Elina (ilmatar) wrote in morningstar_mnr, @ 2010-06-06 14:43:00 |
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Entry tags: | emily, vincenzo |
Sunday morning, apt 7134, Emily and Vincenzo
On Sunday morning Emily slowly woke up to the gentle light coming from the window. Before she even opened her eyes she got the feeling that something wasn't right - the light was coming from the wrong direction.
Oh yeah. I'm at Vinnie's, she thought, and turned in the bed. But then she realized something still wasn't right - the bed felt different and his scent wasn't about. Finally she opened her eyes and looked around. For a moment she was about to panic as she quickly sat up on the bed. She didn't recognize the room around her! Where was she?
At least she was wearing her own nightie, and no one else was around. She couldn't hear anything from outside the bedroom door either. Carefully Emily got out of the bed and pushed the door open to see where she was.
In her own apartment, she realized, stupefied. She was in her own apartment, but she had been sleeping in the guest room. Why had she been in there? She walked to the closed door of her own bedroom. Before she even thought about it, she knocked on the door, like expecting someone to be in there. Then she blinked, and shook her head. She was obviously still very sleepy for knocking on the door of her own bedroom! She opened the door and saw that everything was like it always had been - Charlie's wonderful green and copper interior design looking comfortingly familiar. The bed was untouched, although Wayne was sleeping on it alone.
Emily frowned and went back to the guest room. The furniture was different, she realized. They looked like they had just been dragged in there and nothing was quite in their own place, and she was sure she hadn't had a desk like that before. She went to check her phone and the calendar to make sure she hadn't missed anything else, but couldn't find any clues as to why on Earth she would be sleeping in her own guest room, and why it looked different now. She simply couldn't remember anything that could explain it, but she decided to talk about it with Vinnie. Maybe he had an explanation.
The past few days were a blur when she concentrated to think about it, and she constantly felt like something was missing, or really out of place. Vincenzo, the poor man, was probably already used to her freaking out because of strange things, Emily thought rolling her eyes at herself, but couldn't deny that she really needed his assurance now. She put the coffee on, went to get a robe to wear over her short nightie, and then sat down to call Vincenzo.
He was just about to go off shift, in fact he couldn't remember the last time he hadn't been ON shift, and when his phone rang he jumped and spent a moment searching for it. "'lo," he said, then focussed on the screen and tried again a bit more enthusiastically. "Em - hi - sleep well?"
"I did, all things considered," she answered with some hesitation. It was strange - it felt like she hadn't heard his voice in a long time, and she also realized she had no idea if he was working or not. She had become really good at keeping track of his work shifts, but as if only to add to the confusing morning, this time she had no clue. "Sorry, are you at work?"
"Just getting off shift," Vincenzo said, filling in the last couple of lines of his report. "Why?" he grinned as he passed the clipboard to Jackson who was yawning and has his shirt misbuttoned. "You feeling lonely, hun?"
Jackson rolled his eyes and Vincenzo chuckled as he got out of his chair and handed him his pen.
"I could be there in five minutes?" he suggested.
"The coffee will be ready by then," Emily said looking up at the machine and smiling a little. She did feel a little lonely, which didn't make any sense either. She saw Vincenzo right about every day, sometimes only for a coffee, sometimes overnight. Didn't she? "See you soon, sweetie."
"Five minutes," Vincenzo promised and ended the call.
"You lucky lucky fuckard," Jackson said slumping in the seat and pulling up the focus on the cameras over looking the workers on the roof.
"I am that," Vincenzo agreed with a sigh, and took himself off to get out of his uniform.
Four minutes fifty later he was at Emily's door and let himself in. "Hey hun?" he called and frowned because the place looked wrong. "Hey - why'd you move the furniture on your own. That's too heavy for you."
Emily walked from the kitchen still looking a little sleepy after waking up just a while ago, and wearing a robe and her nightie.
