Word Count: 502
His watch alarm dragged him out of the deepest sleep he’d managed since the explosion.
Renee groaned next to him, pressing her face into her pillow in defiance of the sunlight glowing outside.
“Why are you getting up this early?” she demanded, her voice muffled.
“I have to go to work.” Colton snapped.
“You own the company,” she said, turning her head to squint at him. “What’s it matter what time you get into the office?”
“Shut up.” He muttered, sitting up. The AC was running and he shivered after the heat of the bed. Renee slept like a furnace.
She was asleep again when he got out of the shower. He dressed quickly. She protested when he sat on the bed to pull on his socks and shoes.
“Oh, stop,” he told her. “Don’t be a brat.”
She opened an eye to glare at him. Suddenly she smiled, wicked and sweet at once, somehow.
“Oh, I’m sorry darling.” She gushed. “Have a good day at work, dear. Would you like dinner at five or five-thirty?”
“Shut up.” He said again and stalked out.
Ivan was up as well, his eyes on his smart-phone’s screen.
“Morning,” he drawled, sipping from a mug. “How’d you sleep?”
Colton only grunted, bypassing the muffins Rosa had set still steaming on the counter. He selected a banana and an energy bar and sat to read the paper as he ate.
He didn’t look over as Renee came in, her hair standing up in every direction, clearly still half asleep.
“You forgot this,” she said, holding out his cell phone. “Someone named Alice called.”
Colton grimaced, jabbing his secretary’s number.
“Who was that?” the woman said when she answered.
“What is it?” He asked wearily. Renee was meditatively buttering a muffin, the scent of berries and sugar thick in the kitchen.
“Was it Felicia?”
“No!” Colton clipped. “What is it, or I’m hanging up.”
Alice heaved a sigh. “Trebell called. He’s in town and wants to meet.”
“Can he do lunch?”
“Says he’s busy all day. Wants to know if he could come over to your house and do dinner?”
Colton hesitated, glancing over to where Renee was laughing with his uncle.
“Colton?” Alcie prompted.
“I guess.” Colton said finally. “You have to come too.”
“But-”
“I’ll make it up to you, I swear.”
“Don’t you dare hang up! Colto-”
Colton looked over to Renee again. She met his eyes, her eyebrow going up. Colton tried not to blush. Of course she would wonder what woman would call him at seven-thirty in the morning.
“Rosa,” he called. The woman bustled in from the front room, a duster in her hand.
“Yes, Mr. Savage?”
“I’m having a dinner guest, Trebell. Alice is coming, too.”
Rosa rolled her eyes. “Is she still a vegetarian?”
“Yes.” Colton grinned. “Fish is okay, I think.”
He could see Renee was bursting to ask who Alice was, carefully not looking in his direction. He grinned to himself. Let her sweat.
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