Chapter Text
Mon is exhausted.
She has been driving all day long, trying to get to the beach house she rented before dark. Yuki, her best friend and agent, had been the one suggesting that Mon rents a house someplace inspiring and far from any distration. She said it would help her focus on finishing her book sequel that readers had been waiting for, for the last 3 years.
Mon had agreed and the following day, she booked this goergous beach house in Phuket for the whole month of june. Thanks to her first novel "The House Of Fire" that became a New York Times best seller, she had plenty of money to spend on some work related vacation.
The only issue here, is that it's a 10 hours long drive away from Bangkok and Mon hates driving with a passion. She's pretty new to the whole concept, as she has just gotten her license this past year after wanting to experience the freedom of owning her own car for a while now. Dont get her wrong, her pink convertible Volkswagen Beetle is a beauty, but driving it for more then 30 minutes makes her neck cramp up and makes her act like a cranky toddler.
Mon lets out a sigh of relief has she turns into a long driveway leading to a gated propriety. She enters the code given by the renter into the keypad and stares in awe as the big metal doors open to reveal the beach house in question.
Although the sun had already set, the white house is illuminated by a ton of fairy lights that makes the whole place looks dreamy. The huge windows, the massive pool and the tall fruit trees scattered arround the propriety makes Mon giddy about the month to come. If she stretches her neck, she can just about see the ocean peaking right behind the beach house, illuminated by the moonlight.
Mon gets out of her car stretching and wincing. She's almost convinced, her butt has flaten into a sad looking pancake and her posture ressemble one of an 80 years old grandma. Flatening her creased summer dress and fixing her wavy short hair, Mon smiles.
The excitment of being near the ocean compensated for the pain her body was in after the drive here. With a pep in her step, Mon went to open her trunk and grab her pink suitcase and matching duffle bag.
The house interior is just as charming as the exterior. All white furniture with wood accent here and there.The living room looks so cozy with a massive 'L' shaped light grey couch and an impressive amount of throw blankets and pillows. It looks so comfy that Mon is tempted to just try it out right now and explore the rest of the house later. With a sigh she decides agaisnt it and continues her exploration into the nicely decorated house. It would surely be the perfect cocoon to write Mon's next best sellers in. Or at least Mon sure hoped so or her publisher and agent would both shed pained tears.
Mon sniffs the air as she takes her shoes and jacket off. Mmm. It smells so nice. Like fresh linen and the beach. After taking another look arround the big open area that was the living room and kitchen combined, Mon notices a candle light up at the center of the big wooden dinning table. Right next to the candle stood an open bottle of wine.
Mon frowns at the cork lying on the table. Maybe the renter loved to welcome people with an already open bottle of wine, who knows.
With heavy eyelid Mon decides she'll explore the propriety a little better tomorrow. All she really wants right now is a nice bath and a good night of sleep. She all but drags her luggage up the stairs and pats along the hallway opening the first door on her right in hope that it would be a bedroom of some sort.
What she does not expect when she flicks the light open is to find a woman lying down in the huge bath tub in the middle of the room. The girl is wearing a green face mask and looks in the process of drinking a sip of wine. There is a mountain of white foamy bubbles covering every inch of water. The woman with big almond eyes and a pouty mouth stares at Mon with a shocked expression that most likely ressembled the one Mon is arboring.
Is Mon's exhaustion making her hallucinate an attractive woman in a bathtub? Because if so, Mon is gonna take that as a sigh to skip her bath and go straight to bed.
"Who are you?" Mon asks after the iniatial shock of coming face to face with a very underdress woman in a house that should have been empty in the first place.
"What do you mean who am I? Who are YOU?" The woman asks grabing a bottle of shampoo and holding it up as a weapon. Mon backs up into the wide sink holding her empty hands up. Not trying to give the poor green faced girl a heartattack.
"I'm Mon"
"Well Mon you should leave right now or I'm calling the cops."
"Hum...Go ahead call the cops. Im pretty sure you are the one tresspasing here" Mon crosses her arms at the threat. Who did that girl think she was?
"What?!" The girl all of a sudden gets up from the bubble bath with her wine glass still in hand, unbothered by her clear lack of clothings.
Mon yelps and has the decency to cover her eyes before she can actually register the scene if front of her.
"This has been my family's beach house for more than 80 years so unless you've been hired as a maid or gardener I think you should get your... pink crap and leave." The woman now wrapped up in a fluffy white towel stands tall in front of Mon. She isn't actually much taller than Mon but she stands with such a confident stance that it makes Mon feel tiny.
Mon frowns at that information. Did she just walk into the wrong house? Oh god how freaking dumb could she be to just walk into someone's bathroom while they're taking a bath and then accuse them of trespassing. On the other hand, she wrote the adress in google map and the code she was given, opened the gates so there is no way she's at the wrong house right now. The girl raises a pointed eyebrow at Mon.
Of course Mon's body decides now is a great moment to start blushing furiously under the scrutanizing stare of the stranger.
"Okay well this is awkward." Mon blinks up, anxiously playing with her necklace. "In my defense I'm positive I rented this place for the whole month of june." Mon grabs her phone from her suitcase front pocket trying to find the confirmation email she received a few weeks ago. The woman staring at her makes Mon's finger froget how to properly use her cellphone and after an awkwardly long minute, she finally pulls up the receipt. " Ah! There! See? This is the adress and the pictures in the add are identical to your house"
The woman grabs Mon's phone without asking and stares at the screen with a frown. Without any warnings the woman let's out a loud "you've got to be kidding me" and walks past Mon, down the stairs and heading into the kitchen.
Mon stares quietly at the wet foot print the girl just left realizing her fun gateaway may not turn out so fun in the end.
