Love Bytes: Swap, Snoop, Swoon

Nathan

That night, sleep didn't happen. Not surprising. I hadn't been able to get that evening out of my head. The girl that had my phone, sat next to me- spoke to me, she must have recognised me? Maybe she wasn't the social type, and was hoping I would recognise her? Damn it.

I got up from my bed, barely, when my foot hit the ground, the rest of my body did as well. I couldn't work in this condition. I just about managed to haul myself up and grab the landline phone, dialing Sahrina's number and waiting for her to pick up. Eventually the ringing stopped and I was met with a groan. "Hello?"

"Hi Sahrina- I am not going to be able to make it to work today, I am incredibly ill. Apologies."

"Ok- Nathan. Can I ask, though. Did you have to make this call at 4am?"

"What? 4- Oh my goodness! I'm so sorry, I didn't even notice what time it was, I am so sorry!"

"That's ok- at least I have a couple of hours' notice."

"Sorry! I will let you get back to sleep. See you on Wednesday, hopefully."

"See you later, Nathan." She hung up the phone, I was in utter shock. I had not checked what time it was before making the call- I was such an idiot. And Sahrina must think so too. I knew I wasn't going to sleep any time soon, so I picked up the phone and sent a text to Carter, explaining the situation. He replied rather quickly, explaining that his son couldn't sleep either. He requested that he bring Cam down to me for a couple hours so he and his wife could get some sleep, to which I happily obliged, Cam was adorable and I needed something to do.

When Carter arrived at my door, he looked as though he hadn't slept in weeks. "You ok Carter?"

"I'm shattered Nathan. Absolutely shattered."

I looked down at the carrier in his hands, Camden was looking at me, babbling away. "Pass Cam here, are you in a suitable condition to drive? Stay for a bit, take a nap."

"Nah, don't want to be a bother, I will be off, thanks for taking Cam, see you in a bit."

"Drive safe!"

He got into his car and drove off, I walked back into my house and took Camden from his carrier. He squirmed in my arms, so I put him down. My living room was practically bare other than the sofas, rug and beanbag over in the far corner by my bookshelf. I liked to sit down comfortably and read every now and then. He crawled right over to the bean bag, trying to climb onto it, I let out a small laugh before placing him on top. He began to smile and laugh, before shouting "ta ta ta"

I assumed he was hungry, so I took him into the kitchen, holding him in one arm, I produced a bowl from the cupboard. I grabbed a sachet of porridge and some milk, mixing them together and putting the bowl in the microwave. I held Cam up so he could see the bowl spinning, he found it wildly amusing. When the microwave beeped to signify the porridge was finished, however, he jumped. I took it out of the microwave and took it and Cam into my living room , placing him on the sofa to spoon feed him.

When he had eaten all of the porridge, I left him to babble to himself while I quickly cleaned out the bowl, leaving it on the draining board. When I got back into the living room he was sat by the bookshelves, looking curiously at the ceiling-high selection. I just so happened to have a couple of children's books, given to me for a situation like this, so I went over to the shelf and picked up 'The Three Little Pigs'. Cam looked mesmerised that I had picked something up. "You want to read?"

He giggled, reaching his arms out toward me. I picked him up and we sat back on the sofa as I read the story to him. By the time we had reached the end, he was asleep in my arms; I decided it best that I stay put, and allow him to sleep. I lent gently over and received the book from the side table and began to read.