A perfect morning

Laila was ecstatic after her phone call with Maria and she was already feeling excited about the idea of visiting Maria, despite having seen her not too many days ago back in the other timeline. After saying her goodbye to her good friend and hanging up, she immediately started writing a message to Noah. Of course she would ask her real question in person, she wanted to know if he would be late today. If so, she would go and visit him at work if he had any time in between. Maybe even have a drink or dinner together at the office?

In high spirits she locked her phone after sending her message and went to the garden out back since it was another lovely day and she felt like basking in the sun for a bit. As she was walking down the halls, Laila remembered another exciting event that would be taking place today. She would be having her lunch with the employees today! Laila was feeling quite curious about how that would go and wondered if any of the people she spoke to yesterday, had reached out to the past employees of this mansion and if they would be joining them for lunch as well.

She really wanted to apologize and make amends but that was not all. Because, the more people that showed up and could ask around in their network, the more she could find out about Olivia, which would help during her planning session with Maria. With her having no memories of life in the current timeline, she was at a great disadvantage when it came to her under water battle with Olivia. Not knowing where the knives would be coming from was bad enough but not knowing what kind of knives would be attacking her, that was a difficulty level she didn't want to face without some strong ammo on her side.

With a book in her hand, Laila lay down on a deck chair. With a parasol protecting her from the strongest rays of sun, she read a few chapters, before taking a little catnap as many of us do on lazy days with weather as warm as this. The sun on her skin, her face hidden away in the shadow of the parasol and a little breeze to keep her from getting a heatstroke. Though it was quite early and not nearly hot enough to cause heatstroke in the first place, the soft gusts of wind did save Laila from feeling uncomfortably warm as she took in a bit of extra sleep. In her dreams Laila was thinking about all the fun she would be having in just a few short days. Without much care in the world to keep her awake, Laila's morning was shaping up to be a perfect morning.

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After almost an hour of dozing in and out of sleep Laila finally woke up by the sound of two cheerful women followed by a soft sounding "Shh, ma'am appears to be asleep.". In a whispered tone the two women, whom Laila assumed were Giselle and Gretchen, continued their conversation. Laila could overhear them saying,

"Should we wake her? Or continue to let her sleep?"

"We were planning on serving lunch in about fifteen minutes but she has appeared so tired lately and pregnancy is really affecting her. So, maybe a bit of extra rest will do her good."

"Yeah, you are right. She took a long nap yesterday as well when that witch was here. Maybe we should let the kitchen know that they should serve lunch a bit later until the ma'am wakes up on her own."

"But it is also almost one o'clock...We can't have her eating too late. She is a pregnant woman. She has to eat her meals regularly. What if she sleeps for too long? We don't know when she fell asleep and when she will wake up. Plus, can we eat if she doesn't? We did plan on having lunch together today remember?"

Laila had heard all that they had been saying and had been able to wake up slowly under the sound of their whispers. She felt like interrupting them plenty of times in order to stop their unnecessary worrying but she couldn't help herself wanting to listen to them a little longer. She found it so amusing in a way and was happy to hear how concerned these women were about her wellbeing.

Letting out a soft chuckle, Laila opened her eyes and revealed a cheeky smirk on her face as she said, "I am up. No worries. Your loving whispers were all I needed to be pulled back from the dream world. So, you can serve lunch whenever you guys are ready. I will take a few more minutes to fully wake up and I will head over to the dining room after that."

A bit flustered both women quickly apologized for waking Laila. "No, not at all. I am glad you woke me. If I sleep so much now, how will I be able to sleep properly tonight. It was just that the warm weather and the sun were making me a bit sluggish and causing me to fall into sleep."

With a light bow Gretchen and Giselle hurriedly left to finish the final preparations for lunch and thanked their lucky stars that their employer was the kind of person that she was.

When Laila was alone again, she stretched her arms as far as she could as she tried to rub the sleep out of her eyes. She let out a deep breath and grabbed her phone from the small table beside her chair to check if Noah had sent her a reply yet before she would join the others for lunch.