"Huh... miss? I'm not sure what is happening and I'd really love to get my phone back" Mon says as she decides to follow the girl dowstairs.
Sadly the woman did not hear her complaint as she is now barking away at her phone.
"NUENG! I can't believe you right now... you're renting the beach house?... Yes I'm there!... The girl walked into the damn bathroom as I was taking a bath... quit laughing... Well I was not aware I needed to let you know when i'd be using the beach house or that my sister was so money obsessed that she turned the house into a fucking AirBnB" The woman turns arround and catches Mon's eyes on her. The deadly stare she sends back is enough to make Mon look away.
She stands awkwardly in the middle of the living room for a good 5 minutes wondering why on earth did she follow her friend's advice. If she hadn't she'd be lying in bed right now, watching netflix with Singha on her lap.
"Well good news, you are at the right house" The woman says coming back in front of Mon, holding out Mon's phone with a a blank stare. "bad news is you have to leave" Mon's mouth hanga open in shock. This could not be happening.
"Woah woah woah... I'm not leaving I paid big money to get this place and I drove all the way from Bangkok" The stranger looks annoyed, rolling her eyes slowly at Mon.
"While that's unfortunate and I do agree my sister is incredibly dumb for renting the house without letting me know, I'm not about to say goodbye to my perfect summer plans or to let a complete stranger live with me for a month"
"What am I suppose to do then? "
"Maybe rent another house? Go back home? Whatever you do I don't really care as long as you get out of my hair" The stranger informs Mon with a detactched shrug.
"I'm gonna preface this by saying I'm really tired right now and I just drove 10 hours with only 2 small snack breaks. FYI, I dont even enjoy driving. My neck is now killing me and my ass is basically no longer existing after sitting down for that long. I was really looking forward to just taking a nice warm bath and going to bed and now I'm this close to loosing my sanity" Mon says holding her thumbs and index fingers an hair width apart. " which is not like me at all, I'm usually a very happy go lucky person, some people would even say I'm little miss sunshine but I swear If you make me drive out of here at- " Mon stares down at her watch and groans out loud "freaking 10 pm I'm gonna start crying" Mon finishes her speech with her head held high and her chin trembling a little for good measures.
If this girl was gonna make her get out she'd at least put up a fight. The woman groans loudly holding her forehead and pacing arround the room with a grimace. If Mon wasn't so grumpy right now she'd probably laugh at the fact that she is arguying with a complete stranger wearing nothing but a towel and a green face mask with foam still bubbling arround her collarbone.
"Fine. No need to be so childish Mon girl. But if you're gonna sleep here tonight I need your personnal information. I'm not trying to get myself killed by letting a complete stranger in my house." Mon breaths out a sigh of relief " Ugh, you know what forget it" the girl decides with a tired sigh, looking Mon up and down " you look weak and small I should be able to overtake you in a fight" Mon stares indignatly at the girl. Not that her statement was wrong but it surely was rude.
"You get the downstairs bedroom so please get your awefully bright suitcase out of my bathroom, it's ruining the aesthetic and also don't unpack any of your belongings either. I just don't feel like making someone cry tonight but tomorrow is another story" Mon pouts. It wasn't promising but at least she'd have a place to stay for the night.
"Oh also there's no towel in the downstairs bathroom so hopefully you have some"
"I'll just grab some here" Mon says walking back up the stairs and into the bathroom, opening a few cabinets before she finds the one containing the towels. Long black manicured fingers covers Mon's left hand stopping her in her mouvement.
"Im not sharing my towels"
"Really? And you're calling me childish! With the amount of money I spent for one single night here, I'm getting those damn towels and I might just leave with them" Mon pulls on the fabric and walks over to her suitcase and dufflebag. The woman sighs loudly at Mon who's now awkwardly fumbling with all her luggage as she is trying to get out of the door. Of course she as to drop her phone halfway out of the door. Life could not let her make a grand exit.Turning arround she notices the crossed armed girl, leaning agaisnt the sink, unabashedly checking her out as Mon picks up her phone.
"Did you just stare at my butt?" Mon asks expecting the girl to lie or to at least to look sheepish. The girl shrugs unfazed.
" I mean... I never saw your butt before the 10 hours drive here, but it doesn't look that flat" She says with a cocky shrug and an eyebrow raised.
Mon stares in shock. She is most likely blushing bright pink at the attention her butt is getting. She's unsure if she should feel offended that the girl had to add 'that' to her sentence or if she should feel relieved her ass is still looking like one.
"Well thank you... I guess. Oh and just so you know, you look a little green maybe you should go lay down for a bit, it really doesn't suit you're whole aesthetic" Mon adds and smile victoriously as the girl frowns and stares at the mirror in horror. She had probably forgotten she even had a mask on.
With an awkward little wave, Mon turns back arround and drags her stuff back downstairs. Why is she feeling so hot all of a sudden. Hugh sometimes Mon would love to control her body reaction a little better in situation including a smug cocky woman.
If she drops half of her stuff on the way to her room and feels on the verge of a break down she doesn't mention it. With one final frustrated groan she gets the bedroom door opened and let herself fall on the white cloud that is the bed covered in white pillows.
Mmm finally a bed.
Now that she is laying down, the thought of getting up and taking a bath sounds less appealing. Instead she undresses into her underwear, brushes her teeth and gets herself under the soft silky covers.
Breathing in the fresh smell of her pillow case while she can hear the ocean wave slam onto the shore from the open window is a blissfull experience after the day she just had. If it wasn't for the nameless and infuriating girl upstairs, Mon would be feeling in heaven right now. She let's herself fall asleep without even bothering to close the window or text her friends and family about her safe arrival. Tomorrow was surely gonna be an interesting day and she was in no hurry the be awaken for it.