Cinderella for Hire

The first thing I experienced when I woke up was my head throbbing like crazy from drinking too much the night before and my nose hitting something hard. I dared myself to peek and saw Nick (who was having a bad case of the bed hair) looking nonchalant as ever. He was twirling a marker between his fingers.

"You didn't sleep here last night, did you?" I said, glaring at him. To my astonishment, his lips quirked in amusement.

"First of all, this is my bed."

Oh. Wait. I forgot about that.

Stupid April, stupid stupid stupid…

"Second of all, I was already asleep when you came into the room. I nearly had a heart attack, maybe it was because I thought a huge bottle of tequila waltzed into the room. But it was only you," he said with a dry smile. Nick started to get up from his position and capped the marker. "Then you crashed and snored all night. And literally kicked me out of bed. I had to sleep on the floor all night."

I slapped my palm to my forehead, feeling embarrassed. "Did I? I'm so sorry. You won't fire me, will you? I can still have meat can I?"

"I'll let it slide, it's not much of a formal arrangement anyway. Though, I'm pretty sure 'girlfriends' aren't supposed to kick their partners out of bed."

"Sorry…" I squeaked. "I'll make it up to you, I'll cook you dinner…or something!"

"Interesting as that sound, we have some tedious thing to attend to tonight," he said. "I'm going to work. Your things should arrive here before lunch. Don't set my home on fire."

I was pretty sure he told me that before.

He went into the bathroom with his amused expression. For someone who got kicked out of bed (ahem, literally) he was sure in a jolly good mood. I slid back under the covers because the sunlight streaming through the blinds was starting to make me want to kill the sun (that would be counter-productive, honestly) and slowly dozed off.

I was rudely woken up by the stream of never-ending bell sounds and realized that I was having my items delivered here. Nick had helped me signed the papers and chose the movers and everything. Sighing, I flung the covers of me and slipped on a fluffy robe, virtually dragging myself to the door in the process.

I buzzed them up and a moment later, a big redheaded man in his thirties was in front of Nick's...

…my…our apartment?

The man looked at this clipboard thing and said, "hello there Miss Bennett, we're..." before stopping to get a proper look at me.

"You're Miss Bennett, right…?"

"That's me," I said, smiling gaily. "So…my things…?"

For a moment, it was as if he was rooted to the ground, his shocked expression frozen.

Okay, I know I had a few too many drinks last night but honestly I didn't look that bad, right?

"There's…there's, um, something on your face," he said, scratching the back of his neck.

My brows furrowed. What did he mean?

"Y-you can put my things in the empty room to the right," I said, smiling stiffly as a couple of workers came down the hall with cardboard boxes and what-nots. They, too, had the same expression as the redheaded man in front of me.

I rushed into the bathroom and to my horror, saw my face was scribbled in black ink. Someone drew a black moustache and a monocle and…

I squinted at the mirror.

Was that a drawing of someone hiking up to my nostrils?