Last Night

Part 14

I wasn't sure how long I'd passed out for, but I lazily opened my eyes to find myself draped over Ian. If his own sudden jerking was any indication, I was positive that he'd fallen asleep as well.

I rubbed my eyes and failed to stifle a yawn before turning to look at him. "I'm sorry. I don't know what came over me. You were up all night. It's almost noon. Go to bed."

He tried to shake himself awake, but his eyes continued to close. "It's no big deal. I don't have any meetings tonight."

"Do you still have work though?" I tried to brush some wrinkles out of my tanktop and make sure nothing was out of place.

"Yeah, but like I said, it's going to be a slow night. I'll be able to cut out early most likely, maybe even head in late." His hand rose to his face and covered a large yawn.

"Even still, you're falling asleep." I smiled, then clamped my mouth shut to prevent me from continuing to play yawn tag with him. Once the feeling passed, I stood up and stretched. "Thank you for being here with me. I actually feel pretty good, all things considered."

"Company can sometimes have that effect."

I turned around and offered him a hand, but his head had already fallen back into the couch cushions with closed eyes. A chuckle escaped my lips. His sleeping form looked so peaceful even with his fangs popping out from his slightly opened mouth. "Ian? Hello?"

He didn't respond. I snapped my fingers, then clapped my hands together, but still nothing.

"So when you do sleep, you sleep like the dead. Okay, that would've been good to know earlier." I said, shaking my head and placing a hand against my forehead. "What am I going to do with you?"

He was still sitting upright with his head tilted against the back cushion and arms abandoned across his lap.

Should I leave him like that? It didn't look very comfortable, but I knew I couldn't drag him upstairs to his place. If someone were to see us, they'd probably think he was dead, actually dead, and he wouldn't be able to allay any of the fears or misunderstanding.

I reached down and lifted one of his legs onto the rest of the couch, then the other. The movement dragged him lower into more of a lounging position.

"I hope that's good enough." I said aloud and glanced towards his chest. I guess I was expecting to see it slowly rise and fall with his breathing until I remembered he wasn't human. He didn't really need to breath. Turning to his thermos on the coffee table, I flipped the top open and could smell that coppery metallic smell of blood. I coughed a bit. Yep, he was the real deal.

There were several dishes that needed to be cleaned up so adding his thermos wouldn't be too bad. He'd prepared breakfast and humored me all morning. This was the least I could do.

I carried his thermos at arms' length and quickly rinsed it with dish soap. Luckily the smell dissipated within a few minutes of dish washing and I could comfortably package up my leftovers and start scrubbing the hell out of my scorched pan.

"It's the thought that counts." I said aloud as I added more soap and stretched my shoulder.

My phone jingled from the other room and I set the pan back down in the sudsy water to soak. Grabbing it off of the nightstand where I'd left it plugged in all morning, I saw a message from Emily. She'd known about Philip and the fallout with my family. Her text asked if I wanted to go out for some tea. I was a mess last year so it was no surprise that she was checking in on me again.

Rather than text her back, I called. "Hey Emily."

"Nicole? Hey, you actually sound pretty good. Is everything okay?"