Linger

Power Off

In the middle of the night, Kalea woke up because her throat felt dry and hoarse. When his eyes opened, the room was dark. Sleep lights that are supposed to be automatically turned on do not seem to work. But more than that, what makes Kalea's forehead wrinkled is the absence of Gavin's figure on the mattress.

Where did that guy go?

Kalea's curiosity about the existence of Gavin is actually no greater than the dry feeling in the throat that is increasingly becoming. In a slow motion, Kalea got out of bed.

As soon as the door opened, Kalea was a little surprised to find the whole room in complete darkness. This means that not the sleeping lights in the room are damaged, but all the electricity in the house is out. Her thought. Because it was while in the room Kalea only pay attention to the lights that went out without having time to check whether the air conditioning unit in the room was also dead or not.

Very carefully, Kalea walked towards the stairs. As her little legs began to climb one by one the steps, her hands also moved to touch the wall next to her, using it as a pedestal to walk in the darkness.

When Kalea reached the last step of the stairs, a faint sound of Gavin was heard. Since no other voice could be heard, Kalea was convinced that the man was talking to someone over the phone.

Kalea walked slowly, slumping towards the kitchen following the direction of Gavin's voice. There, in front of the cooling lemar, Gavin stood his back. Sure enough, the man was calling. Kalea could not hear clearly what Gavin was talking about, but from his movements, the conversation seemed to be quite serious.

Shortly after, when Gavin turns around and finds himself on the threshold of the kitchen and living room, Gavin looks panicked. The man seemed to have hurriedly hung up the phone so as to raise a question inside Kalea's head. Who's Gavin calling? Why did the phone suddenly close and Gavin looked so panicked?

"Why wake up, Kal? What do you need?" gavin asked as he walked over to Kalea.

"I'm thirsty, I want to drink." Kalea answered honestly. Although still unable to get rid of the question in the head, Kalea still complied as Gavin led her to sit on one of the dining table chairs.

Gavin walked towards the refrigerator, took a bottle of mineral water and thrust it at Kalea after opening the lid.

"Thank you." Kalea said then sipped the mineral water up to half a toilet.

"Electricity's dead, huh?" ask after putting a bottle of mineral water on the table.

"Yes, I went down to check the power meter that was down or there was a blackout."

Kalea. For a moment, he was daydreaming. Busy thinking back to Gavin and the person who was talking to the man on the phone earlier. Until finally, Kalea looked up as she felt Gavin's soft hand touch her cheek. The man is now sitting on the dining table, with one leg still on the floor as a pedestal.

"Hot, huh? You're a prick." Undisgusted at all, Gavin rubbed the dripping sweat-like veins down Kalea's temple using his palms. Kalea herself was not even aware that she was sweating.

"Gavin's."

"Hmm?"

"Who did you call?"

The movement of Gavin's hand wiping away Kalea's sweat suddenly stopped, making Kalea even more suspicious.

"Gavin?" kalea. In the midst of darkness, Kalea tried to stare fixedly at Gavin's eyes to find the answer to his own question. But nil, it is too difficult to read the dark bead that resembles the deepest trough in an ocean.

Gavin's hand slowly moved away from Kalea's face. The man sighed softly before saying, "Friends." Which certainly could not fulfill the curiosity of Kalea.

Though dissatisfied with Gavin's answer, Kalea decided not to press further. Because it was also useless he demanded Gavin to tell a story, because the man would not have said anything if not of his own volition.

Finally, after gulping down the remaining mineral water in the bottle until it was completely washed out, Kalea got up from her seat. Throwing the old bottle of mineral water into the trash can near the stove then began to walk up the stairs, leaving Gavin still out of place.

At first Kalea was about to let Gavin stay behind, but then one part of her head seemed to shout telling her not to be childish. And so, when her feet reached the first rung, Kalea turned her back.

After taking a breath and exhaling it slowly, Kalea called out to Gavin with a voice made as calm as possible.

"Let's go to sleep again."

It didn't take long for Gavin to jump down from the table. The man hurriedly walked up to him and then grabbed his arm tightly.

"Come on." Gavin. They also walked to the room.

...****************...

It had been more than half an hour for Kalea to lie down, yet her eyes still could not be closed. Sweat was pouring out of his temple. Even the sweat had managed to wet the pillow and mattress. Kalea was soaked, like she had just finished a shower.

