Rose

09

09

The rose and the thorn, and sorrow and gladness are linked together. - Saadi

I felt like I was floating on top of the water and I kind of wished that I was. I wished that I would wake up to the sound of the ocean, the smell of the sea, and the heat of the sun. Sadly when I opened my eyes, the reason why I felt like I was floating is because my body is weak, the smell of the sea was really the wet towel on my forehead, and the heat was radiating from my body because of the fever.

I slowly sat up from my bed, removing the warm and wet towel from my head and tossing it onto my night table. There was a bowl of cold water as well as a glass of water and a bottle of aspirin. Mia must have checked up on me like she said she was. I knew I drifted in and out of sleep because I felt her changing the towel on my head once in awhile but I was too tired to even open my eyes. The sun was still seeping through my curtains so I didn't think it was that late. I glanced over at the clock and it was just a little bit past five in the evening. How long was I sleeping for? The last time I looked at the clock was around noon, and Aiden... wait Aiden?! I pulled my knees up against my chest and rested my heavy head on them. I must have been dreaming, why would Aiden Kingsley be in my apartment? I've never felt so disorientated in my life before and I've never caught such a bad cold either.

Mia shouldn't be home yet, the bakery closes at six so it's probably going be another hour before she returns. My stomach growled but I had no appetite to eat anything. I knew I should at least eat something and I wondered if Mia gotten anything for me when she came to check on me. Slowly I climbed out of bed and wrapped myself in a sweater before heading out of my room. The apartment was quiet except for the few cough I let escape from my mouth. I wrapped my sweater tighter around me and padded down the hallway.

Just before I turned into the kitchen, something caught my eyes. I rubbed my eyes praying that my eyes were playing tricks on me but nope, Aiden Kingsley was sleeping on my sofa. One of his arms was tucked underneath his head and the other one was resting on top of his stomach. His body was too big for my sofa so his legs were hanging off the edge. I took a few steps closer to him, watching his chest peacefully rise and fall. So I wasn't dreaming earlier was I? Aiden Kingsley is really in my apartment, and he's sleeping on my sofa!

I looked away from him and on my coffee table there were multiple files opened and a stack sitting in a corner. There were papers everywhere and his pen sitting directly on top of everything. Why did he bring his work to my house when he could have done everything at his office?! I turned to him again and as much as I want to ask him why he was here, I couldn't bare myself to wake him up. He looked so peacefully and vulnerable. It's probably something that he'll never show to anyone but here he is, completely defenceless.

As I started to move away from him, I covered my mouth when a few more hacking coughs escaped. I heard him grunting behind me and I knew that I've woke him up. I looked over my shoulders and he was already rubbing his eyes and sitting up. He ran his fingers through his hair a couple of times before rotating his neck left and right to relieve the aching sore.

"Hi." I thought I spoke loudly but my voice came out soft and quiet. "Sorry did I wake you?"

"No," He looked at me with tired eyes, "I wasn't really sleeping." Liar I thought to myself, he looked pretty comfortable lying there.

"You were drooling." I lied and he quickly wiped the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand but of course it was dry. I laughed at him and it took him awhile to realize what just happened. He let out a soft chuckle and stood on his feet. He walked over towards me and placed both of his hands on my shoulders and guided me down to the sofa where he was just sleeping on.