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Chapter 8. Annalita.
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2024-10-29 19:42:56"Uurgh....", my whole body felt heavy, as though someone had tied me down with weights. My eyes flickered but I couldn't open them. Attempting to roll-over, I must have tried to compensate for all the imaginary weights, because the next thing I knew was i was on the cold floor, landing with a dull thud.
A sharp pain shot through my head as it bounced off the edge of the table as I went down. Lying there, curled up on floor, I waited until the pain was replaced with a dull ache before attempting to open my eyes again, managing a small crack but it was to blurry to see.
Slowly, I bring a shaking hand up to the edge of my hairline, gingerly touching the spot where my head and table connected. I could feel hot and sticky moisture on my fingertips. Well isn't that just freakin' great! I'm bleeding, the smell of copper and iron now invades my nostrils, making my stomach churn.
I attempted to push myself off the ground but my blood slick hand slipped, sending me back down face first. This is it. This is how it ends for me. Hayden will come home to find me lying here covered in blood, vomit and other bodily fluids, I don't want to even think about. The haze clouding my head takes me over and everything goes black...
WHAT THE HELL?! I could hear a thumping sound. It was steady at first, becoming louder and more frantic. Seriously, what the actual hell? That noise needed to stop! I pulled myself up and went straight to the source, stumbling slighty as I went.
Reaching the door I fumbled with the lock, muttering to myself, for whoever was the on the otherside to hold on or fuck off. after a minute I realised the door had been unlocked all night until now...I didn't even know what time it was.
Yanking open the door I had already started ranting at the unknown person behind it. "Look! I don't know what you want but trying to break door my door isn't....", ohh shit! I glanced up and stopped mid rant. Why is he here?
Standing there, his dark hair disheveled from running his hands through it, his ocean-deep blue eyes wild with panic, was Aiden Warner himself. I hadn't thought about the way I looked as I went to shout at the random someone banging at my door but now as I watched him rake his eyes over me, it registered how awful I must've appeared.
"What are you doing here?"
"What the hell happened to you?", we both spoke at the same time. Aiden carried on, "I came to see if you were ok. You didn't respond to my emails. I got your number from a contact at the University and you weren't answering that either....you're hurt."
He lifted his hand towards my face but I took a step back. "Mr. Warner, I appeciate your concern and all but it's nothing, I hit my head earlier and must have fallen back to sleep. What time is it anyway? You're incessant banging woke me up."
Aiden just stared at me his face unreadable for the most part. "Can we talk about this inside? If you've been asleep all day you're bound to be hungry, yes?", then he just stepped past me! I know he's technically my new boss but he has no right to assume he can just barge in to my home.
He strode in as I stood there fuming. I was left staring at his back as he made his way over to the kitchen like he'd been here a hundred times before. The sound of my cupboards opening and closing spurred me on to follow him.
What was he doing? As I got to the breakfast bar, I got my answer. He had set out 2 mugs and had coffee brewing. "Where's your first aid kit? Your head needs seeing to", Aiden asked without even looking at me. The nerve of this man!
"In the bathroom. Bottom shelf of the medicine cabinet." I said quietly as I made to go through to fetch it.
"No, you stay. Sit down. I'll get it.", and off he went, returning quicker than I expected, holding the little plastic box of essentials. "C'mon sit. I won't bite.", he patted the barstool nearest to me, gesturing that I jump up.
"I'm perfectly capable of...", This bossy man cut me off, shushing me. He SHUSHED me! I'm about to lose my shit with him when he touched a cold anti-septic wipe to my head, making me flinch and hiss.
His touch was gentler than what you would expect from such large, masculine hands. he continued to make quiet shushing noises to comfort me as he tended to the gash on my head. I could feel myself relax, the tension in my shoulders easing.
"There. Done. It's a nasty one. I'll put on a couple of steristrips to hold it.", he said, finding what he needed from the first aid box.
I found myself studying his face. His dark, rich brown hair was kept neat but on the long side, a rogue lock kept falling forward, begging to be swept back. Eyes that were deep pools of azure blue, and a square jaw covered in a neatly trimmed beard. Oh yeah, he is pretty, I'll give him that.
The smell of coffee brought me out of the trace I was in. "Thanks for doing this. You want a coffee?", I hopped down before he could stop me and went round the other side of the counter and busied myself making it. "How do you like it?"
"Black, thanks. No sugar.", leaning against the top he had made himself quite at home. I didn't like it. I slid a mug over to him and went to sit on the sofa. Aiden could follow or not, I have a feeling the choice wouldn't be mine to make anyway.
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Back within the confines of my office, I had asked my personal assistant, Julia, to hold all calls. I did not wish to be disturbed for any reason. Sitting behind my large, polished oak desk, I powered up my personal laptop. I started simple, searching several social media sites for one Annnalita Taylor. Her personal profile didn't give me as many answers as I had hoped. She appeared to be a private person which for me, was a good thing. I valued my privacy also. I saw that she was a member of the Winston University group page. I saw pictures of her sitting on the campus green, nose in a book. A group of girls together, her in the centre, at a sorority mixer. Annalita in a lab coat and goggles, surrounded by beakers and test tubes with unknown substances in them. I kept flicking through the pictures, skipping by the ones that didn't include her. If the propectus for the university was made up of all the pictures of Annalita, I would enrol in a heartbeat.
