As a matter of fact, my, or, well, Bella’s car was fine. I scanned the vicinity and found the hidden shadow. I caught their gaze, and gave them a nod of appreciation, much to their shock. Anyway, this person just did me a favor, since Bella would skin me alive if something happened to her precious baby.

I looked at the watch again, almost two in the morning. I had a date scheduled for the first half of the day, and I had to pick Olivia up around three in the afternoon, give or take. The amount of stress I was under, until the very end, kept me from feeling the sleepiness yet, though. Olivia wasn’t home either, so I had no reason to hurry to that empty place anyway. What a dilemma.

Then I remembered Bella’s words about her place and surprise. Since I had nothing against crashing there for tonight, my next course of action became clear.

***

I put the key card to the reader. A short beep later, the door opened. I released the held breath, since, knowing the vengeful nature of my special woman, I was half expecting that the surprise would be something along the line of Bella changing locks.

“Isabella, I…” I heard the voice and felt the need to palm my face

Yes, what a surprise, indeed. Wearing barely anything, Bella’s assistant looked at me in absolute shock. My guess about her being extremely fit was also correct.

Even if there was no excessive hypertrophy, her abs were clearly defined, and I could see the movement of her muscles under the smooth skin. Hm, interesting choice of lingerie as well. The contrast between the tanned skin and bright colors was quite stunning.

For a moment, I felt like I'd seen almost the exact pair recently, but then again, Olivia dragged me through the entirety of the underwear shop yesterday, so it wasn’t outside the realm of possibilities.

“Let me guess, Bella called you and said she wants to talk at her place?” I tried to distract myself, and the girl, with words. “Maybe even said that she can explain everything? The instructed security let you inside, only there was no one in sight. Then this wench sent a message, apologizing for being late, and you decided to take a nap while waiting?”

That vengeful bitch once did this exact prank in my first life. I guess Bella will be Bella, wherever and whenever.

“Look, I’m sorry to disappoint you, but Bella is on a business trip out of the city for the week.” I continued my speech. “Do you want me to call you a taxi?”

After the rollercoaster that was my day, I couldn’t find it in myself to even care anymore. Stunned girl, Lyta, I finally remembered her name, just continued staring at me like a deer in headlights.

“I would offer to go away myself, but without this key card.” I showed the piece of plastic. “You won’t be able to leave by yourself. I also had a very long day, so I can’t be bothered to play gentleman, either”

Still no response. Fuck it. I took off my shoes, and went past the statue of a gender bent Greek god, wanting nothing more than to take a quick shower and drop asleep.

“H-hey,” her voice reached my ears. “Just who are you?”

“I am Bella’s special man, just like she is my special woman. This has been like that for five years already, and it will be so until my last breath.” I gave her a clear answer. “We have our fair share of disagreements, since we both have a very loose definition of fidelity. Yet, as Bella already made it pretty clear earlier today, she will always choose me in the end.”

Trying not to make it even more awkward for the poor girl by letting my eyes wander all over her mostly naked body, I focused my gaze on her lovely face. Which let me easily notice that her tears were about to spill once more. Yeah, sure, waterworks is just the thing that I need right now.

“Look, I am completely spent, mental wise at least. I want to take a shower and get some much-needed sleep,” I started. “If you have something to say, can we do this whole song and dance in the morning? Please. Just choose any of the guest rooms and get some shut-eye as well. I give you my word that I won’t do anything to you today. If you don’t believe me, fine, every room has a lock on the door.”

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I omitted that Bella had keys for every door in her personal safe, and I knew the combination. I wasn’t planning to do anything anyway, so there was no reason to get her even more agitated.

Just as I was about to give up on waiting for the answer, Lyta finally spoke.

“F-fine,” she stumbled. “We will talk in the m-morning.”

Small miracles.

“Yes, yes, sweet dreams,” I told her and went upstairs.

***

Same as yesterday, my sleep was abruptly cut short by the sound of my phone’s ringtone. The one that was assigned to Bella's number. I checked the time, seven forty-something, and picked up the call.

“How was my surprise?” my special woman asked without any preamble.

“Absolutely adorable.” I answered, matching her tone. “Especially the way she completely froze after deciding to welcome me wearing only lingerie. I must praise your taste in women, my dear.”

“Yeah, I brought it upon myself,” lamented Bella. “So, how was your date?”

“I am alive,” I stated the fact. “Everything else can wait until your return.”

I heard another voice calling for Bella’s attention on the other side.

“Well, I’m glad everything went well,” she drawled. “But I need to go, it's time for my meeting.”

“Take care,” I said.

“See you.” After saying this, Bella ended the call.

Five and a half hours of sleep felt a bit insufficient, so I set my alarm to nine and closed my eyes again.

***

Another call woke me up. A video call from Claire at that. Most likely, Counter Girl just fat-fingered the button via accident, trying to send me a message, but I was curious to see her reaction. And, I glanced at the time, eight fifty-four, to see what she was currently wearing. With this nefarious reasoning in mind, my finger moved to accept the call.

“Ah!” The surprised yelp of a koala girl greeted me. Cute.

Claire was lying on her back, panic clear on her face, wearing that t-shirt she liberated from me last week and a pair of yellow shorts. Despite, or maybe because of, the shirt’s struggles to fit her sizable bust, it was currently riding all the way up, leaving her flat stomach for me to see.

“Good morning, Claire,” I greeted her back, eliciting another surprised yelp. Cute.

“Tian! Sorry. I was about to send you a message, but pressed the wrong button.” She said, confirming my previous conjecture. “Um, did I wake you up?”

“As a matter of fact, yes. But, seeing your pretty face first thing in the morning, isn’t the worst way to start the day.” I replied, seeing how her expression morphed into one of guilt.

“Um, well, I…” The Counter Girl stumbled, a hint of the smile playing on her lips, a light flush coloring her cheeks.

Hm, shouldn’t this cute girl be more used to receiving compliments? I remembered the lanky loser she was chasing after. Yeah, maybe not.

“Don’t worry, it was five minutes before my alarm anyway,” I decided to change the topic and give her a breather. “So, what was that message supposed to be about?”

“I wanted to discuss the time for our gym visit,” she responded.

“Ah, yes, our gym date,” I teased. “Hm, as I said, I need to pick Olivia up around three - three thirty. Just to be sure that traffic won’t be an issue, I will aim to leave about an hour before that, around two. So, how about noon?”

“Yes!” Claire exclaimed, instantly catching herself, blushing even harder. Then she cleared her throat and continued. “I mean, noon is fine with me.”

I held back a chuckle.

“Should I pick you up then?” I decided to ask.

“Eh? Why?” Counter Girl sounded confused. “I thought we would meet halfway.”

“I’m not home right now,” I clarified. “And I have some unfinished business to take care of.”

Like the talk with Bella’s assistant. Ugh.

“Well, we can meet at the gym then,” the girl on the other side of the screen said.

“We can,” I agreed. “Or I can pick you up. Your choice, Claire.”

“I wouldn’t want to inconvenience you,” she drawled.

“Yes or no?” For some reason, her words sounded like another one of her flimsy excuses, so I decided to push a bit more.

“Um.” Her eyes wavered. “Yes, please.”

“Good girl,” I praised her jokingly. “Send me the address later.”

“OK,” she agreed.

“Well, I would love to talk for longer, but it’s time for my routine.” I said, glancing at the time. “I will call you later. Bye.”

“Cya,” she ended the call.