oh just great. In exasperation, my hand reached over flicking off the alarm button, an hour before the scheduled time. I might as well be proactive. If only my legs would cooperate. Looking at the state of my twisted sheets, I made them.
Throwing back the covers, I slid out of bed and staggered into the walk-in-robe in search of a pair of gym pants and my hot pink joggers. A run always alleviated the worries.
Each pounding step sprinted over the footpath was perfectly timed with each exhaling breath as The Frays, Love Don’t Die blasted in my ears. They were my muse, and the overhead street lamps were my guide, taking me from the dark and into the light.
I ran until I hit Gardner Reserve, a family orientated park a few blocks from my house and paused at a timber bench to stretch my burning limbs. I had always loved this park. With its oversized elms littering the billowing garden beds along a weaving crushed granite pathway, their full leafed branches created a canopy, keeping play equipment and picnic tables cool enough for use throughout the warm summer months. Currently, the trees were still bare, giving way to the dappled light of the rising sun peeking through, indicative of the beautiful day we had ahead of us. I flicked my wrist and checked my Fitbit noting it was time to start heading back. Surprisingly though, I felt energised, even after a terrible night’s sleep and ran home barely exerting myself in the process. My puffing minimal as I walked through the house.
The heavenly smell of coffee and toast wafted under my nose, hitting my empty stomach with a thud. Loud sounds coming out of Scarlett’s mouth from the kitchen also hit me. Surely not. It was far too early for that amount of noise from one person.
“Morning all.” I waved, breathlessly striding past the island to the fridge. Reaching in to retrieve the bottle of pineapple juice, I closed the door and spun around. My quizzical gaze met gaping stares. “You may want to be careful leaving your mouths wide open like that or flies might think it’s their new home,” I said, turning back to grab a tall glass from the overhead cupboard, and setting it down on the countertop in front of them.
Spreading a thin layer of vegemite over her buttered toast, Scarlett frowned. “Who on earth goes running this early in the morning?”
I stared at her and shrugged unapologetically. “I do.”
“You’re either mad or stupid.”
“Well maybe if you did a bit of exercise, you’d feel even better about yourself. Oh, but hang on, you don’t need to, your heads fat enough already!” A piece of toast came skimming past my head and landed on the polished floorboards behind me at my feet.
Tutting, I placed my hands on my hips. “Oh, no, unless you follow the five-second rule, you can’t eat that now, Scars.”
My baby sister was also unimpressed by Dominique and Poppy’s laughter and stomped her little foot loudly. “You can all go fuck yourselves!”
“Oh, come on, Scars, take a joke. Teddy was only stirring you because she knows how much you loathe exercise,” Dominique shouted, only for Scarlett to flip her off as she marched past her on the way to the stairs. “That’s so childish,” she murmured, carrying on with her breakfast.
Due to Scarlett’s temper tantrum, I ended up missing my usual breakfast, and it meant I had to stop by the café below Bricks and Mortar. Taking my vanilla latte and fruit salad upstairs into the confines of my cubicle, I sat behind my desk, enjoying them both while quietly reviewing a set of plans. I should think about coming to work early every day. It’s so peaceful.
“Good Morning, Teddy.”
“Oh, Jesus, Spencer!” I jumped out of the chair, throwing the remnants of my fruit salad over my desk. “You scared the hell out of me!” I screeched as I frantically mopped up the juice with reams of tissues.
“I’m sorry, Teddy, I didn’t mean to startle you.” He clung to the edge of the glass and awkwardly rubbed at the back of his neck. “And here I thought I came in being quite noisy too.”
“Well, you weren’t!” I had just yelled at my boss. Cringing, I swiftly apologised, my voice a dull whisper, “I’m sorry.”
Naturally poised, and ready to yell back at me, I expected quite the dressing down. However, to my surprise, Spencer’s mouth snapped shut, forming a thin disapproving line. Chocolate brown eyes glared right before he stalked into his office, the door slamming behind him. I flinched.
What in the hell was wrong with me, and what did I just do? I sank back into my chair and flopped forward, banging my forehead on the desktop. Ground; please swallow me. Spencer looked so mad, not that I blamed him; he wasn’t the one in the wrong, I was. I’d snapped for no apparent reason. Nor was it his fault I’d slept like crap or my nightmares had returned.
I straightened in my chair and peered over at the closed door; I needed to either eat humble pie and apologise or quit. Then again, Spencer wouldn’t accept my resignation over something so small. Humble pie it had to be.
Pushing off my chair, I fixed my appearance and bravely made my way to his office. I raised my hand and knocked on the closed door, tentatively waiting for a response.
His response came clipped and sharp. “Come in!”
“Spencer, may I speak with you…please?” Whom was I kidding? I was a timid little mouse currently shaking in her designer heels.
“Take a seat please, Ms McGovern.” If the stiff nod and the formality of his tone as well as the furious tapping on the keyboard were anything to go by, I’d say he was highly irritated with me.
“Yes… Mr Hughes.” I swallowed the lump of pride in my throat and slowly flopped into the chair in front of his desk. My eyes misted over. “I... I have come in here to apologise for my outburst earlier. I honestly don’t know what came over me.” Ashamed, my chin tilted heavenward.
His hardened expression softening, Spencer sighed. “Look, I shouldn’t have gotten angry with you; it was entirely my fault for sneaking up on you anyway.” His brows creased in concern. “You okay?”
“Perhaps it’s just tiredness as the girls, and I went out to celebrate my promotion, and as you can imagine, we got in pretty late.” Relieved Spencer wasn’t about to write a formal warning, or worse – fire me, I sagged against the backrest. “Again, I apologise.”
“It's fine, we’re all human, so in my book, it means we’re entitled to have the occasional difficult day.” Spencer smiled warmly, putting my mind at ease. His chocolate, brown eyes were reminding me of someone I knew, making me smile. “I’ll be sure to make more noise the next time I arrive early though.” He chuckled.
“Thank you. I won’t hold you up anymore, Spencer, and I’ll get back to work,” I replied softly before strolling back to my desk.
However, my mind wasn’t relaxed. Instead, I spent the remainder of the day in a daze, the ability to focus, gone. Regaining that focus and control before everything became overwhelming had to be my new goal, and I knew precisely where to start – the gym.
“Hey, I’m home!” Poppy hollered sauntering into the kitchen where I was busily prepping salad vegetables at the island bench as I listened to the various piano tunes on my Spotify playlist.
“Hi, Poppy, how was your day?”
Hanging her tote and satchel over the back of a bar stool,
