"Shit," I exclaimed. I had been in the middle of writing an email when the power went out.
"Shit," I said again, as I fell over the archive box I had forgotten was sitting in the middle of my study floor. I finally made it to the window and looked outside to see that every other house in the street had their lights still on, so the power outage was restricted to my house. Fortunately I knew where the torch was as I had only replaced the battery a few days before, and once I was armed with it I headed down stairs.
The ground floor of my house was in the process of being converted into a large self-contained apartment. During the day a steady stream of tradesmen came and went from there, at great expense to me, and to the increasing concern of my personal banking manager. But it was almost finished now and was looking quite impressive, even without the final decorating done.
I couldn't understand what might have happened for me to lose the power, everything about the wiring was new and there had been no problems. The rear doors were still loose though and I wondered vaguely if someone might have broken in. I moved the torch in a wide arc to cover the whole of the small area at the bottom of the stairs before I stepped down. I strained my ears and thought I heard something beyond the door, but when I froze and listened I heard nothing and felt foolish.
The fuse box had been relocated during the renovation and was now in an inset cupboard in the shared entryway, grandly called the 'foyer' on the plans, which opened onto the street. I opened the door to the foyer and quickly shone the torch around the cluttered space before I stepped out, wondering why there was so much building material stacked up in there. I shone my torch on to the power box and saw it was open, the workmen never seemed to tidy anything up and it annoyed me at times as I had to climb thorough their mess to leave the house or get back inside. I stepped over to the box and looked inside. The main power switch was off, which was odd, I flicked the switch back across and the outside light, visible through the fanlight over the front door flickered on. I stood there for a moment, puzzled; as there was no way that the power switch could have gone off unless someone had turned it off. A sudden chill ran through me as I heard a sound behind me and I swung around.
The next thing I can clearly remember was half waking with a terrible headache. I moved and it exploded in my head and I had to freeze still until it eased. The bright light was hurting my eyes, which seemed wrong somehow. Then I vaguely wondered what had happened and imagined I must be lying on the floor of the foyer I had been walking into.
"Are you Ok?" someone asked, and I got another stab of pain as I turned too quickly to find the owner of the voice.
"Ahhh," I gasped, and a reassuring hand was on my shoulder.
"Just relax, you had a bad knock," Roger said, pushing me gently but firmly back.
I wondered vaguely what my architect was doing there at night. But I was also relieved that someone had found me, as I was not feeling too good. "What happened?" I asked him.
"I don't know, I Just came back to check on the progress and when I turned the light on I saw you lying here, out cold. I'd better get you an ambulance," he added.
"No," I gasped, making a grab for his arm, with my head clearing quickly now I was awake. "No. I feel Ok. Just a bit dizzy."
Roger settled back down beside me and I tried to sit up again, but was overcome by dizziness once more, and he had to help me. He had an arm about my back and under my arm and was holding me quite firmly. And suddenly I found his neck in front of my face and his mouth not too far away. I leaned in to him, and he turned a fraction, so that almost accidentally our lips met. I hesitated and so did he, so that we stayed that way for a moment before I made the move to make it a proper kiss. Then there was no hesitation on his part.
"Hey," he said, when we pulled apart. "Nice. You can't be feeling too bad then, so no ambulance. But I'd better get you upstairs."
I let him help me up, not leaning on him much more than I really needed to. And I wasn't too far out of it to appreciate the concern in his deep velvety voice.
"Thanks," I said. Unable to say more just then. I was still shaky and could not have made my way back upstairs without Roger's help.
When we reached the top of the stairs he said, "I think you should go to bed, and then I'll get you something to drink,"