Love’n’Lust

Belle got off the bed and headed outside the bedroom, she had to check for Brie and Cherry. She didn’t see them when Ben’s call woke her up.

Opening the door and walking to the living room, she saw them both sitting side by side on the couch with their eyes glued to the TV.

Cherry turned in her direction when she heard Belle footsteps as she approached where they sat.

“Belle, come sit, the series is finally about to end.” Cherry urged from where she sat with a cushion pillow over her crossed legs.

“You guys stayed up to watch it?” Belle was actually surprised. She knew about the series, they had started it together; all three of them.

“Yes, it’s the last part.” Brie made space for her cousin sister to sit and join in finishing the show.

***

MORNING

“Belle? Belle?” Brie shook her cousin sister by the shoulder, trying to wake her up.

“Whatttttt?” Belle covered her head with a pillow, she didn’t want to get out of bed.

“Get up Belle.” Brie shook her again but she grumbled with a sleepy voice;Content rights by NôvelDr//ama.Org.

“Leave me alone Brie.”

“Leave you alone and let you go to work late?”

“Late?!” Belle sat up immediately, her eyes widened with sudden shock. She looked under the pillows for her phone and checked to see what the time said.”No no no no no no no, no, I can’t be late again.” Belle had her face in her palms after seeing that it was past seven am.

She should have known better than  staying up for one more hour with Brie and Cherry earlier in the morning…. but they said it was almost at the last episode and that was why she stayed.

“Why didn’t anyone wake me up?” Belle sighed still moody about waking up late. She jumped out of the bed.

“I have been trying to wake you up for the past ten minutes, what do you mean?” Brie defended.

“Yeah, she’s been trying to wake you up.” Cherry added.

“Oh god,” Belle sighed again. Both her sister and Cherry were dressed and ready to leave.

Belle was used to getting an eight hour sleep before she arrived city S, it was hard for her to wake up if she didn’t get as much as the amount of sleep she was used to.

“What about the alarm we set?” Belle just remembered. She heard Cherry scoff while putting on makeup in front of the vanity mirror in their room.

“We just woke up like thirty minutes ago and had to rush through our clothes, I didn’t even hear the alarm ring.” Cherry scoffed again after she spoke.

“Should we wait for you to shower and dress up?” Brie asked trying to make her cousin feel better because she knew she played a role in why she woke up late but Cherry saw things from a different angle.

“Wait?” She turned to the sisters.”We can’t wait for her Brie and you know that, we get to our workplace a minute late and we are fired, no we can’t wait, I’m sorry Belle but if you go shower now you could probably make it.”

“Yeah, Cherry’s right.” Brie nodded.

“It’s thirty minutes before the official time I’m expected to be at work, I can’t make it.” Belle said while shaking her head.

“Twenty nine minutes left now.” Cherry reminded as she put on her wristwatch.

“Come on, go shower.” Brie urged and Belle immediately rushed to the bathroom.

After being motivated by Cherry’s words, Belle showered as quickly as she could. when she got out of the bathroom, she noticed that they were gone, they couldn’t wait for her, she understood.

Taking out an already matched outfit of hers from the wardrobe, Belle’s dressed up and made her hair into a ponytail because she couldn’t start with treating her hair to any other style.

She grabbed her purse and headed out, locking the doors and skipping through the stairs on her way downstairs.

When the bus stopped at the junction where she needed to take a cab to the media house, Belle stood there, tapping her legs impatiently and waiting for a cab but none seemed to be coming, at least not anytime soon, she thought.

‘I can walk it out, it’s not very far.’ An idea came to her, she wanted to go on foot rather than waiting for a cab to show up.

She checked the time being displayed on her phone’s screen because she didn’t wear a watch, she saw that she still had two minutes before she could be classified as being officially late.

After a loud and determined sigh, she started towards her work place on foot, she had never been happier that she was on flats.

Walking at a fast pace, Belle took another look at the time on her phone, one minute had passed since she started on foot and she wasn’t even close yet.

She started to jog to increase her pace but she stopped after a short distance. She didn’t think she could make it, besides she couldn’t go to work sweating, it was why she opted to jog rather than run in the first place.

Bending over and resting her hands on her knees for support, she tried to catch her breath, she couldn’t remember the last time she jogged, it had been a while.

Standing from her bent position, she inhaled deeply and licked her lips as she exhaled. She had given up.

‘I will just walk the rest of the distance,’ she decided and started to walk like she planned initially.

“Belle?” She heard her name from a voice she hoped not to belong to who she thought it was. She knew it was Nathan and wanted to act like she couldn’t hear him and just walk on.

Nathan who had slowed his car down and called to her when he saw her wondering why she didn’t answer. He thought she might have earbuds in her ears and that was why she couldn’t hear so he parked the car and got out to meet her.