The Assistant(68)

I had only read three words before a loud banging noise erupted throughout my small apartment, making me freeze in fear. I quickly placed my pink bookmark back in between the pages of the thick book and set it aside cautiously, irrationally fearful that putting it down would set off something else in the house. I looked around my bedroom with wide eyes.

The banging noise began again and I jumped out of my bed and grabbed the only weapon I could find - a random shoe with a sharp heel that I had thrown on the floor of my room carelessly. Shoe in hand, I slowly crept out of my room.

The banging noise became louder as I entered the living room, and I realised the source of the noise was coming from the other side of my apartment entrance. I let out a short sigh of relief once I realised that I had locked the door.

“W-Who’s there?” I called out loudly, trying to mask the waver in my voice to hide my fear.

“Emmmmillllllly, hiiiiii…”

A deep, British accent slurred, making me freeze in my tracks once again as the voice sent an all too familiar shiver down my spine. My voice hitched in my throat as I looked over at my white, wooden door in shock, not believing my hearing skills at 1AM after a long day at work.

“Emilllllllly, can you pppppppppplease let me innnn? I alllllwayyyyys l-let youuuuu in…” The loud banging started up once again.

“HEY! WOULD YOU SHUT IT? SOME PEOPLE ARE TRYING TO GET SOME SLEEP HERE!” I heard someone else shout. Their voice sounded distant and muffled from inside my apartment, but it was enough to shake me back into reality.

I threw the heel onto the floor hastily before I ran over and unlocked my front door, just as Adrian’s face turned into his all too familiar scowl.

“YOUUUU SHUT IT!” he snapped back, before turning around slowly once he realised I had opened the door.

“What the hell are you doing here, Adrian?” I hissed, trying to cover up my surprise with anger. “It’s 1AM, and you’re drunk! Go home!”

He was slumped against the wall that connected to my apartment door, and my breath hitched in my throat once his eyes met mine. My conscience must have forgotten the kind of effect Adrian Kingston had on me in real life, because I froze in my doorway as I looked down at his tall seated figure, dark plump lips and strong hazel eyes that were slightly droopy. The smell of alcohol filled my nostrils sharply, the vile stench making me cough a little.

Adrian’s eyes never left my half naked, tired figure, and I sighed and bit my lip while shaking my head at what I was about to do. I moved forward and lifted his right arm to put it over my shoulders for support.

“Don’t make me do all the work,” I muttered at him as I pulled at his right arm in an attempt to get him off the floor. “You’re tall and made of muscle. Get up.”

“Do you know how much I’vvvvvve missed you, Emilyy?” Adrian grumbled as he exerted some effort to pull himself off the floor. “I’ll tell you. A lot.”

I tried to hide my blush from his drunken words as I put more of his body weight against me. “Let’s get you inside,” I murmured, dragging his tall, built frame into my tiny apartment with as much energy as I could muster.

“Didn’t you miss me?” he asked, pouting as he looked into my eyes again. I opened my mouth to respond but Adrian wasn’t done talking. “I hope you did. I thought about you a lot. Especially about our kiss in the beautiful sunnnnnnnshine state. I even called a girl in bed Emily because I was thinking of you. Whoops.” He chuckled to himself and abruptly stopped and frowned. “I don’t know why. You’re always just there. In my head, I mean. Not in real life. I tried to get you out of there, but you wouldn’t leave. You’re so annoying.”

He groaned, making me laugh slightly as I placed him onto my sofa.

“I’ll be right back,” I told him, going into the kitchen and pouring a cup of water for him. I didn’t have any medication that would cure a hangover; even though I had been meaning to invest in some thanks to Amy’s wild nights where she’d crash at my place because she was too lazy to go back home.

I re-entered the living room and handed him the clear glass silently, and watched his throat bob up and down as he gulped down the clear liquid in under 5 seconds.

“Good stuff,” he said with an approving nod. He regarded me with a curious look. “What is it?”


“Water,” I stated with an amused smile.

“Oh. It tastes better than usual.” He studied the glass cup intensely. “Probably because it’s from you.” After a while, he asked again, “Did you miss me, Emily?” He looked at me hopefully, more vulnerable than I’ve ever seen him.

I bit my lip, unsure of how to respond. Did I miss him? He was constantly on my mind, and I found myself comparing everything I did to a moment I shared with him while I worked with him. Still, he was a jerk that didn’t deserve to be missed at all, and I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of letting him know that I had missed him. Then again he was drunk, and was slurring out nonsense. He probably wouldn’t even remember this night tomorrow morning.

“I missed you, Adrian,” I finally replied, looking him straight in the eye.

He let out a loud sigh of relief, and I watched as his shoulder visibly relaxed underneath the material of his light blue shirt. “That’s good. I think I like you,” he stated, before looking around my apartment. “Your house is cute. Small, but niceeee.” He began to nod slowly and met my eyes again, but I was still staring at him in shock.