If he’d just left without any show of affection, my sisters would’ve given me the third-degree as soon as the door closed behind him. Pulling this off was dependent on our ability to manage the details. Not acting like we were total strangers was definitely a major detail.
Luke backed up, still smiling a little.
I had to tell myself to take my hands off him before he noticed I was still holding on. Clearing my throat, I tried to play it cool. “So… I guess we’ll talk tomorrow before heading to your parents’ house, right?”
He gave a casual shrug. “Actually, I’ll probably be calling you later on tonight if that’s okay.”
When he didn’t offer any explanation as to why he’d be calling tonight, I didn’t know what to think. Up until now, all of our conversations and meetings had served a purpose; they were to organize our plan, but he didn’t mention anything like that now.
“Ok… cool,” I said back, trying to seem like I wasn’t over-analyzing his statement.
He wanted to call me. Just because.
Without another word, Luke was gone and my sisters were too within the hour once they realized I wasn’t about to give any more details about the new guy in my life. I straightened up the few things my mother hadn’t managed to take care of before she left and then retreated to my room. Matt would return the next day to gather the cameras and microphones he’d left behind, but for tonight, I was alone with my thoughts.
Luke called at around eleven while I polished my nails. It was too hard to hold the phone and paint at the same time, plus he couldn’t hear me well with it on speaker, so we ended up video chatting on our computers. I was actually more comfortable with that because it meant that Matt, the evil puppeteer behind the scenes, wasn’t hiding on the line, although he could’ve been listening from a dark corner of Luke’s bedroom. The image of him doing such a thing brought a smile to my face.
“Have you heard from anyone since dinner?” Luke asked.
I looked up from my toenails briefly to meet his gaze. “Nope. No one.”
He nodded. “You seem pretty okay with everything.”
“I am actually. It could’ve been a whole lot worse.”
He chuckled. “How so?” I looked up to find him leaning against his headboard, staring back at me, arms folded casually over his chest.
“Well, my ex who just got out of prison could’ve shown up and put you in the hospital like he did the last guy.”
Judging by Luke’s expression, he wasn’t sure whether to laugh or not.
“It was a joke. Calm down.”
Now he smiled.
“Had you scared, though, didn’t I?” I asked.
“Only that you might actually be that type of girl,” he replied.
I wrinkled my nose. “What type of girl?” When I switched to polish my other foot, I was careful not to flash my panties on camera.
“A drama magnet,” Luke clarified.
I smiled at that and didn’t even have to think of a comeback. “No, I’m just a ‘crazy, proposing stranger’ magnet.”
He laughed loudly and I didn’t realize until then that I liked the sound of it. Our eyes locked for a moment before I looked away.
“You wear glasses?” He asked out the blue.
I touched my face, forgetting I’d even put them on. “Only in the evening when I take my contacts out.” I streaked the brush over my nail before speaking again. “Why? I look nerdy?”
He chuckled again. “Not at all. You look smart. You’ve got a sexy teacher thing going on over there,” he explained.
My cheeks went hot. “Is that right.”
“Yeah… it is.”
There was a break in conversation and I thought of something to say, wanting to turn the spotlight away from myself. “So speaking of exes,” I piped. “Am I allowed to ask about your past?”
He sighed and shrugged casually. “I haven’t been involved with anyone lately, if that’s what you’re getting at. My last relationship was one of those ‘on again, off again’ type deals.”
I looked at him over the top of my glasses. “Oh.”
“What?”
I didn’t make eye contact again until I decided to share my thoughts. “The guy with commitment issues decides to marry a total stranger?” I glanced up for a second. “I’ll bet that’s why your brother wanted you to do this.”
Luke frowned. “I don’t have commitment issues. I simply said that I haven’t committed in a while. There’s a difference.”
“Hm.” It was the whole ‘on again, off again’ comment that had given me that impression, but I didn’t pry.
“And what were you saying about Matt? About him wanting me to do this?” he added curiously, tilting his head to the side when he did.
“Maybe he thinks this is the only way you’ll settle down with someone.”
Luke laughed. “Wow. Glad you sugarcoated that.” His reply dripped with sarcasm.
“My bad. Maybe I should’ve warned you; I don’t believe in sugarcoating anything. That’s nothing more than a delicate lie and I make it a point to always tell the truth.”
“Always?” he asked with a slick smile.
I nodded, realizing almost immediately when I looked into his eyes that he intended to take advantage of my honesty.
“Bra size?” Luke inquired playfully.
“I said I never lie. Never said that I over-share. Two totally different things.”
