Driven

Ch 9

Leslie's P.O.V

I slowly lifted my head off from the sofa, my back stiff from sleeping on the couch. I groan as the bright sunlight that filters through the window as I try to shift and move my stiff muscles. I suddenly sit up with a jolt as I remember the development made last night. I fall back with a chuckle as the excitement makes its way back to my chest. Just as a goofy smile settled on my face a splash of water drenched me completely as I stood up with a shout. I turn around with a glare and yell "ROSA" as I look for the culprit. My eyes fall on on the smirking figure right behind the couch where I previously lay. Her eyes scan my figure, "You're late for breakfast so I came to give you a wakeup call." She looks at me unaffected by my glare as I finally head to my bedroom for a much needed shower and change of clothes.

By the time I was dressed and downstairs Rosa had laid the entire table packed full with food, I look at her with my eyes wide as she looks right back at me giggling weirdly. I raise a brow questioningly as I hear a snicker from right behind me followed by a smack on my head, I whip around as my brain doesn't even register the smack and instead looks for the owner of that well known chuckle. I find my idiot of a bodyguard - Theodore - standing right there, a giant grin plastered across his face as he pulls me towards him for a hug. "I thought... tomorrow... what?!?" I mumble while returning the hug. I couldn't describe how boring work life had felt without my huge wall of a bodyguard: his ideas to do idiotic harmless pranks, his sarcastic and sharp toungue and his never dulling ability to dodge any trick set up was inexplainably exciting. His presence made my mostly mundane life take a turn and go beyond exhilarating. It was refreshing to say the least.

As he pulled away, I saw a few tears make their way into his eyes as I watched him painfully relive every moment of his last visit. His face loses the smile and his head hangs in shame. I pull him in for another hug but this time I knew what he was going through. Losing a loved one is always tough, but it's even tougher if that loving grandmother is the only one who called you family. He was scheduled to return next week, his family must have driven him off early or he just got sick of their attitude, somehow I knew it was the latter. He clutched the back of my shirt as tears flowed once again and his weight caused me to strike the floor. Rosa had silently left, giving us the much needed privacy and we stayed like that on the floor, holding each other close giving him time to grief.

"Moma would be proud" I whispered and he nodded slightly but said nothing else. It took us a few minutes to collect ourselves as we pulled apart and stood up walking over to the table. I filled him a piled plate of food and placed it in front of him, we slowly started eating and it took a few minutes to get the conversation flowing but the pain in his eyes began to fade with time.

I wanted to let him rest at home today but staying alone would only give him time to think about the pain so he quickly got dressed and headed to the club. About twenty minutes later we walked into Blackening, I introduced the staff to Theo and then walked back to my office where I got on with all the work piling up on my desk. The pressure of working a medical and business life never let up but I had managed to learn how to leave everything behind me when I walked into my apartment. As I worked through my papers I remembered that I needed to call Ethan over to my place to discuss a lot of things. I wanted to give him a comforting environment to talk about everything including safewords, limits, kinks and a lot of other stuff. I pulled out my phone and called Ethan's number and he picked up after the second ring. Before I could say anything he started hacking and coughing and apologized repeatedly before calming to a stop.

"Hey... Are you ok?"

"Yeah you just scared me" He chuckled.

"What were you doing?" I asked lightly trying to get some conversation flowing, I didn't want to put him on the spot by asking him to come over immediately.