The Hummingbird

Delilah slowly made her way up the spiral staircase and hesitated at the top of the step. The loft hadn’t been lived in for a long time, and Delilah assumed it was probably because of Aunt Carol not being able to climb the stairs due to her age, so she’d had converted it into an attic.

Delilah searched for the light switch, hands roaming the attic walls, but came out with no change in the light level. She cursed under her breath as she stumbled in the darkness.

“Hey, why didn’t you flick the lights on before going up there?” She recognized Blake’s sarcastic voice before the lights were switched on. Delilah winced, eyes reacting to the sudden light and jerking backwards, into a tall pile of boxes that teetered before falling over her head. She turned slightly, looking upwards as she did so to see the boxes tipping over. She let out a small scream as she cringed, her hands moving to cover her face.

Thundering footsteps could be heard before Delilah felt something push her down towards ground. After hitting the wooden floorboards, hissing in pain as her tailbone connected, she looked up to see Blake holding himself over her, protecting her as the boxes collapsed onto him.

“Idiot,” he hissed, tensing in pain and giving Delilah a glare.

“I-I’m sorry,” she muttered, realizing the position they were in and blushing.

“Well well,” a voice drawled, “what’s going on here?”

Delilah and Blake turned their heads to see Vivian and Christian standing on the threshold of the attic. Vivian had her arms crossed, a wicked smile on her face. Christian was blushing, looking down at his feet rather than at the intimate position that Blake and Delilah were currently in.

“Nothing!” Delilah yelped, wiggling underneath Blake, trying to escape his hold.

“Don’t move like that,” Blake groaned, slowly moving off of her and giving her a hand up so that they could face Vivian and Christian.

“What happened? We heard a scream,” Christian frowned, looking at the mess of boxes littering the floor.

“We ran up here to see if you two were okay, but you two looked more than okay to me,” Vivian giggled, sending a wink to Delilah as Delilah blushed a brighter red.

“I-it’s not what it looks like! I walked into some boxes, and Blake saved me from getting hurt,” Delilah explained, eyes wide.

Blake just stared at Vivian, before coughing and looking away. Vivian snickered quietly as Blake’s cheeks tinged with a faint red, before he shook his head and moved to exit the loft.

“Christian, we need to get you interacting with girls more, or people are going to talk,” Vivian said matter-of-factly as she wrote notes describing the loft on Delilah’s papers.

Christian sputtered, his face red at the implications. “I interact with girls!”

Vivian sighed, “Lilah and I don’t count Christian. I mean interacting with romantic intentions.”

Delilah furrowed her eyebrows, “Am I missing an inside joke or something?”

Vivian turned to Delilah, a grin on her face as she explained. “Ladykiller over here is notorious for fumbling around girls. Took years for me to get him to talk to me.”

“I’m better now though,” Christian said proudly.

Vivian rolled her eyes, “Isabella smiled at you yesterday and you almost choked on water.”

“Almost? He had to be given mouth-to-mouth,” Blake added wryly, Christian’s face reddening again.

“I took one for the team,” Vivian smiled, getting up to look out the window.

The flowers in the Hummingbird garden were beautiful to look at, the different colours creating a bright contrast, and the perfumes of the flowers combining to make a heady aroma. Vivian exhaled, her stress from trying to organize the Hummingbird’s interior seeming to evaporate from gazing at the flowers. Her eyes wandered from flower to flower, until they were startled out of their rhythmic movement when they crossed over a human figure. A young man knelt in the middle of the garden, surrounded by the flowers and dirt, appearing to be pulling out weeds. Vivian’s eyebrows raised as she noticed he was shirtless, showing a chest that was tanned and muscled. Her lips quirked up in a small smile as she stared at the figure. His face was too far away for her to figure out who it was.

Delilah watched her friend eye up the guy in the garden, an idea coming to mind to pay her back for her teasing about Blake. Glancing at Christian and Blake, she slipped away, seeing that they were distracted. She made her way to one of the rooms, searching for something she had seen in a kid’s room and came back with her prize. She pumped the water gun, aiming for Vivian, and fired, hitting her in the head with the cold stream of water.

Vivian screamed, jumping away from the cold liquid hitting her head and running down her back. She jumped around, trying to shake away the sudden cold, when her eyes fixed on Delilah holding what appeared to be a water gun. “Explain,” she growled, her eyes glaring at Delilah.

“You looked a little thirsty Vi,” Delilah grinned darkly before opening the ranch-slider door up and walking out towards the stranger, pointing the water gun at the shirtless guy. “Why are you in my garden!” she yelled at the intruder.