Beautiful

5. The Morning After

The Morning After

Tierra's cell phone began to buzz. It startled her, and yanked her out of a deep sleep. She slipped her hand from up under her blanket and snatched it from off of the nightstand. There was no way that she would've overlooked an appointment. That just didn't happen... well, not often.

Besides, if she'd had an appointment then Terri would've reminded her yesterday before she'd left the office. Yet since she didn't, why the devil was her alarm beeping this early in the morning?

Lunch with Qu, 12PM, JC's it read, highlighted in neon green.

"Man, how did I forget about that?" she said aloud, and glanced at the time on her phon.

"Shoot, and it's already half pass 11 o'clock. JC's is all the way over in Amherst. That's thirty minutes away," she mumbled again out loud, and pulled the covers off of her head.

If she got up right now, skipped her usual routine and just threw something on, she might wind up being just a few minutes late. As it was though, she'd had a long night out playing Charlie's Angels with Shireece and Bridget.

The trio had returned to her house after they'd left Tigrez, and stayed up most of the night. They gossiped, drank, and watched the movie 'Takers'. They'd clowned around and teased one another, fantasizing about what they'd do to their favorite male character, if given the chance.

"Brandon!" she yelled out, nearly causing her head to throb.

"Yes Ms. Rodriquez," an attractive young man responded within a moments time.

Brandon was her maid, or domestic technician, as she liked to call him. He poked his head slightly inside of Tierra's door.

Her vision was blurred, as she looked over at him, a mixture of the residual of sleepiness and the late night shenanigans.

"I think I had one too many of those Jolly Ranchers, or whatever the heck those things were called that Bridget had us drinking last night," she confessed, sitting up on the side of her bed.

When she looked up at him again the room suddenly began to spin. She sat there for a few seconds until it seemed to subside, and then made an attempt to stand up... her feet had other plans.

"Whoa there, Nelly..."

She laughed softly, as Brandon rushed over to aide her. With his assistance, she slid her feet into her slippers and made her way to the kitchen. He then helped her up onto one of the upholstered turquoise, brown, and orange striped high back bar stools at the center island.

Brandon knew exactly what to do next, reaching into the freezer to grab an ice bag for her aching head. He then plugged in her Keurig. Once the green light came on he placed her new favorite mug up on the stand, her favorite flavored K-cup coffee pod into the brewer, and pressed the button to make a full cup. As he moved about, she hoped that what he was doing would prove to be the magical cure for the oncoming nausea that she was suddenly starting to feel.

"I better call Qu and tell him that I'm not going to be able to make it. I hope he hasn't already headed out, because I know he's going to think that I'm blowing him off.

"Brandon sweetheart, be a dear and grab my cell for me please. It's sitting on my nightstand," she let him know.

While he was gone, Tierra laid her head down onto the cool, granite counter top. In an attempt to shield her eyes from the overhead kitchen lights, she covered them with her hands.

"Here you go Miss Rodriquez," he said, sliding her phone in front of her.

She slowly picked it up and looked through her contacts for Qu's number, yet she didn't see it after scrolling through her list twice. She then remembered why, cursing herself up under her breath.

"How stupid of me! I never got his dang number in the first place, and I bet he's not at his office either. Now he's really going to think that I stood him up," she voiced with regret.

She looked over at the calendar on the wall, and then off into space, as if the number would magically appear out of thin air. Finally, she gave up on that ludicrous idea, and returned her head onto the countertop and exhaled in a mentally exasperated manner, causing her lips to flutter.

"Oh well, nothing else I can do Brandon," she told him, and shrugged her shoulders.

In the next second, she seemed to change. Her personality took a sharp detour and Brandon felt her sting.

"Look, I'm going to my room. Do Not Disturb Me!!" she snapped, "Do you understand me?" she warned him.

He shook his head in agreement, as she took a slow sip of the cup of coffee that he'd slid in front of her, before slowly and a bit unsteadily walking off towards her bedroom. She'd resign herself to the much needed embrace of her Jacuzu. There was nothing that she could do about the Qu situation until he called. If he called. She figured that she'd try to soak her hangover away in the meantime.

"Brandon, just lock up as usual when you're done for the day," was the last thing that she said before she escaped into her bedroom.