Some days, it just paid to stay in bed.
Sam rolled over and groaned. Her head hurt, her mouth was dry, and she felt as though every kind of creature was crawling over her eyeballs. She covered her face with the pillow, and listened to the clock radio. It was singing at her, telling her it was time to get up. But how could she? She had stayed out way too late with her friends last night, and ended up so sloshed she couldn't even stand upright on her own.
And she had never, ever, in her entire life, been drunk! Till last night...
The phone rang, and Sam heard stars. She wondered if that was what dogs heard when they heard high pitched whistles. She groaned louder and reached for it, if only to stop the sharp jangling that was raking across her eardrums like nails on a blackboard.
"Ye - hello?" She could barely speak.
"Sam, it's Ellie. I just wanted to make sure you were awake. Don't forget the presentation is today."
Sam sniffed, and Ellie asked, "Are you okay, love?"
Sam sniffed again, and said, "No...just kill me now!" And then she hung up.
The phone rang again and the stars in her head sang more sharply. Sam tried to ignore it, but it wouldn't stop. She let the machine pick up and heard Ellie's voice.
"You'd better not be late, Sam! Our jobs are riding on this presentation!"
Her friend's sharply worried voice penetrated the haze of discomfort and pain in which she was enclosed, and Sam sat up. Slowly. She supposed she had better see about getting ready. Maybe after a hot shower, some coffee, and a whole lot of makeup, she could pass for a human being at work today.
The shower helped, and she managed to swallow two painkillers and half a toasted bagel, though it took two strong cups of black coffee, which she hated, to get them down. She put the mug in the sink, picked up a peach from the fruit bowl on the kitchen table, and took a last look at her face before she walked out to her car. She guessed it'd have to do.
Ellie was already in her cubicle when Sam walked in. She eyed her friend speculatively, and asked,
"Where were you last night? I tried calling three times, but you didn't pick up!"
"Some friends came in from out of town!" Sam's answer was short. She wasn't sure she wanted to share her evening's escapade with Ellie, who was the epitome of responsibility and decorum. Not that Sam wasn't responsible herself, but Ellie had it down pat, where Sam still needed to work on it.
"Well, I hope you've rehearsed your part," Ellie said, looking at her worriedly. "You look a little green around the gills."
Sam ignored her and pulled the portfolio out of her soft leather briefcase. She opened it and studied the pages, sipping a third cup of coffee. Her stomach was starting to hurt, and she knew it was a combination of too much caffeine and nerves. She took calming breaths as she read, and hoped no one would know just how badly off she was.
She and Ellie walked down the hall to the conference room ten minutes before the meeting was scheduled to begin to make sure all they would need was in place. Sam took her place next to Ellie at the head of the table and watched the men file in. Not one woman, she thought, and then her jaw dropped. Right behind her boss, dressed in a dark grey suit that fit his sleek frame like a glove, stood the one man in all the world she did not expect to see ever again...and he was having the same effect on her now as he had had all those years ago when she was younger and hot for him.
She felt herself blushing, and lowered her eyes, but not before he saw her, and she registered surprise, and something hot in his gaze. Samantha Redfern was not a coward, but she would have given anything right then to have the supernatural power of invisibility.
"Good morning, everyone!" Her boss, Bob Daniels, stood and spoke to the men as they filed in and helped themselves to the breakfast fixings on the side table. "Glad to see you all here today! We have a big project on today's agenda, and the ladies have worked very hard to put together a presentation I'm sure will give you all the information you need to get the job done. Gentlemen, meet Samantha Redfern, and Elizabeth Black."
He gestured to the women, and sat down. Ellie and Sam had agreed that Ellie would go first, and Sam breathed a sigh of profound relief as Ellie stood up to do her part. It gave her time to get her color and her breathing under control. She felt nauseated, and wished she could sink into the floor. She cast her eyes down at said floor, and it swam before them. Oh no! She was going to throw up in her boss's conference room!
She stood up hurriedly and tried to rush away before disaster struck, and that was all she knew.
Theo felt his heart thudding in his chest as he watched the others gather around Sam's unconscious form. The last person he had expected to see at this meeting was the one woman he lusted for every damn day, the woman who kept him up at night, literally and figuratively...the woman who had disappeared from his life three years ago with no explanation. He wasn't sure whether what he felt was anger or desire, and he decided, as he tried to stop his hands from shaking, that it must be both.
Theo wanted to rush over and tell them all to take their hands off his woman, but he kept his seat. He was a visitor here, and Sam had made it clear, by her three-year silence, that she wanted nothing to do with him. When they managed to wake her up, she stood shakily, avoiding his eyes, and he watched her walk on her boss's arm out of the room. He tried to ignore the soreness around his heart as he watched her studiously ignore him, but it ached anyway. He rubbed his chest unconsciously, and stopped when he realized what he was doing.
He forced himself to concentrate on the presentation, which it appeared the other young woman would now be doing on her own, but he couldn't help wondering what had caused Sam to pass out. He could imagine how embarrassed she was, not only for passing out in front of them all, but because he was here, and she hadn't expected him to be... He hoped she was okay, and heaved a silent sigh of relief when she walked back in, under her own steam, and took her place quietly next to her colleague. She was nothing if not brave, and he felt a surge of pride in her, even as his heart broke to see her where he could never reach her again.
He braced himself to hear her voice again, for the first time in three years. Always, in the past, before they had parted ways so unceremoniously, she had only to say hello to wake the animal in him. He pulled himself closer to the table as a precaution, in the event that she still had that power.
"Good morning, gentlemen!"
