Arabella

Chapter 12

    Arabella went to move to turn off the alarm and realized she couldn’t move her arm. Something heavy was draped over her and preventing her from moving. She jolted awake when she realized what it was and pushed the arm off of her. She turned to look at the sleeping face on the pillow next to her. He was reaching to grab her again and she yelled “Jake!”

    He bolted upright and looked around. “Oh.”

    “What do you mean “oh? What the hell are you doing in my bed!?”

    “It’s more comfortable.”

    Arabella just stared at him.She stood up quickly and pulled the blankets off the bed and wrapped it around her. She was only in underwear and an old faded t-shirt. She looked at Jake still sitting on her bed. “You’re only in your underwear!” she screeched. She hurried and looked away. 

    “It’s more comfortable.” Jake repeated.

    “Get out of my bedroom. NOW!”

    “Alright, alright. Would you like some coffee?”

“Get out of my bedroom. NOW Jake!”

“I’ll take that as a “yes” to coffee.”

        Arabella turned her head and watched Jake leave the room. At some point he had found a pair of sweatpants and pulled them on. Right when she breathed a sigh of relief that he left the room, Jake stuck his head back in the door. 

“You know, I usually sleep naked.” Arabella grabbed a pillow and flung it at Jake. She heard him laughing as he closed the door and headed toward the kitchen. 

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        Arabella took a long time heading into the kitchen. She got dressed in a black pencil skirt with a green top that matched her eyes and pulled her hair into her customary bun. She went into her walk-in closet and pulled on a pair of black flats to complete the outfit. She looked into the mirror and smiled. She needed to look professional for the meeting and decided some make-up would pull everything together. She added a swipe of mascara and her favorite cherry gloss. Perfect. 

        She went into the kitchen and saw Jake sitting at the table with a cup of brew and talking on the phone. She grabbed the coffee cup he placed in front of her usual seat and went to her laptop. She wanted to check on a couple of things before her meeting. Ara looked back at Jake but he was deep in conversation and gave her a brief glance and just continued his conversation. She debated going back and eavesdropping, but decided against it. If it was something worthwhile, he wouldn’t be talking in her kitchen. She sat at her computer and went to work. 

        After fifteen minutes, she packed up and her laptop and went into the kitchen as Jake was hanging up his phone. “Hurry up and get dressed. You’re coming to this meeting too. You’ll be acting as my husband.” 

“Uhh…ok.” Jake downed his coffee and looked at the clock. “I need five minutes to get dressed.” 

“I’ll meet you outside.” Arabella headed to her car and waited for Jake. She wasn’t sure what caused her to impromptu decision of having Jake go with her. Certainly not what caused her to say husband instead of assistant or anything else. Something about Jake reminded her of… She pushed the image that was trying to force itself to the forefront of her mind. She hadn’t thought about her fiancé like that in so long. A memory of  him smiling down at her came again and she tramped the thought down as quick as she could. Jake and Mark were nothing alike. They were certainly both good looking... Arabella forced herself to turn on the radio to stop the direction her brain was headed. She went through the stations until she found a song she liked and cranked the radio why she waited.