I'm awoken by the slamming of a door and aroma of coffee.
I sit up in a quick jump. Although I reflexively recoil, the resulting pain in my head is not as bad as I expected.
I frantically glance around the room for my feline friend and am relieved to see that I left the window open last night. I just hope he managed to slip out before my roommate found him. He hadn't been caught yet, so the chances were pretty good.
I follow my nose and see a generous cup of coffee on my bedside table, along with a packet of aspirin. The sight makes me smile, Beth is too good to me.
She must have assumed I hadn't come home because of a hangover, and I dread interrogation she will conduct when given the chance.
The coffee is lukewarm but made just how I like it. I quickly polished it off quickly before knocking back a pain pill with the glass of water.
Feeling more awake, I make my way into the living room so I can see what time it is. I miss the convenience of my phone, but at least we have a working clock in the house, so I'm not completely stranded.
I still have a bit of time, but without much to do, I decide to hop in the shower and start getting ready for the day.
I'm about halfway through my morning routine when I realise with horror that I forgot to actually place the shipping order yesterday! Piper is going to kill me!
Hurrying myself, I manage to make my way out the door in less than 20 minutes, with my keys and wallet safely in my bag.
I make it to the club in record time and as I park I remember, Oh, Chris is staying here. Is he here? Maybe he's gone out. This thought disappoints me, but also gives me the confidence to get out of the car and make my way inside.
I was lucky (or unlucky?) enough to find the place empty; the other employees wouldn't be arriving for another few hours. I quickly work my way around the bar searching for my notepad, but stumble across a missing object I wasn't expecting to find.
It was badly cracked, but it was unmistakably my phone. How had this happened? Ughhh, I practically just bought this thing! A whine of distress escapes me as I lean down to pick it off the floor. I'm verbally cursing myself, and it, loudly for not realising it was there yesterday. My poor, poor phone. I probably would have seen it if a certain someone hadn't been so annoyingly captivating.
Ihear a chuckle coming from behind me, and quickly snatch my broken beloved from the floor before stretching back to my full height.
Think of the devil, there he was, with a frustrating smirk on his face. What was so funny? Oh, right, me.
I blush, embarrassed that he heard me reacting so childishly, and Oh God - he's not wearing a shirt!
"I'm sorry, I thought no one else was here." I try to justify my reaction, feeling my face getting hotter as I desperatelyforce my eyes away from his bare chest.
His smirk only grows from his postion leaning agaist the doorframe, "I was sleeping, but I could hear you cursing from my room. I didn't know you knew that many swears."
I hold up my phone, practically glowing red at this point and squeak, "Case solved, broken phone!" Finding myself unable to form full sentences.
"I can see that," he takes a step forward and inspects the object in my hand, "It's pretty badly broken, maybe you should just throw it out?"
I don't detect the slight hope in his tone as I'm still too mortified at the position he caught me in earlier. Not to mention the position we're in right now. He is standing so close to me. As much as I try not to, my eyes keep moving of their own accord to his lean frame. If I just reached out right now, I could touch him- no! Bad brain!
He looks at me in question, and I stammer out, "uh, yeah, that's, that's a good idea," I've got no idea what his question was, I'm just hoping that made some kind of sense.
My words cause him to smile as he says, "Here, let me help you," and gently takes it from my grip. Before I know it, my phone has a new home at the bottom of the P3 staff bin. Awww, Goodbye, my dear friend - you served me well for so many months...
My mental eulogy is cut short as a shirtless Chris' green eyes capture mine again. There's a small spark of satisfaction in them that I don't quite understand, oh fuck is he noticing the effect he has on me? Is he gloating? Quick distract him somehow.
"Notebook!" I practically yell at him, before stammering "my- do you know- I left my notebook here." My voice gets higher with each word.
Okay, not great, but at least that was a semi-proper sentence.
He chuckles quietly, and I think I hear him murmur something under his breath, "You are so cute."
My heart palpitates in my chest. My God, this man is giving me a heart condition now!
"Yeah, c'mon I left it in my room." He turns and motions for me to follow him. Oh, his bare back. My mind goes blank. What did he say?
Wait, room? Good, shirt, he could have on soon.
I make a start to follow him but think better of it. I really shouldn't, it's not a good idea for me to go into a small space with a shirtless man that I am clearly very attracted to. I can't remember why, but I am certain there is a very good, nice reason that I should not follow this great, handome, charming...
"I'll just wait out here, actually" I call, cutting off my thoughts and feeling more coherent now that I don't have a eye full of his chest.
There's a moment of pause before I hear his faint reply of "Okay then."
I try to get control of my breathing, while busying myself tidying the bar. I go through all the shelves making sure the bottles that are already opened are located at the front of the lines, so we don't double up. Chris did a pretty good job so theres really not much for me to do, but I try anyway.
As I step back and look at the shelving with a small nod I feel eyes on me and look to see Chris. Thankfully, he has a shirt on this time, and if I feel any kind of dismay it is swiftly pushed to the side by my dedication to my job.
He holds out the notebook with a small smile, and I practically run to him chanting, "Thank you, thank you, thank you," before snatching it from his grasp and sprinting to the bar phone.
I skid to a stop in front of it and push in the number for our supplier. I have the number written in the front of my book. It rings for so long that I'm hopping from foot to foot until finally a disinterested voice answers.
I thank them for their time before quickly conveying the order and apologising for my lateness, ending it with a few more thank yous. Once the call is over, I close my eyes and sigh, resting my forhead on cool the phone.
I stay like this for a few moments, until I remember that I'm not alone in the room. I try so hard to ready myself before I look up at him but nothing could have prepared me for the look of admiration on his face.
His smile was so tender, I don't think I've ever seen that kind of emotion before, especially directed at me before.
Actually, I have. When Leo used to work here and would stare at Piper while she wasn't looking. Chri' gaze now is so similar it feels a little eerie, and I visibly shiver at the implication.
My involuntary movement brakes the spell over us as Chris looks away sharply. He quickly says something about needing to go check on the sisters. I wanted to say something to stop him, anything, but couldn't find any words.
Just like that, he evaporated into white lights and was gone with gentles chime.
A/N - I was definitely channeling Marrientte in this one, could you tell? I hope you liked it.