"That's the thing. I didn't," she said and stopped to stand beside Vincenzo, looking at the lounge. The changes weren't big, but things were out of their normal places, and there were strange little bits and bobs that either weren't there anymore, or had appeared.
"This is nothing yet, come see the guest room. I don't know if you remember what it was like before but..." she walked to the door and pushed it open to show the completely changed room to him.
"That's ..." he soght for an appropriate word and in the end had to settle for "weird." Now he came to think of it he hadn't been able to find his trainers. He'd put on a pair of nearly new deck shoes he couldn't actually remember buying but he had to have done and they were comfortable so ...
Something Frank once said came back to him and he put his arm round Emily, feeling a sudden hollowness in his gut. "I - er - I'm sure there's nothing to worry about," he said, trying to sound convincing.
Emily gladly leaned against his side feeling the need for the comforting and the proximity.
"Really? Then why on Earth did I wake up in here? Have I said something about my bedroom? Is there something wrong with it? Or was I drinking last night? Maybe I was so drunk I can't even remember drinking," she muttered and shook her head. "This morning has been really, really confusing, my head hasn't been working right."
"I didn't see you come in," Vincenzo said. Where had he been then? He couldn't quite remember. "Why don't we have coffee, then we can sit down together and work it out." He hadn't been confused before - he had been just doing his job, doing his job, doing his job - but now he felt that perhaps he was beginning to be.
"Good idea," Emily sighed. As they turned to head to the kitchen, Wayne appeared from the bedroom to follow them and sleepy slow steps. The cat circled Emily's bare feet while she was taking out coffee mugs, so before she could pour the coffee, she had to feed the cat.
"I seem to be making a habit out of bothering you with strange things every now and then and freaking out because of... well, I never know because of what," Emily said, sounding very apologetic.
"Oh don't worry about that," Vincenzo said, taking over the coffee preparation so Emily could deal with her feline. "It makes me feel needed." He chuckled. "And unless I miss my guess you're not the only one who's going to be feeling a bit - off - this morning. Where's the - ah - different cupboard. Yeah. I think maybe the Manor has had one of her little - slips."
Emily straightened up from Wayne's bowl with a can of cat food in one hand and a fork in the other. "Slips? What does that mean?" she asked, staring at Vincenzo. "Does that mean I'm not going mad?"
"Oh honey, of course you're not." Vincenzo turned from the coffee and took her in his arms. "You're not going mad. Not at all. Frank was telling me about a time a couple of years ago where every so often everyone in the Manor would lose a week. There never seemed to be any - repercussions. Like nobody ever lost their day job and nobody outside the Manor ever seemed to comment on it. But inside, all the tenants ... sometimes they'd be confused, sometimes they'd be incredibly relieved it was back to normal. A few would be devastated - I guess they'd been happier wherever it was that they'd gone. Frank says that he used to just do his job as usual and everything around him was a bit different. Like," he chuckled, "he vaguely remembers one time when Charlie Shaw had shoulders like a barn door and spent most of his time in the gym. Oh and the time Andras Toth, that wildly gay photographer, was straight and a real puss-hound - er - scuse my Italian."
Emily quickly reached to put the smelly cat food away on the counter behind her when she was scooped up in his arms.
"You're pulling my leg," Emily laughed, his examples all too wild to imagine. "Charlie Shaw a beefcake, for a week?" Then she frowned as she thought back to the past week. She only remembered being awfully worried and quite lonely ever since the barbeque, but couldn't really explain why. "I don't know. That does somehow sound familiar, the past week... I can't really put my finger on anything. What about you? Are you feeling alright?" she looked back up at him and slid her hands up along his arms to his shoulders.
"I'm okay," Vincenzo said and shrugged. "I don't remember much about the past week at all. Oh, Gregori Rushenko was here - but then he's moving in soon so maybe he was measuring up for curtains or something. Apart from that ... no I don't remember anything."
