Ignite Me: Shards of Glass, Part One (3 page)

“Oh, that's so good!” I flexed my toes on the cold slate tile flooring. It felt like heaven. I padded off to the kitchen and pulled open the fridge door and pulled out a bottle of water. I glanced at the food tempted to make a snack, but I just wanted to get some pain tablets for my hand so I pulled out an apple and stood and bit three large chucks of it off chewing it. It wasn't that I didn't eat but I didn't want heavy food before bed. I walked over to the cupboard nearest the sink and pulled it open. “I know you’re in here somewhere!”

I muttered as I rummaged around. “Ah found you!” I pulled the packet of anti-inflammatory tablets out and scanned the back then popped two out and undid the top of the bottle, placing the tablets into my mouth I chugged down a good quarter of the bottle before pulling a face. “Well, they taste vile!” I'd developed a habit of talking to myself at home because when I'd first moved in I never really spoke and after a while you forget what it's like to speak outside of your own head.

I walked through to the lounge and collapsed down onto the large leather sofa and swung my legs up so I was laying on it looking out of the window. London at night from my windows was beautiful. I pulled my phone from my pocket and unlocked it turning on the camera and took a photo. I was going for the artsy effect. You could just make out my feet with the view of the city behind them. I posted it on my favourite photo sharing app Instagram with the caption.

My view beats your view!

I quite liked seeing what the kids sent me in return. They'd say there's was better and I'd get to see some cool places. Mostly Sean's fans left me alone. Some of the older ones even sympathized with me. Plus, it showed my so called friends back in LA I wasn't falling apart over here.

I grinned as I closed my eyes. I felt so tired. My eyelids were heavy now. I'd get up in a moment and go to bed. Any moment now.

I groaned as I heard my phone go off next to me.

“Does nobody ever check to see what time it is when they call me?!” I groaned, half asleep.

I felt around for the bedside table and opened my eyes in a hurry when I didn't feel it where it should be. I sat bolt right up confused and a little disorientated. I arched my head back. I'd fallen asleep on the sofa.

“Ah, my neck...” I rubbed my neck with my hand, trying to work the kink out. I looked out of the window, London was still buzzing it always was! This place never slept! I dragged myself from the sofa and made my way through to my bedroom, I shoved open the door, but didn't bother to put the light on. I stripped off and pulled on an oversized shirt and fell into bed, pulling my duvet up around me as I stretched my legs out. The coolness of the cotton sheets made me feel relaxed. I'd look at my phone later it could wait. My hand hurt like hell and I hoped by the next day it would be better and I'd not have to go and get it fixed because I had a massive issue with having to go and ask for help. Thanks to Cameron he'd fixed the main issue. My mind drifted back to him. How he'd been with me compared to how he'd been with his sister. It was strange. Then when I'd gone back to get my ring, what had he been planning?! Who was he wanting know all that Intel on?! Was it me?! It had to be but why?! I was intrigued by him, but I'd probably never see him again so I pushed it to the back of my mind and let sleep take me. At least this time I'd not wake up with a stiff neck.

A week later and I had come around to fact I was clearly not going to see Cameron again, was I stupid to think he might actually have been talking about me last week when I went back to get my ring?! I sighed. Of course it was stupid, he was so far out of my league. I had however had a few random conversations with his Georgia on Twitter she’d followed me on there and had taken to talking to me almost daily, I had started by replying to all her tweets but then figured maybe it was a bit weird so I had cut the amount of reply’s down.

I hadn’t been out much either other than to the Doctors, my hand was fine now, thankfully.

The doorbells rang as I was just deciding I should get out of bed.

“Go away!”

I moaned petulantly as my doorbell rang. Nobody ever rang my door bell because all my mail was in a box down at the front desk, even deliveries went down there! Which in some ways was a pain in the ass, but in other ways was good.

I rolled my eyes as it went off again. The chime went right through my head, making it thump.

“Okay already! There had better be a fire!” I laughed as I hauled myself out of bed and made my way through the apartment. I didn't give much thought to what I was wearing. I was covered that's all that mattered.