His smile grew and the sight of it gave me pause. He was… very easy on the eyes. Very…
“Then tell me about your last relationship. You been single a while?” he asked.
I sighed inwardly when I thought of Gerard and how things between us unraveled so quickly at the end. “How many words you want me to sum him up in?”
“Mmmm… make it ten.”
“That’s easy—selfish douchebag who lives in my building. Now he’s engaged.”
“Ohhhh and there it is.” Luke said the words as if he’d just had an epiphany.
I stared at him confused as he smiled. “What’re you talking about?”
“You just told on yourself, that’s all.”
I only continued to stare.
“That’s why you said yes!” he declared with a look on his face that I can only describe as triumphant.
I frowned, but a smile came through. “What? No. Gerard’s old news.”
Luke rolled his eyes. “Maybe, but you can’t lie and say that had nothing to do with you agreeing to marry me.”
“I already told you why I accepted.”
He shook his head, clearly not believing my excuse. “I know, the fortune cookie thing, but this guy getting married still has to play a part.”
I was quiet.
“Just go ahead and tell me I’m right.”
I shook my head at him gloating. “I may have been broken down easier seeing as how I’d just found out about said engagement the night you proposed.”
His expression led me to believe that what I’d just admitted only confirmed what he assumed to be the truth.
“But that still wasn’t my deciding factor,” I clarified. “It seriously was the other thing.”
When he saw my smile fade, his dimmed a bit, too. “What was so inspiring about that fortune cookie to make you agree to this?” he asked.
I looked at my grandmother’s box across the room on my dresser and just shook my head. He wouldn’t understand. “Another story for another night.” I smiled. “Shouldn’t you be getting to bed anyway?”
Luke yawned on cue. “Probably. I have to get up early for a meeting.”
“See? Sounds to me like you’ll have to make fun of me some other time.”
“Not making fun at all,” he clarified. “Just getting to know my future wife.”
There goes that smile of his again…
For some reason his statement made my heart flutter and I’m sure my cheeks were red too. “Quit flirting with me and go to bed, Mr. Valente.”
Luke nodded a
nd grinned when I busted him, and then turned off his lamp. I closed my bottle of nail polish and set it on the nightstand before turning my fan to finish drying my toes.
“I have an idea,” Luke blurted.
“What’s that?” I glanced over at him when I asked.
“We should leave our video chat on while we sleep.” When I looked at him curiously he flashed a smile my way. “It’ll be like we’re sleeping together without actually… you know… sleeping together. Its good practice,” he reasoned jokingly.
My hands tingled as I nodded to his request. “Okay.” The word came out breathily as I tried to ignore the giddy school-girl in me fighting to come out.
Being mindful not to mess up my polish, I set my laptop on the pillow beside me, stretched out on my bed carefully, and then reached to turn off my lamp while Luke got comfortable in his bed too. I placed my glasses on top of my box of tissue and then glanced at him one last time as I turned over on my side, closing my eyes.
Ten minutes must’ve passed.
“You sleep?” Luke whispered.
I laughed but didn’t open my eyes. “Not yet.”
“What’re you thinking about?” he asked, whispering again.
“Sleeping,” was my answer.
He laughed quietly. “When we do this next week, after the wedding,” he clarified. “… What will our arrangements be? Like… are we actually gonna live together? Here? There? What?”
I opened my eyes to find him propped up on his fist watching me when I answered. “Matt said we had to live together, but that we could work it out however we wanted to. I was thinking we’d do half and half. That way neither one of us would have to make any major changes.”
Even this man’s laugh is charming. The sound of it, smooth and deep, flowed through my laptop speakers before he spoke. “You mean major changes other than getting married, right?”
I smiled. “Well, yeah... there’s that, I guess.”
“I think that’s a good idea,” he stated before pausing, the corners of his mouth turning up once again. “What about our sleeping arrangements?”
He was laughing before I even got my answer out, but I was pretty sure he already knew where this was going—nowhere. I grinned and closed my eyes again, this time for good as I responded to his question.
“Luke… don’t push it.”
*****
When I awoke, my eyes went right to the computer screen and, dare I admit, I was searching for him. I stared into Luke’s brightly lit bedroom and only found an empty bed—already made up of course. I stretched and yawned.
“You up?” He asked, still not visible on the screen.
Hearing him speak, I perked up a bit. “Yeah,” I replied groggily, feeling myself frowning a bit. “Where are you? What’re you doing?”
“Just got out the shower,” he answered, and of course I had to stop myself from imagining him standing there in a towel… or maybe nothing. “And I’m trying to choose a tie.”