Emily blinked. "What, Gregori? He's moving in?" she repeated, completely surprised. The thing was, somehow she wasn't surprised even though she hadn't had any idea Gregori had any plans of moving from the West Coast. Oddly enough, she felt just a little guilty, standing there in Vincenzo's arms now thinking about Gregori. "So he's been here, this past week?"
"Wait - he hasn't told you?" Vincenzo looked surprised. "Yeah his application has been in the pipeline for months. I wonder why on earth he kept it a secret? Anyhow, he's what I remember from last week. His isn't an easy personality to miss."
"You're right about that," Emily nodded thoughtfully. "How about that coffee now? Maybe it will clear my head a little. You know, I actually thought there was someone in my bedroom this morning," she chuckled a little as she moved from his embrace to finally pour the coffee for them.
"In bed with you?" Vincenzo said, not moving, and his jaw muscles twitched as he controlled a sudden unreasoning burst of possessive jealousy. "Or - no - you said you woke up in the guest room. Who's have been in your bedroom - other than Wayne, of course?"
"I don't know! I knocked on the door before I went in, and felt really silly right afterwards. I guess I'll never know. Maybe it's better if I never know," she added and carried their coffee mugs to the table. As she passed him, she reached up to give him a kiss on the corner of his lips. "But I definitely woke up alone, don't worry, sweetie."
Vincenzo flushed. "Sorry for going all Cro Magnon for a moment," he said, following.
"Don't be, I wouldn't like that idea either about you," Emily chuckled as she sat down and slid his cup over the table to him. "But are you okay if I go and see Gregori when he moves in?" She felt like it was better to be careful and not skip telling anything, since she did not want to risk hurting Vincenzo again, not even with a misunderstanding, after the previous encounter with the three of them.
"Of course," Vincenzo said. "he's one of your oldest friends - and probably the only other person in the Manor who understands your level of the restaurant business. It'll be nice for you to have someone to talk to about it."
Emily's expression softened and she looked at him with a silly smile. "I can't believe you're so understanding. Have I told you recently that I love you?" It was supposed to be a figure of speech at first, but then she realized it wasn't. "Honestly, I can't remember."
Vincenzo considered, a slightly troubled look on his face. "Neither can I," he said. "More important, I can't remember when I last told you I loved you. Because I do, Em. I do love you."
If she had thought the morning had been weird before, it was really getting worrying now. That's why she changed from her chair to sit on his lap instead, wrapping an arm around his neck.
"Stupid Manor getting between us," she muttered and kissed him, so they both could remember when they had done that the last.
"Stupid Manor," he agreed and held her tight, his face in the warm crook of neck and shoulder. he took a deep breath, held it and let it out in a sigh. "But whatever it was is over now, right?"
"I sure hope so, I'd really rather remember this tomorrow," Emily said softly, feeling happy in his arms bowing her head to inhale his scent. "What ever it was, I'm just happy the furniture was the only thing that changed."
"Yeah that's just - odd," Vincenzo said. "I'd never have had you pegged for that particular colour combination."
"Well, I can just keep the door of the guest room shut and deal with it later," Emily said, but then she grinned at him. "But now that you're here, you can help me move things to their right places, after breakfast."
"Breakfast?" Vincenzo asked with a grin. "I get breakfast? Hell yeah. You tell me where you want it and I can make a start while you're cooking. And what say we ask Charlie to do another paint job on the spare room? He might be able to come up with a way of making it look a bit less - festive."
"Excellent idea!" Emily said and got up from his lap. "If you see him, you could talk about it to him. But now, off to work. You do remember where the couch and the TV stand were? I'll feed you soon," she patted his chest, adjusted the robe around her, and took over the kitchen to prepare breakfast.
Vincenzo watched her into the kitchen, a tender smile on his lips, then got up and began to move furniture. He wasn't happy about the disruption in his memory. He felt like he'd lost her for a week - who knew what could have happened?