The Deal

Chapter Five

The sun shone through the blinds and onto her face waking Summer from a peaceful yet strange sleep and she wondered why. It was as she fluttered her eyes open that she realised just why things were so strange. Somehow, lord knows how she had forgotten the events of last night and now found herself naked and in bed with Lucas' arm thrown lazily over her bare stomach. His face was close to hers and she could barely hear his soft snores over the sound of her own heart pounding.

Summer hadn't been that drunk the night before, she could recall every intimate moment they shared and yet, somehow as she woke up that morning she had forgotten where she was as if it had only been a dream. But she knew that wasn't the case, the man laying beside her definitely wasn't a figure of her imagination and there was most certainly no way she could have imagined the intimacy that they shared. She glanced over at him, his face was buried in the pillow and his chest rose and fell rhythmically.

Her phone began to ring from the other room and it was then as if a sudden wave of reality came crashing down upon her. It was a Monday which meant work and she had every right to suspect that it was Alana calling her to ask where the hell she was. There wasn't a clock in sight in the room but Summer just knew that she was late and suddenly felt completely stupid for allowing herself a night of drinking- especially it being on a Sunday.

She launched herself out of the bed, having not a care in the world that her assets were on show and scurried around trying to find her underwear but somehow they seemed to have vanished into thin air. Without a second to lose Summer pulled open a drawer and slipped on a pair of Lucas' clean underpants. She then added the pyjama shirt on top followed by the pants which were neatly folded in the living room. Once she was dressed in the red and black plaid pyjamas Summer straightened out the blankets on the couch and then scooped her dress, shoes and bag into her arms. Before she could leave the apartment she glanced around for a notebook and thankfully there was one lying on the counter beside the bread bin. She scribbled a small note onto the page which read something along the lines of 'Sorry about last night,' and then made her swift exit to the car.

As she turned the key in the engine and rested her barefoot on the frozen pedals she checked her phone. There were what seemed like hundreds of notifications on the screen but Summer hadn't care what any of them said. The only thing she cared about was the four numbers at the top of the screen which read the time, 09:34. Being more than two hours late for work, she knew that she would definitely have some explaining to do.

During her journey home Summer contemplated slipping into the dress that she wore to her father's party the night before and turning up to work wearing that- it would mean that she wouldn't miss as much of the day. But, after not a lot of convincing, she decided against it - there was nothing worse than going to work without having had a shower.

Her phone rang from where it was situated in the centre console and she answered the call with a downbeat 'hello' from the button on her steering wheel.

"Hi Summer, just checkin' in. Is everythin' okay?" Susan, one of the women who worked in the school's office said on the other end of the line.

"Hi, I'm really sorry about all of this. My car broke down and then I didn't have any service and now I'm waiting on a mechanic to come and pick it up. My morning has been a nightmare. I'm sorry I couldn't call in to let you know," she lied fairly easily. It hadn't been the first time she'd lied to get out of school, the only difference was that had been when she was a student attending - not a teacher.

"No problem. We were all just worried about you. Get in when you can, there's no rush we called a sub in for you."

"Thanks, Susan, you're a star. I should hopefully be in by eleven."