The light from the lounge made my eyes hurt as I walked to the large wooden door. I flipped the spy-hole cover up and saw Damon holding what looked the biggest bunch of flowers I'd ever seen. I liked Damon, we'd become fast friends when I'd moved in. He was one of the concierge staff! The building kinda came with them! It was all in what you paid for!

I opened the door and stood back. “Damon they can't be for me! You shouldn't have!” I giggled. He had asked me out a few times and I'd said maybe, but he never gave up.

Wow, he's really ramping it up.

He gave an awkward cough. “Well, I didn't as it happens these were delivered just now! I figured I'd bring them up!”

Oh well, that's embarrassing.

“Oh, wow.” I didn't know what else to say. I was just staring at the roses.

“So you gonna take'em or what!” He laughed and thrust them at me.

I took them with both hands. “Sure sorry!” I smiled at him. He was cute, he had the most amazing blue eyes with black hair that just touched his collar.

He quirked his eye brow up me. “So about that drink! We still doing that?!”

I laughed. “You don't give up do you?!”

He smiled a brilliant smile. “Nope! But seriously, we can go as friends! I just wanna show you some cool places!”

I grinned. What was the harm?! “Okay! We will go! This week! When are you free?!”

It was probably against the rules to be friends with him, but the rules were there to be broken.

He smiled at me. “Seriously?! Oh well Friday evening is good for me! My mate’s band is playing at a pub in Camden! You'll love it! They are punk rock and it'd mean a lot to them and to me if you came to see their set, I can pick you up at like 7pm?!” He looked excited.

“Well, I'll be here and ready to go!” It was nice to have a friend.

“Awesome! I'll see you then! I'd better get back down!” He smiled as he walked back to the lift.

I closed the door and walked into the kitchen clutching my roses.

“Who the heck sent these?!” They looked expensive. I didn't count them, but there were at least 30.

My heart beat a little faster as I pulled the card from inside the ribbon that had been tied on the box at the bottom. I opened the envelope and pulled out the card. It had neat scripted handwriting on it.

Where do people learn to write that way?!

I wondered as I speed read it to work out who they were from. My heart skipped a beat as I read it again, this time out loud to let it sink in.

“Dearest Evangeline, a token of my appreciation for helping my sister! I hope your hand is better now and I look forward to meeting your acquaintance in the near future! Cameron Ballard.”

I grinned from ear to ear as I hugged myself and did a happy dance.

It was to the point, but at the same time he must have cared to send me roses. I loved roses a lot. He'd made a good guess on that. Sending roses was an interesting choice though, but they really were beautiful. I didn’t care if it had taken him a week, he was probably very busy.

I rummaged around under the kitchen unit and pulled out some vases I'd brought when I moved here. They were from the 60s and made from brightly coloured glass. All random shapes. I made myself busy undoing the packet and took the roses out and split them into the various vases. I was on cloud 9. It was stupid, but just those small words made me happier than I had been for ages! I danced around the apartment as I put the vases out. I pulled one of the roses out of the vase in my bedroom and grabbed my phone from my bedside table and unlocked it pressing the camera button and took a selfie with it. I didn't care that my hair looked like I'd just fallen out of bed. I smiled as I checked the photo as I posted it.

Another like 30 of these came just now! I adore roses. #Love #roses #SoPretty #JustWokeUp

I didn't say who they were from it was none of anyone's business.

I wondered if Cameron would see it, I wondered if he even used social media I'd have to check later on. I placed the rose between two large books, I intended to press it and keep it.

I wasn't sure what getting the roses meant because I had been convinced I would never see him again, yet he'd sent me roses and not just your normal size bunch either! This was more than Sean ever gave me in our whole relationship. Thinking of him reminded me to check my texts, so I sat myself down on the edge of the bed and scrolled to my texts. There was a few on there some reminders that I'd got business stuff to reply to, they could wait. They didn't own me. One was from my Dad asking how I was. I'd ring him later. The last one was from Sean.

I sighed as I read it. “I miss you baby.”

I shook my head. Was that even meant for me?! I mean, sure he rang or text me a lot, but I never normally replied or picked up so how was he missing me?! I'd been gone for over two months yet in all that time he'd not said he was missing me.

I typed out a reply.

You only miss me when you've run out of things to do!

