Mine...

Michael

The least thing I expected to happen today was a drunk Sylvia stumbling into my room, but that was exactly what had happened. After our little talk at the bar I had returned to my room, and minutes later Sylvia had come banging aggressively on my door. I had thought it was some random stranger acting wild, but she fell into my arms the moment I unlocked the door.

"I'm s..sorry..." She said continuously, her drunken smile clouding the sadness deep within her.

"What do you think you're doing Sylvia?" I asked as I lifted her into my arms and onto the bed. She reeked of alcohol, and it was obvious that she had finished the bottle of whiskey I left with her. Regret tugged at my conscience, but I convinced myself that it wasn't my fault that she got drunk.

Carefully, I loosened a few buttons of her shirt to let her cool off a bit before offering her limewater. She took a sip before slyly letting the cup fall to the ground, her drunk smile still spread across her face.

"Calm yourself down, Sylvie." I urged even though I knew she probably couldn't comprehend simple words at the moment. This was bad, not only did we have a meeting in two hours, neither of us were in the right state of mind. My head was spinning, but unlike Sylvia Mulberry, I had better tolerance to alcohol.

Steadily, I did my best to pick up the broken pieces of glass. The room swayed gently as I fumbled for the pieces on the floor while constantly trying to steady myself. The air became heavy all of a sudden and I felt myself being overwhelmed briefly. My eyelids were heavy, and I could feel myself slowly slipping in and out of consciousness.

"I just need to stay awake," I muttered to myself, as I finally finished with the broken glass. Sylvia was already fast asleep on the bed, and there was no telling when she'd wake. I glanced towards the clock and made a mental note of the time, an hour and forty five minutes until the next meeting. I had faith that I'd sober up before then, but my body had other plans.

I stumbled towards the window and opened it as widely as I could. Even with the air conditioner on, the room still felt hot and crowded.

The battle waged on within me. I paced the room, and stopped from time to time to splash water on my face, a fruitless attempt to keep sleep away from my eyes.

I settled beside Sylvia after twenty whole minutes of battling my heavy eyelids and the influence of alcohol. I spent the next five minutes watching her sleep when a sudden wave of dizziness overwhelmed me, and I collapsed beside her on the unmade bed. The softness enveloped me like a warm embrace, and I felt myself slowly slipping away from reality. I fought against it, my eyelids fluttering as I desperately tried to stay conscious, but nothing seemed to work, and soon I was fast asleep.

*

*

I woke to the loud ringing of my phone, but still ignored the call. I groaned, my head pounding loudly as I struggled to get my vision back to normal. The phone, now silent, lay beside me, and I slowly picked it up to see several missed calls from Antonio. It only took me a second after seeing his call to realize that I had overslept and missed the meeting. My heart sank, and an overwhelming sense of regret and disappointment flooded my veins.

I turned around and saw Sylvia still fast asleep, completely oblivious of the situation we were in at the moment. With a sigh of disappointment, I dialed Antonio's number just for the sake of respect.

"What is the problem Antonio?" I asked as I rubbed my eyes to rid them of sleep completely. I knew exactly what the problem was, but there was no guarantee he had actually called because of the meeting.

"They called off the deal, it was given to Woods Industries instead." Antonio answered, his words short and direct.

"It's fine Antonio, don't bother yourself with it. Inform your secretary, we're leaving for London tonight." I informed him before ending the call and tossing the phone aside. Woods Industries was one of the biggest companies around, and had been one of the contenders for this business deal. Even though I had high hopes that we might have begged it, there was no guarantee we would have gotten it even after spending a whole week inside a conference room.

Weakly, I stood from the bed and walked straight into the bathroom to clean myself and air my head a little. This was definitely my fault, and while a part of me wanted to blame Sylvie for it, I soon realized that we had no commitment whatsoever to each other. If I wanted her to not go around sleeping with other men then I have to open up to her and let her know I was interested in her. Of course there were chances that she might reject me, but I had my hopes up.

I got out of the bedroom and met Sylvia sitted upright on the table. She had her face buried in her hands, and I could tell her head was probably pounding relentlessly.

"W..What happened?" She asked with a stammer as I approached the bed, my towel wrapped tightly around my waist, and my hair still dripping wet.

"We got drunk and lost the deal." I briefed and watched as her mouth dropped in shock.

Reflexively, she threw her hands over her open lips and lowered her head in an apologetic gesture. "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to cause you this much trouble."

"Can you stop apologizing for everything?" I teased with a chuckle as I reached for her face. Caressing her cheeks softly, I lifted her face so she could look into my eyes. I took a light inhale before finally confessing the words I'd been holding in for a while now. "I want you to be mine, Sylvia Mulberry."