me, walking into the living room himself, and taking a seat on the opposite side of the room. I shrugged, sinking down onto the comfy furniture, and closing my eyes for a moment.
"I don't mind if you want to go to bed." I said after a moment, opening my eyes, and glancing across to the handsome Lawson brother. He shook his head ever so slightly, and leaned back against his chair. Yawning, I turned sideways on the couch and lay my head on the arm of the piece, fluttering my eyes open and closed every few minutes.
"Thank you..." I whispered softly, and Damon offered me a half-smile.
With the steady sound of the waves through the open windows, and Damon's quiet presence, I drifted off to sleep faster than I thought.
*
I woke up to someone carefully cradling my head away from the couch, and I squinted, trying to look around the darkened room.
"What is it..." I mumbled, but Damon shushed me gently.
My eyelids were heavy, and I let them fall closed again for a moment.
When I felt hands sliding underneath me, as I was lifted into the air I sighed and leaned against the lovely-smelling surface beside me.
The last thing I remember was feeling my sheets getting tucked in tightly around my chin, before everything faded into restless dreams.
*
Opening my eyes, I groaned quietly against the early morning sunlight that filtered in through the window. Rolling onto my side, I tried to fall back asleep, but the sun persisted. With a heavy sigh, I threw back my covers, and frowned, realizing that I still had my clothes on from the day before.
Then I remembered what had happened last night.
Sliding down from my bed, I pushed the blankets back into place, before pulling off my shirt and shorts, to change into something more comfy. Padding into the kitchen, I starting searching the cabinets for something to eat. When nothing turned up in the cabinets, I moved over to search the fridge.
Moments later, I had the stove going steadily, and the smell of eggs frying wafted through the kitchen. Padding across the kitchen to find some plates, I hummed a tune to myself. I wondered where Damon was, and if he was still asleep. So far, everyday we'd been here, he'd been awake earlier than me. As if reading my mind, Damon walked out of the hallway, still pulling on his black t-shirt as he came around the corner. My cheeks flushed when I glimpsed his bare stomach, but I turned back to the eggs, and hoped the heat from the stove would disguise my blush.
I wasn't sure why I was blushing, it wasn't like I hadn't seen a man's bare torso before.
"Breakfast?" Damon asked, his voice still deep and rough from sleep.
Raising my eyebrows, I flipped the eggs over and started scrambling them.
"It was for me, but you can have some." I pursed my lips, glancing back at him, as he pulled out two plates from the cabinet to my right. I hadn't been able to find them before.
Damon smirked and continued to bring out silverware for two, not responding to my quip.
When the eggs were done, I brought them over to the table, where Damon had set out a hot pad for the pan. As I set the pan down, I reached for a chair, but Damon beat me to it, and pulled the seat out for me.
I turned to Damon with an eyebrow raised. He gestured to the seat, bowing his head sarcastically at me.
"Since you made breakfast, I thought I should act like more of a gentleman." He winked. I acknowledged Damon's comment, and took a seat in the chair. Damon pushed my chair back in, then took a seat across from me, and waited until I was done getting my eggs, before he scooped his.
We ate in silence for a few minutes, before I sighed and set down my fork.
"I didn't really thank you for what you did last night-" I hesitated, glancing down at my hands, and Damon paused eating as well.
"Yes, you did."
"No, not really. I haven't been fair to you. It's not your fault I'm stuck here with you," I squeezed my hands together under the table, "and after the way I've been treating you, you had no reason to help me last night." I shook my head, raising my eyes to meet his. He was solely focused on me now. I exhaled. "So...thank you." I finished quietly.
Damon held my gaze for a moment, before he nodded. "You're welcome."
Lifting my fork back to my mouth, I began eating again, and we finished breakfast in silence.
After we were done, I cleaned up the cooking things and Damon put the dishes away into the washer.
When the kitchen was clean again, I headed back to my room to change into some day clothes, and put my hair into a braid. I hadn't worn it in a braid in forever. Checking myself out in the mirror, I decided that I actually looked cute in beach clothes, before I walked back towards the kitchen. Damon was waiting at the bar, and when I walked out, his eyes swept over me once, before he met my eyes.