Beside him, Gavin also felt the same way. But the man looked calmer and did not comment much. Then, when their gazes accidentally meet and Gavin finds Kalea's already soaked body, Gavin suddenly rises from his sleep.

Slowly Kalea sat herself down, leaning on the headboard of the mattress while watching what Gavin would do next.

"The fans use paper, yes." Gavin said after getting back on the bed. The man deftly moved the pile of HVS paper in his hand, fanning it in front of Kalea's face so that the cool breeze blew in and slightly lessened the rage Kalea had felt since.

"No, Gavin. You'll be a pegel." Kalea was about to snatch the HVS paper from Gavin's hand, but the man quickly held back his hand.

"So, just shut up." Gavin said as he continued to fan Kalea. "Try to sleep again." His command while pulling Kalea's arm slowly, led her to lie down again.

Although reluctant, Kalea complied because she was too lazy to argue with Gavin. He lay on his side tilted toward Gavin, watching how the man so painstakingly faked him while occasionally wiping away the sweat that soaked his face.

"You have a lot of sweat. Is it usually like this? Or because you're not feeling well anymore?" ask Gavin. There was panic tucked away from her tone that Kalea managed to capture.

"Normally not this much. I think it's because I'm about to go in on my red date."

"It's not comfortable, is it?" Now, Gavin switched to wiping the sweat that flowed into the neck of Kalea. Making Kalea shudder because the curve of her neck is one of the sensitive areas. Kalea desperately refrained from shaking Gavin's hand when the man did not pull his hand from there.

"You want to move to the next room? Later we open the window a little so that the wind from outside can enter from the crevices of the trellis." Gavin bargained. Kalea breathed a sigh of relief as Gavin finally stopped rubbing her neck.

"No need. I'm okay, really. There's a lot of sweat, but I don't really feel that hot."

"Seriously?"

Kalea nodded steadily. "You can stop fanning me. Here, sleep." Continue while patting the pillow next to him.

"It's okay, I can really fan you all night."

"I don't want to, Gavin." Kalea Sela. His hand moved quickly snatched the HVS paper from Gavin's hand and placed it on the nightstand. He then pulled Gavin's arm, making the man lie down next to him.

"Sleep." His order.

Instead of complying, Gavin stared at Kalea. It made the owner palpitate and a red tinge slowly emerged from the side of his cheek.

"So I actually called a friend." Suddenly Gavin said.

Kalea did not say anything, waiting until Gavin continued his words.

"I asked my friend to tell me about the package that was sent to our house this morning." While saying that, Gavin removed the strands of hair covering Kalea's cheeks. He wanted to see more clearly the beautiful red tinge on the woman's cheek.

"But you panicked and instantly matain phone as squirm me."

"I'm not panicking. Just surprised that you suddenly appeared behind me." Sela Gavin's. "I thought you were a ghost." The following ended the mild ruckus that immediately made Kalea pout.

"Kinkedoooooo."

"Akhich!" Kalea clapped Gavin's hand which pinched her cheek. "It hurts!" he complained, but Gavin just chuckled.

"You're funny when you're pouting. So don't pout, let me not be anxious."

"It's called violence!" Kalea rubbed her cheeks that were slightly hot.

"So sorry. As an apology, I'll give you the antidote so that your cheeks don't hurt."

"Ap-"

Kalea's sentence was never finished because Gavin suddenly landed a kiss on her cheek. Making his whole body freeze and time seemed to stop spinning right then and there. Not only time, Kalea also felt her heartbeat stop and oxygen no longer flow to the lungs because somehow her nose refused to take a breath.

Papaaa! Kalea's cheeks are kissed by Gavin! How's this?! he shouted in his heart even though he knew, even if the sentence was actually spoken out loud, still no one would be able to defend him. After all, which wife would scream when her cheeks were kissed by her own husband? There aren't. And Kalea doesn't want to be first. It was too strange and absurd.

So, as Gavin chuckled with such a satisfied facial expression, all Kalea could do was pull the blanket over her entire face. It would be foolish for him to end up as Kalea boiled because he was desperate to sleep in a thick blanket when the electricity was out and the cooling of the room was not working. Clearly, Kalea wanted to hide her blushing face from Gavin. For God's sake! Kalea shy!