Life Interrupted

Chapter 5

Friday mornings were my absolute favorite part of the week. It was the start of the weekend for myself, so I felt like I had plenty of time to get everything I needed to do out of the way. When I woke up this morning, I was happy to remember that I was currently parked on my favorite beach location. It was a little area where people just pulled up with RVs or campers so that they could enjoy a night near the water and watch the sunrise.

I had just finished my morning run when I remembered the details of last night. Alexander Reign. I still could not believe that Amelie had allowed me to be his host for the night. I knew that if I did well, it meant my position within Lux might expand.

Thinking about this, I also got a rush of emotions flooding my head when I remembered he had asked for my number. I was trying to play it off since I knew he probably just wanted to give me advice since I was a student. Maybe he was even a bit flirty, but even so I decided when I woke up that I needed to focus on school and work.

Plus, I lived a simple life. Just me and Bertha, trying to push past my mountain of debt from school. I know I could try to live somewhere if I wanted a really tight budget, but I was happy. Being in a relationship would only complicate my life, and I had plenty of that in the past. Speaking of complicated, the big loaf of unsliced brainless bread popped into my head.

Ugh. My cell phone.

I tried to have high hopes that my phone would be in the gym's lost and found. Having prolonged the inevitable, I figured I should make my way back to campus to find out.

The drive wasn't long. The nice thing about being on campus near the beach was definitely the distance, even if the price wasn't so considerate. I parked near the fitness center, grabbing my gym bag. I figured I could take a quick shower once I got my phone.

Once inside, I headed to the entrance desk. A guy about my age was standing behind as he typed away on the computer. As I reached the desk, he was still very intent on his screen.

Clearing my throat to grab his attention, he looked up.

"Oh hi! Sorry about that. Research paper due by tonight. Gotta love procrastination," he laughed, "How can I help?"

"No worries, I get it. I actually think I dropped my phone right outside the gym last night, and I was wondering if anyone came by with it?"

"Let me check, one sec." The guy with a name tag saying Carlos got up and rummaged in a box behind him. He pulled something out, but it didn't look like my cell phone.

"Uh, is your name Leah," he asked awkwardly.

"Yeah, why?" I asked. I wasn't too surprised since I just figured they got information when they scan me in.

"So, there's no phone here, but it looks like there's a note with a number and it was left for you. Maybe a friend came across it?" He looked at me, handing over the note.

Not to sound depressing, but I have virtually no friends so that seemed unlikely. I sighed as I grabbed the note from him knowing that it was probably the jerk I've had the luck of running into lately.

"Thanks," I mumbled, "Do you have a phone here I could borrow to call my 'friend'?"

The guy nodded and pulled a desk phone on top of the counter for me. I thanked him and began to dial the number that was on the note. I prayed somehow it was not him that answered on the other line.

"Hello?" A deep, confused voice answered. Great.

"You have my phone," I answered in a flat tone. I hadn't forgotten the embarrassment I had to face before work yesterday.