Lockdown {COMPLETED}

Chapter 4: Worst Timing

Aria woke up with a pounding headache, and instantly felt a tendril of dread curl in her stomach. All those sleepless nights were catching up to her at the wrong time. Cursing just about everything in her life, she trudged towards the door to her room. She heard Rae making breakfast and hissed as the sunlight streaming through the kitchen windows hurt her eyes. She said, "Could you pass the aspirin, top shelf on the right, and a glass of water?"

"Whoa, what happened to you?" Rae asked.

Everything felt a bit too loud for Aria's sensitive ears. She hissed in pain. "Will you just give it?"

"Nope, not until you have something to eat."

Knowing he was right yet not wanting to acknowledge it, Aria simply nodded and made a move to check her phone. But before she could, he snatched it from her. "What the hell, Rae?" she said and then winced as a sudden cramp racked her body. 

"Aria, you need to eat something first. Besides, the light from your phone will make your headache worse."

"Fine," she grumbled. She sat on the bar stool and lay her pounding head onto the cool kitchen top, sighing in relief. After what felt like a few seconds, but was actually several minutes, she jerked awake at the sound of her name.

"Aria, go ahead eat this. I've also kept the medicine and water near you. Now, if you need me, I'll be in my room."

The sight of food made her stomach grumble, and she winced as another hunger cramp racked her stomach. She ate slowly, and halfway through the food she glanced up at the clock and sighed in relief. She had at least two hours before the deposition and hopefully, it would be enough to clean herself up.

Taking the tablet and gulping down the water, she sighed. The pounding was getting no better, and she was somehow feeling even worse than she was before. She dragged herself back to her room and put an alarm on her clock for about an hour later, she dozed off.

*******

Aria woke up to someone shaking her. She groaned and curled herself up, not opening her eyes.

She heard someone sigh. "Aria, your alarm has been ringing for the past twenty minutes, and you have about a dozen texts. I get that you aren't feeling well, but you need to wake up, or you'll be late for your meeting."

Aria's eyes flew open as everything came rushing back to her. Quarantine. Rae. Headache. Meeting. Alex.

Alex.

"Shit, fuck. What the hell, Rae? Why didn't you wake me up sooner? Why didn't you-ow." Aria winced, as the headache came back in full force. "Give me my phone, I need to call Alex."

She quickly dialed Alex's number. She breathed a sigh of relief when she picked up. "Alex, I'm so sorry. Could you by any chance postpone the deposition to 10 a.m?"

"I'll talk to Justin right away Aria. But what happened, love?"

"Nothing babe, just a headache."

"Oh shit. I know how bad yours can get sometimes. Don't worry, I'll get the deposition postponed to 10 a.m. But are you sure not any later?"

"No, Alex. I have already postponed for an hour. Any later, and I'll play right into his cards."

"If you are sure. And don't worry I'll cover for you with Ms. Sydney as well."

"You don't need to-"

"Nonsense, Aria. I will. After all, what are best friends for? Now you just take care. Bye."

"Bye love."

She could feel Rae's eyes on her. She looked at him. 

"You know Alex Romero personally?"

"Yeah, we met in middle school and we instantly hit it off," she said. Then she narrowed her eyes at him. "Oh my-ouch. You like her don't you?"

"No I don't," Rae said firmly. "I'm a big fan of her achievements, and the fact that she, almost single-handedly, made her company one of the best in the world."

Aria let it slide. She had bigger fish to fry right now. "Get out. I need to get ready for my meeting," she said. She wanted him out of her room, and her current situation wasn't making her particularly kind towards him.

Her room was different from the other rooms in her apartment. While all three rooms had walk-in closets, and a personal bathroom, hers also had an office, which she had constructed after she moved in. It had resulted in sacrificing some space from the closet, but she couldn't have cared less. Her room's layout was also different from the others though the size of all three was the same.

Rae rolled his eyes and walked out the room, closing the door behind him. Aria hugged her knees and drooped her head onto her hands. After taking a deep breath, she got up to change.

I am Aria Katmann, she thought, and this is nothing compared to what I'll do to that bastard.

*******

The client of the opposition stormed out of the conference. Aria smirked.

"This isn't over yet Aria." Ethan said, practically sneering at her.

"Oh I would hope not, Ethan. Because this is turning out to be too easy for me."

Ethan Calloway grit his teeth. She could almost hear the restraint he was exercising on himself.

"Talk to me when you have your client back under control."

Ethan left the video conference without another word.  

"You call that easy?" Justin Romero asked.

"Justin, I have a really bad headache right now, of course this wasn't easy. I just wanted to get under his skin."

He chuckled. "Take care Aria," he said and left the conference. For a second she stared at her own face in the video. The slight makeup covered the circles under her stormy grey eyes, and her red hair was tied in a high ponytail. She sighed and shut down her laptop. At least one good thing had come out of her headache. She hadn't had the time to think about her nerves again, and she had aced that deposition. Looking back, she couldn't believe she had been nervous in the first place. It was a big case, but she was Aria Katmann after all. For a moment she just sat there, relishing the silence. Then she left her office to go get herself some lunch.

*******

Rae was watching a movie, when he heard Aria call out to him. "Rae! Where's the food?"

"Over here," he replied, while he set a plate of pasta for her. Aria plopped down on the couch and took the plate he gave her. He had just finished eating himself, so the pasta was still hot.

He heard her groan as she took her first bite and sank more into the couch.

For a few moments they just sat there, with Aria's attention on her food, and Rae's on the movie playing on the TV. Then Aria asked, "What are you watching?"

"The Other Woman."

"Isn't that the one with Cameron Diaz as the girlfriend, and Leslie Mann as the wife?"

"Yup, that one."

"Seems a bit cocky of you to watch such a film, don't you think?"

"What do you-?" Rae's eyes widened in realization. He looked over at Aria and saw that she was looking right at him.

"You know exactly what I mean."

~~~~~~~~~~~