Chapter Twenty One

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When Alex woke up, he could see his alarm clock just behind Norma on the nightstand and it was 10am. It was late for the time him, and Norma especially would usually wake up. He knew that Norma would freak out if she realized the time. She'd probably start talking about how she couldn't leave the motel unattended and rush off back home. After last night, getting quite drunk, hurting her leg...she needed her rest. She looked so peaceful, he couldn't bare to wake her up. He managed to reach for his phone without waking Norma, and he text Emma to ask if she'd be good looking after the motel for the morning. She insisted she'd be good for the whole day, but he had a feeling Norma might want to get back home sooner than that.

He ended up falling back to sleep for a bit after texting Emma, and when he woke up it was nearing 11:30. Despite Norma still looking all cute and peaceful, he decided he should probably wake her up. "Norma?" he whispered, brushing the hair from her face. He leaned down and pressed a soft kiss to her temple.

When she felt the kiss on her forehead, Norma woke up immediately and was startled by the sudden contact. It caused her to jump a little, and her arm which had been resting on his chest raised sharply as a reflex. Her elbow collided straight with Alex's eye, and she winced louder than he did. "Oh shit i'm so sorry! Ugh, you scared me you idiot! Are you okay?" she tugged at the hand he had covered over his eye, urging him to let her see what she'd done.

"What, other than getting my eye punched back through my head? Yeah i'm good.." He said with a small hint of laughter, pulling his hand away from his eye.

She tutted quietly, shaking her head. "No you aren't okay, it's all red.." She brushed her fingers softly across the skin under his eye. "That'll bruise" She stated, pulling back the covers and shifting to the end of the bed. "I'm gonna get you some ice--"

"Hon, your crutches are downstairs. You'll have a hard job doing that." He raised an eyebrow. "Stay here, i'll get the ice."

Norma tilted her head, a fond smile on her face.

Alex stood up from the bed and turned back to look at her, confused. "What?"

"You called me a cute name. Don't couples do stuff like that?" When she said it out loud, it actually made her think. They weren't a couple, were they? But if they weren't...what were they? They weren't friends, they'd past that mark. Friends with benefits? The benefits part had only been kissing right now, and those kisses had been full of feeling. So what was this? What were they doing?

Alex stood there for a moment, a blank expression on his face. His lips parted slightly and he finally spoke. "I...uhm" he scratched the back of his neck. "I don't know" he chuckled nervously. "I didn't even mean to, it just...slipped out I guess"

"Well, you should slip up like that more often. It's nice" she smiled.

He nodded slightly awkwardly and flashed a faint smile, starting to walk out of the room.

"Waaaait. You know actually, I will come downstairs. I'm starving" she hinted, shifting out of bed. She carefully walked over to him with a wide smile, making it obvious that she wanted him to carry her. Although the more she thought about it, then it hit her. She could obviously clearly see that he was only in his boxers, but for some reason it only just clicked in her mind in this moment. She remembered back to last night when he took off his clothes, just after she'd taken off hers. This also caused her to remember the fact that she, too, was only in her underwear...and she was standing right in front of him. Him carrying her when she was near naked, well...that was an interesting thought. "We should probably get changed first" she said quickly, just about managing to look away from those stupid muscular arms of his.

"Uh, yeah" he cleared his throat, that awkward laugh escaping his lips yet again. "Here--" he picked up her dress, handing it to her and walking over to pick up his own clothes.

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