Annette smiled to herself as she got off the phone. It had been three weeks since she started seeing Sebastian and it had been the best three weeks of her life, she had to admit. Even Olivia had grudgingly conceded to the fact that Annette had never been as happy as she was now with him since she met her.
It was a Thursday and Annette had been haggling with David all week to go off early so that she could surprise Sebastian at his home. She had been there on several occasions so she was pretty certain she knew how to get there on her own. She looked at her bedside clock and noticed that she had less than an hour to get to work. She considered ringing Olivia to ask if she could borrow a top from her then remembered that she was probably still at work. She smiled sneakily to herself as she went to Olivia's room. She was simply going to have to 'help' herself to something there and return it later. Not like Olivia would mind anyway, she was always taking her stuff without asking.
She opened Olivia's door and put on the light not noticing the bed was occupied. Next thing, she saw a tousled red-haired man squint at her and she let out an involuntary squeak.
'Aak!'
'Babe, you're back early...' The man muttered in a sexy voice then widened his eyes as he realised it was not Olivia, 'Fucking Hell.' He swore then quickly covered himself up as much as he could.
'Shit, shit, shit.' Annette said out loud putting a hand over her face as she edged towards Olivia's wardrobe, 'What are you doing here? Don't you have a job?'
'Yeah, I do. But as I'm the owner of my company I reckon I can do whatever I like.' He said, recovered from his near faux pas.
'Oh...oh well. I just need to get something...' She quickly said as she rummaged through Olivia's clothes. Thank the Lord Olivia was anal-retentive about her clothes and had them all arranged in colour codes and what-not. Once she found the top she was looking for, she half-sobbed to herself in relief and rushed out the room without a word.
Talk about embarrassing. It was a good thing her blushes were not visible as she was sure she would have been red throughout their awkward conversation.
She sighed to herself as she dropped the top on her bed. Back to more important things like what make-up to take with her to get ready for what she called the 'night of sexual bliss'. She giggled out loud to herself at that name; talk about cheesy.
Soon, she was ready for work. Although clad in her ubiquitous back t-shirt and short denim skirt, she was ready for the main event that night with her stolen gold spangly top and a miniscule black skirt. She already had on her one and only sexy lingerie that she had skimped and saved to buy from La Perla and she knew for a fact that it did wonders for her body. Why, she was positive she had lost some weight as she had tried on Olivia's top before and it had been extremely tight, making her cleavage look obscene, but now it fit perfectly.
She hummed a happy tune to herself, 'What a wonderful world', as she put all her make-up stuff in her bag. Smoky gold eyeshadow, check; Clinique mascara, check; pale rose blusher, check; her favourite cherry scented lipgloss, check; and last but certainly not least, what she could not do without, her Mac powder.
She smiled widely to herself, she was certainly ready. She slung the big bag with her clothes, sexy gold stilettos and make up over her shoulder and walked to the living room. She stopped short as she saw Angus with Olivia's bathrobe looking shrunken wrapped round him making a cup of coffee for himself in their kitchen and looking quite comfortable doing it.
'I see you're off to work then?' He asked conversationally as he stirred the freshly ground beans in hot water.
'Yeah.' She answered shortly, not bothered with making unnecessary conversation with him. She had always avoided making any banter with him as she still thought suspiciously of him but for the sake of Olivia she tried to hide it. Not well enough, she thought as she heard the next words that came out of Angus's lips.
'You don't like me do you?'
She whipped her head round to look at him as she had been making for the door as quickly as she could. Ah well, since he was aware of her dislike there really wasn't any point lying to him then was there?
'No, I don't. But it doesn't matter does it? Olivia likes you, so that should be enough for me.'
'Yes, but it makes me feel rather awkward. I would really like to get to know you better. Olivia thinks the world of you, you know. I wish we could be friends as it's something I'm sure you know would make Olivia thrilled.' He replied leaning against the counter as he blew on his steaming mug softly.
Annette turned fully to him and said clearly, 'Look, Angus. I'm not going to lie to you. I don't trust you. There, plain and simple. There's something about you that I find very shifty and unfortunately I can't place my finger on it. All I can tell you is this, Olivia really likes you and I hope -- in fact I know that you are not going to break her heart or hurt in any single way. And do you want to know why I know this? It's because if anything happens to her, if she is hurt by you whether intentionally or accidentally, in fact if anything happens to her that is remotely connected to you, no matter how slight, then you'll truly rue the day you decided to take a walk in the park. Because I will hunt you down and...let's just say you won't be the same person you are right now.'
Angus smiled pityingly at her, 'I understand you love your friend and don't want to see her hurt, but really. Do you honestly think you can hurt me, except if not physically? I'm over a hundred pounds heavier than you, my dear.'
Annette smiled evilly at him and said in the softest, quietest voice ever, 'Oh my dear man. You really don't want to put that to the test, trust me.' And with that she walked out of the flat shutting the door quietly.
