Chapter 56

I yawn and stretch out lazily, stirring slowly like a cosy kitten waking after a peaceful slumber. A massive sense of weightless contentment is waving over me like a warm blanket in the moments before I fully connect with consciousness. I jump when a large, hot hand gently grips my hip in reaction to my wriggling and scares me half to death. Rousing me fully as I’m not used to waking up beside someone, ever. My heart skips a beat for a second and sends me into instant sweats and floundering panic deep inside. It all comes back to me in a rush, and I blink at an unfamiliar ceiling and a rotating fan too close for comfort. Blurry vision clearing to bring my surroundings to me.

Hazy in my sudden awakening, mouth a similar consistency to a shaggy carpet, my head aches with the after-effects of too much alcohol and a night of walking myself to death. I have a monster hangover, head pounding me into oblivion as those first few seconds of happy waking ebb away into reality, and now I