Bring Me Home ✔

In Your Arms: Part 9

She woke the next morning with a smile when her phone vibrated on her nightstand. As she reached out to grab it, she pushed her thick curtain of hair behind her ear so she could see. The room was still dark, but that was not unusual. As much as she liked her sleep, she woke up early each day. Juliet was always the most productive first thing in the morning as she was drinking her coffee. After that, the day always seemed to go downhill, or at least they did, up until this weekend. Matthew was a game-changer.

Juliet grabbed her phone and grimaced as the light temporarily blinded her while she fumbled to turn down the brightness. It was just after five in the morning, and she saw a message from Tessa that sat unread. She debated going to grab her coffee before she read it, but was not ready to leave the warmth of her comforter.

Tessa had always been an early riser, and it was a common occurrence for her to leave for the office before the sun rose since her drive was almost an hour away. Juliet loved being her roommate. It was a dream to live with her best friend, but it also gave her a quiet place to work and think since Tessa was always gone.

Clicking on the unread message, she scanned it over before she closed her phone without a response.

As soon as you're up, I expect details.....

She would get back to her later. Right now, she just wanted to hold onto her time with Matthew and keep it to herself. Once she started to talk about it with Tessa, they would dissect everything about her date, and she wasn't ready for that.

Rolling out of bed, Juliet stumbled to the restroom before making her way to the kitchen for some much-needed coffee. She poured in a packet of hot chocolate mix in her mug and a dash of cinnamon before she filled her cup with the delicious black liquid that helped her function from day to day.

She grabbed her laptop and made her way to the balcony. It overlooked the courtyard, and she loved that she got to enjoy a beautiful view of the sun rising each morning to inspire her as she wrote. Checking her emails first, she had a message from Patrick Johnson with The Daily Dispatch. It was one of the local papers that she wrote for intermittently. He was very happy with her article, but she noticed that his follow-up email was half the size it normally was. Getting to the end of his message, she stared at it with displeasure when she didn't see with her next assignment. She quickly messaged him back and asked what other opportunities they had for her.

Her career as an independent journalist was not as lucrative as she had hoped, which is why she had started writing short stories to sell to a multitude of websites and newspapers. Unfortunately, those were getting harder and harder to find, and she had started to stress about her finances. Tessa made a decent amount with her commission checks, and as a good friend, offered to do the shopping or help with more than her share of the monthly bills, but Juliet always rightfully refused. Up until recently, she was fine with money. Sure, she had to live by a budget, but she wasn't too uncomfortable. She had savings as well, but those had also been slowly decreasing month by month.

When she pulled up her book outline, she started making notes to work through the plot holes she had come across as well as the backstory of each character. She had just started writing the first few pages, but her mind was elsewhere. After re-reading what she wrote, she thought that with some adjustments, she would have something to be proud of. Judging by the storyboard she had created, it was going to take her a long time to write the whole novel. She worked for a couple of hours, only stopping for a few moments to watch the sun as it rose from behind the building across the way and illuminated the trees in a golden glow.

Going back to her email, she refreshed the page and watched as Patrick's name came up in bold letters. She clicked into his email to read it once, and then again in disbelief.