"Ready?"
"For what?"
"I'm going to town, and I thought you'd like to come." He told me, and I glanced down.
I do look pretty cute in these shorts.
I cocked my head to the side. "I guess..."
Damon chuckled, "Let's go." He ushered me towards the stairs, and I realized he hadn't really been asking.
Once we were seated in the car, driving towards the town, I started to wonder what we were going to do, and voiced my question.
"There's a street festival today." Damon said, stopping at the first stoplight as the town came into view. "And we're running low on food."
"Where did all the food come from anyways?" I frowned, realizing that I hadn't brought any food, and neither had Damon. It was all just magically inside the fridge and cubbards when we'd got there. Damon's face twitched in amusement, and the car surged forward as the light turned green.
"I had a friend bring it before we arrived." He told me, and my eyes moved away from Damon, to where I could see crowds of people milling about the streets. As we entered the town, we turned off right before we started on the main street, because it was blocked off for the festival. Not long after circling down a few different streets, we found a parking space, and Damon shut off the car.
"It's crowded." I muttered, stepping out into the sun as Damon opened the car door for me.
"It's a festival, Oana, people are supposed to come." Damon retorted, seeming amused. I pursed my lips anyways, staring at the crowds.
We started walking down the street, and slowly, my personal space grew tighter as people milled about on every side of me. Little shops and carts were lined up on every street of the small town, and even out on the beach there were a few vendors. Walking beside Damon, I watched the bustling activities with interest.
There were street singers on every curb, and with them were cheerful pedestrians, dancing or clapping along to the lively tunes.
As we made our way down the street, my eyes caught on a small shop across the street, that was selling little rings and wooden jewelry. Glancing over to Damon, I saw that his eyes were fixated on a certain blonde-haired woman across the street. Raising my eyebrows, I looked between them, and suddenly, the girl turned to face us. Her eyes caught on Damon first, then me, and she stilled.
"I'll meet you at the car in three hours." I said suddenly, feeling that something was amiss. I most definitely did not want to be involved with whatever drama the woman clearly had between herself and Damon. This whole trip was because I couldn't seem to stay out of other people's buisness, so I intended to start doing just that. Drama wasn't my thing anyways.
Damon met my eyes momentarily, pulling his gaze away from the woman, before he shrugged. I quickly moved away from him, and he watched me cross the street into the shop, before he turned and headed towards the woman. She was waiting for him, her arms crossed in front of her, and her lips drawn into a thin line. Shaking my head, I entered the shop, and began to wander around, idly glancing at the jewlry.
*
An hour later, I weaved my way down the streets, having seen my share of the shops and carts, as I headed down to the bustling beach. Half way to the boardwalk, I heard a familiar tune coming from an elderly man on the last street corner. Turning to go listen, I stopped with the rest of the people who were dancing or listening. A smile crept onto my face as I placed the tune. It was a song my mother used to sing to me when I couldn't fall asleep at night. The soft music floated around me like the sea breeze coming from the beach, and I stood on the street corner, closing my eyes and listening to every perfect note.
Eventually the song came to an end, and I clapped with the rest of the crowd, smiling for the first time in a while. It had been forever since I'd heard that song. Pulling out a few dollars from my wallet, I threw it into the man's hat, then continued on my way towards the beach.
People milled about on the sand, dressed in nicer beach clothes than I'd ever seen at a public beach. They even avoided the water as if it were a nuisance. Maybe they didn't want to ruin their expensive beach clothing. As I observed the people, it occurred to me that perhaps you had to have a certain net worth to live here. It would've made since, because no one here was poor- or at least no one here looked poor.
"Afternoon."
Someone said behind me, and I turned around, narrowing my eyes. There stood the red-haired man from last night, his arms crossed over his chest, and the same ugly smirk on his lips.

I found the photo (posted above) on the Internet, please let me know if it is your personal work, so I may credit it correctly.