I hit send and plugged my phone back into the charger.

It looked lovely and sunny outside today. I walked back into the kitchen and opened the fridge, pulling out the carton of fruit smoothie and a portion of pre chopped fruit. I grabbed a glass from the side and poured myself a large glass of the fruit smoothie draining the last of it. I tossed the empty carton into the bin and picked up the glass with a winch, my right hand was still a little stiff and sore. I padded back to my room and unlocked the door that led to the sun terrace. It was well sheltered from overlooking buildings and had a good view of the themes. I sat down on one of the sun chairs and rested my legs up on the table. The morning sun felt good on my skin. I pulled open the fruit packet, and stabbed a portion of mango with the little plastic fork and looked up at the sun glinting off the top of the glass building in the near distance. I'd really have to find out what that was, it looked cool. I'd have to go and explore. I eat the fruit and then drained the smoothie down. I sat out there for a while more before I decided I'd head back in for a shower.

I dug out a clean pair of skinny jeans and blouse from my closest before rummaging around in my underwear draw for clean panties and bra. I'd been out and bought a load of new things when I'd moved here because it was cheaper and easier than shipping things over. Plus half of my clothes wouldn't even have been usable in the summer! I'd spend most of my time in LA so it was denim shorts and vest tops! Over in London even when it was really hot you still needed thicker clothing.

I headed to the en-suite bathroom, it really bothered me that it overlooked the river yet there was no frosted glass. So I'd made a blind and fixed it up myself. I understood that most people would have liked to see out while in the bath but we weren't that high up so I had privacy issues with wandering around naked that exposed with the floor to ceiling glass windows. I dropped the blind and then stripped off folding my clean clothes on the chair. I loved the bathroom aside from the windows. It was a lot bigger than Sean's had been. It had a large deep claw footed bath tub in the centre with a shower area towards the back. I rummaged around my basket of hair dye and dug out the red semi-permanent dye I'd bought last week. I grabbed my favourite fluffy towel and headed for the shower. Letting the water warm up first I tipped out a good amount of the hair dye into the palm of my left hand and covered the bottom 3 inches of my hair so it would look dip dyed. I had what my friend called mermaid hair! If it covered your breasts it was mermaid hair! We'd always said it since high school.

I grinned, thinking of Jessica she’d have a field day about Cameron! The dye had to be left in for 15 minutes.

After half an hour I'd washed my hair dye out, got washed and was wrapped in my towel brushing my hair out. The dye had worked out quite cool and hadn’t stained my hands, which was a bonus. My hair was naturally blonde, but I'd not seen my ash blonde for a good few years now! I'd dyed it every color under the sun! I liked it this length, though so now I only dyed the ends. The red contrasted nicely with the blonde of my hair. I ran my fingers through it as I pulled it into a braid and done the end up with a hair band. It would dry in the plait and when I took it out would be wavy. Saved having to use heated tongs.

I got dressed and looked at myself in the mirror. My pale face gazed back at me. My hazel eyes stared back at me judging me. I couldn't be bothered to do any major make up so I just did some mascara and lip gloss. I was only going out to explore, I'd have a pair of sunglasses on so no one would recognize me hopefully.

I went back through to my room and dropped my bed clothes on my bed before sitting back down to check my phone. I was pleased it was clear of any new texts from Sean, trying to get over him when he wouldn't leave me alone was hard. I brought up the Internet search page and typed in 'London's highest building' it had to be listed! After a few seconds it came back with a whole bunch of results I smiled as I scanned the page.

“So that's what it's called! The Shard!” I smiled. It was aptly named. I clicked the photo and waited to see what info would come up. I loved learning new things. I read down the list. “87 floors... Holly flip that is high!” I didn't have an issue with heights, it was more that it was all glass. It turned out part of it was offices for various law firms and the like. There was a couple of restaurants and even a hotel occupying some of the floors. “Oh, now that's cool!” I clicked the link for the View from the shard. I speed read all the info. It turned out you could you go up and view London from several viewing platforms from inside. It wasn't even all that expensive. I made a note of the nearest tube station and made a plan there and then to go and visit it. I wanted to see if I could see my apartment from the top.