***
Angus was disgusted to find his heart racing a bit as Annette shut the door behind her. Bloody hell, she was just a mere chit he tried to tell himself as he dropped his mug down firmly. Ah, but a mere chit who's capable of turning you inside out, a voice inside his head sang out. He wondered to himself if he would be able to take her in a battle if he was in his werewolf form, then he remembered that Sebastian had said she was stronger than he was which meant he probably could not then.
Sebastian was definitely stronger than Angus whether in his were form or not.
He would just have to be extra careful then. With Annette and especially with Olivia. He smiled at himself as he thought about his blonde girlfriend. Girlfriend? Since when did he start referring to her with that word to himself? He tried calling her his 'squeeze'; 'girl of the moment'...none of those seemed right to him. He ran his fingers through his hair as he stared absently out the kitchen window. It was time to face facts, he was beginning to care for Olivia. And to be honest with himself, he had begun to care for her a long time ago. He had not even bothered trying to find out anything concrete about Annette. He preferred talking about Olivia instead. Finding out that she hated marmite but liked peanut butter and jelly and felt like she was betraying her English heritage; that she loved hardcore rap and hip hop but she could not dance to save her life. The only thing she had told him about Annette was that she was an amazing dancer but, ironically, loved music of the heavy metal variety. And that had been like squeezing blood from a stone. Olivia fiercely guarded Annette's privacy and he had to admit that she was truly a trustworthy friend.
The question now was how he was going to confess his previous motive to Olivia. Previous, as he was getting wracked with guilt and he did not think guilt looked great on him. He had to truly think about what confessing to her would do as it would affect all four of them, Sebastian, Annette, Olivia and him. Olivia would definitely be cross with him, he doubted if she would ever forgive him actually. And Annette, well she would truly torture him for hurting Olivia, then torture Sebastian for deceiving her...and let's not forget Sebastian would kill his, Angus's tortured form for causing Annette's anger.
Why did he ever tell Sebastian he was bored with monotony? That seemed very welcome right now.
***
Annette looked at her wristwatch for the thousandth time. Why was the time going s slow, she shrieked inwardly. It was ten thirty and she had succeeded in whining to David continuously to leave the bar at eleven. David, after much prevaricating had succumbed telling her that she was doing his head in. She did not care, as long as she got her way, which she had, she did not mind doing every person's head in. She smiled so happily at everyone she served, her tips kept pouring and pouring in. Hmm, it seemed she was going to make a full night's pay at this rate even if she did not stay till the pre-requisite one a.m. She turned round, about to get a bottle of wine from the fridge and bumped into Melissa accidentally, 'Oh sorry about that. Didn't see you there.'
'How would you? Being all jolly and what-not?' Melissa spat out and walked away quickly.
What had got her knickers in a twist? Annette thought staring after her. Ah well, who gave a shit? She was too excited to let her spirit be dampened.
Soon she was throwing her napkin down and blowing a kiss to Alex as she ran to the staff loo to get changed. She wiped her face with her cleansing wipe and washed her hands. After painstakingly applying her make-up, she took off her work clothes carefully and folded them into her bag. Then she shook out her gold top and skirt and put it on, making sure that her make-up did not get smudged. She slipped on her shoes and stared at herself in the mirror.
Wow, she gasped to herself. She certainly scrubbed up pretty well, she smirked at the mirror. She ran an afro comb through her hair making it bounce and she placed a red rose clip in her 'fro.
She was ready. She puckered her lips at her reflection and did a little kicking dance before leaving the loo. She laughed as Alex, David and numerous other patrons of the bar wolf-whistled at her. Luke had come upstairs from his spot in the basement and grinned at her, 'Hmm, someone's got a hot date, I take it?'
'You take correctly, Lukey hun.' She grinned back. She quickly gave him a peck on his cheek, 'Have to leave now babe but shall ring you later to give you all the details.'
'You had better, especially as you haven't told me 'owt anyway.' He mock-scowled at her.
'Okay, okay. Bya babe.' She laughingly waved at him and walked out, pointedly ignoring Melissa's dark looks.
A few minutes later, she was in a cab on her way to Sebastian's mansion. She kept trying to catch a glimpse of herself via the driver's mirror until the cab driver gave her a scared look. She quickly gave him an apologetic one in return and stared out of the window.
Soon, they arrived in front of the massive gates. She paid the driver and hopped out smoothing her tiny skirt as she did so. She took a deep breath, as if to ginger herself and started walking towards the house. This was the first time she had ever done anything so impulsive, something that could potentially backfire in her face if he was not in the mood to see her or anything. She quickly told herself that he would be thrilled to see her. They had not seen each other in three days so of course he would be happy to see her.
She walked to the door and raised a finger to press the bell but realised that the door was slightly ajar. She pushed it in tentatively and looked around, it was quite quiet. She walked in carefully and saw how quiet it was. She started getting a bit worried. Normally, there was always someone up and about. She had even bumped into the twins on a few occasions. Now it just seemed empty. Oh bugger, what if she had arrived on a day that he was actually busy and out of the house. Of all the days she picked.
