Heartbreak hotel

Chapter 21

Soren had been preparing himself for this moment all night, and he had been tossing and turning in the bed until the sun finally began to rise again, and he knew he had to sleep. He wouldn’t have a chance to during the day, but even with that information, he was still struggling. Ultimately, he quietly got out of bed, trying his hardest not to wake Silas. He was fast asleep beside him. Looking over to his couch, he was surprised to see it empty. Where Ravi had been since yesterday, he hadn’t returned.

Soren went into the bathroom and took a cold shower to wake himself up, the cold droplets washing away any thought of him sleeping. Once out and dried, he dressed in a comfortable t-shirt and shorts and went to the kitchen. He wasn’t surprised to see the three stoners whispering to one another, all high as kites, with their backs to him; they didn’t realise they were there.

“Don’t get the Doritos!” Midnight hissed, scowling at Royal, who was grabbing all the doriros.

“I like them though.”

“I hate the smell.”

“Make sure to bring some drinks, if I get cotton mouth with no liquid, I'm killing you,” Isaiah deadpanned.

“We need to hurry up; if Sebastian sees us raiding his pantry again, he’s going to kill us.”

Soren thought it best to make his presence known, so he cleared his throat. All three froze, slowly turning around. They tried to hide the snacks, but Royal’s hands were full, and Midnight had carried all the drinks. Unless they dropped them, they could not hide them all. “Okay,” Isaiah said slowly. “Soren, hi. This isn’t what it looks like.”

Soren raised his eyebrow as he entered the dark kitchen and turned the kettle on. He began making himself a coffee. “So, this isn’t you three all high raiding our pantry again?”

“Okay, so it is what it looks like,” Isaiah muttered, “but we have a defence. Since Rick has been living with us, he eats all the snacks. I don’t know how he can eat so much and stay in shape, f*****g bastard. But Luca’s been busy with work, so no one has been shopping, and we’re snackless.”

Soren finished making his cup and shrugged as he stared at the three. “Go, Sebastian is going to be awake soon, anyway.” He watched as the three rushed away, all snickering and whispering to one another. He heard the sound of the front door opening and closing in the distance.

When he heard it open once more, he thought they must have forgotten something, but when he peeked through the archway, it wasn’t the three stoners, but rather Rick cussing someone out in Japanese, and Ravi groaning as he replied, but crashed onto the couch.

“I’m tired, Rick. I don’t have the energy to translate it all in my head, speak English.”

“Fine, you dumb bastard. What made you think going in without Roman was smart? You could have been f*****g killed.”

“It’s fine. I did it, job done, and now I’m going to bed.”

“Can you even climb the stairs. You got your f*****g ass beat.”

“You’re so caring, thanks, uncle.”

“Hi, guys,” Olivia said as she walked through the sliding doors. “Are you just getting in?”

“Yep, sorry if we woke you up I had to make sure he got home safe.”

“Oh, no worries. I was awake. Have either of you seen Soren? He’s coming to work with us.”

Rick said one last thing in Japanese. Ravi groaned and took a moment to reply before Rick stormed out of the house. “Sorry, Olivia. What were you saying?”

“Soren?”

“Haven’t seen him.”

“I’m here,” Soren said, walking through the archway, frowning a little as the sunlight entered the lounge room windows.

Ravi smiled, tired, as he stared at him. “Sparrow,” Ravi said, struggling to keep his eyes open. He winced a little as he adjusted himself. “You’re safe.”

Soren frowned at the nickname, and before he could ask anything else, Ravi had fallen asleep. Olivia shrugged but said nothing as she led him to the car. A few minutes later, Scar exited the house, entered the passenger seat, and kissed his wife. Soren stared out the window the entire journey, trying to ignore that he would be trapped in a*****e with the man for the next ten hours.

Olivia opened the store and led him to the back, where she handed him an iPad and taught him how to use the software Ash had designed for her. “Here is where you’re going to take inventory. It’s a pretty easy job, Scar and I take turns in doing it because it’s so tedious, but once you learn how to do it, as well as running the front, we’ll swap out with you, but this week, it’s your turn.”

It took him a couple of hours to take stock, but once that was done, he went to the front, handed Olivia the iPad, and she checked through all the data and nodded. While she remained in the flower-arranging section, Scar taught him about the flowers.

Soren knew he probably looked ridiculous; he was a few feet away from the man, straining his ears to listen to his gentle voice talk about each of the flowers, naming them, when they bloomed, and all, but when Olivia turned to see the distance between them, she scowled and walked over wiping her hands on the light green apron she wore, she pushed Soren to stand beside Scar. “You’re not learning s**t from there,” she deadpanned.

Olivia had been right. The busiest time was during the usual lunch break, from noon to one, when men and women alike came and placed orders for things to be either delivered tomorrow or for orders that would be picked up when the work day was over. Earlier, Olivia had taught him how to book orders and how to use the till, so while Olivia talked with customers about custom orders, Scar showed different bouquets of premade arrangements, and Soren was working on placing the orders.

In the evening, after the final order had been picked up, Soren crashed, exhausted. He was so tired that he couldn’t wait to get home and fall asleep. But Scar had left earlier than the other two, so they had to get a ride from Ash and Sebastian, and they took around fifteen minutes to leave the building. While they waited, Soren partially listened to Olivia talk about the fauna, specifically those poisonous to humans, and how to label them correctly. This piqued Soren’s interest, and despite the tiredness, he tried to listen to her actively.

When they got home, they went straight to Luca’s place. He was cooking tonight, and Soren found Silas waiting for them. All he wanted to do was sleep, but he was starving, and wherever the man was cooking, he smelled delicious. Silas stuck to him like glue, and while normally he would be a little prickly about the little to no space between them, he was tired and needed his safety blanket.

Once he had eaten, he saw Ravi lurking around, but he was too tired to care about the name the man had called him or his shenanigans. Once stuffed, Soren said goodbye to Silas, as his mother had decided he would be spending the night at home. Soren went home, and he went straight to his bedroom.

Just as he was about to fall asleep, he was so close there was a light knock on his door. He groaned, sat up, and yelled for the person to come in. He was surprised to see Scar. In his hand were two books.

“Sorry you’re tired, but I thought you would find these helpful, so I got them for you,” he whispered. Scar walked over to his desk and placed the two books down. “They’re good at learning about the flowers and fauna, ones for all the poisonous flowers, and the others for the ones that give info about the fine ones. Goodnight.”

Scar had kept his head down, smiled at Soren, and, just as he was about to leave, turned to look at the man on the bed. “I’m sorry,” Scar whispered. “I know you’re scared of me. I’ll try to stay out of your way when you’re at the store. Goodnight, Soren.”

~*~