My eyes drifted toward the clock and I let the mental image leave me. “Choose the blue one,” I suggested randomly, smiling when I got Luke to laugh.
I sat up and reached for my glasses before resting my head back on the pillow. He heard the commotion and decided to comment. “What’s all that noise? You trying to fix yourself up before I see you?”
While I probably should’ve snuck and done that, I hadn’t. “Nope. What you see is what you get.”
I pictured his face in my head when he chuckled at my response. The laptop screen shifted a moment later as he sat down on his bed. He was just as handsome as the night before, still making me feel beside myself with excitement just at the sight of him, especially seeing as how he was shirtless this time. It was hard not to stare, but I hadn’t realized I was grinning a bit t00 until Luke called me out on it.
One corner of his mouth twitched upward and then he simply stared, leaving me to feel self-conscious under his gaze when he didn’t speak.
“What?” I asked.
Luke shook his head. “Nothing. I just like your smile.”
I rolled my eyes and laughed, hoping to play it off. “Here you go flirting again.”
“That’s not allowed?”
I shrugged and turned over onto my back. “I don’t know. I suppose it is. It just seems… I don’t know.”
“I’ll stop. I don’t want you to be uncomfortable. However, for the record, I wasn’t flirting. I was paying you a compliment.”
I turned my head away from the screen when a wave of heat flashed across my face.
“So how are you gonna handle it when we start staying together? I can’t promise I’ll never tell you you’re beautiful.” I turned to see him grinning. “Especially with the sexy teacher glasses at night,” he added.
Undone. That’s how he made me feel. I tried to hide it, but when that became impossible, I decided that ignoring him was the next best thing. Otherwise he’d find a way to entrap me with his words and his charm. I was sure of it. “All right, well, you go get dressed for work. I have to get up and moving, too.”
Luke shook his head at me, apparently catching on to my blatant avoidance. “Yeah, yeah, yeah… go do what you gotta do. I’ll call when I get off from work so we can figure out what the plan is for tonight. Matt said we’ll get the rest of his equipment from your place when we drop you back off tonight if that’s okay. He’s not using it at our parents’ house. They know he’s always filming so he can use his handheld camera. They won’t think anything of it.”
“Okay, that’s fine,” I yawned. “Have a good day. Be careful.”
I looked over when Luke chuckled. “God, you even sound like a wife,” he teased.
“Ha-ha, very funny. Since I sound like a wife, how about you go be a husband. Get to work and make us some money.” I smiled and then shut my computer on him to the sound of his laughter.
Chapter Six
Lissette
From what I hear, green’s my color so that’s what I went with—a green baby doll-style dress with a white belt around my waist; a gift from my mother on my last birthday. I’d just finished pinning my hair up when the buzzer sounded. It took Luke a minute or two to get up to my apartment, but when he knocked, I opened up and smiled harder than I intended to. It seemed like he got better looking every time I saw him—the way his dark features stood out against his tanned skin, the way the low stubble on his chin gave him an edge that made me swoon, his height, and he never missed a beat when it came to his attire. There’s just something about a well-dressed man.
Breathe, girl… Don’t let him know he’s inside your head.
“No puppeteer?” I asked, jokingly, referring to Matt. A long, steady breath escaped my lips as I stood there, pretending like Luke didn’t make my pulse race.
“Of course, but I managed to convince him that there wouldn’t be anything film-worthy between the car and your apartment door,” he replied smiling. “Ready?”
I gave a small nod and then turned off the lamp in the living room before following him out. While we stood waiting for the elevator, I could feel him checking me out, the heat from his stare raising my body temperature a few degrees.
Was my hair okay?
Was the dress okay?
I was fidgeting with my earring nervously when the elevator door opened, causing my heart to sink when it did. Standing there, all hugged up of course, was Gerard with his fiancé on their way down to the lobby, too. When he saw me, his eyes widened just a little and his grip on Robyn loosened. I stutter-stepped before finally climbing inside the elevator behind Luke.
“Hey,” Gerard said politely when he decided to greet me.
I gave a tight smile, responding with a general, “Hey,” aimed at both him and Robyn.
“How’ve you been?” Robyn asked.
“Good. Thanks.” I stood there another moment before my brain finally started working again and I remembered that I wasn’t alone. “Oh! And this is Luke!” I blurted, perhaps a bit awkwardly. It felt
like the words were stuck on my tongue when I added, “My fiancé.”
Surprised wasn’t even the word to describe the look on Gerard’s face. His jaw went slack and his eyes glazed over a bit at first. He pulled himself together quickly and then reached to shake Luke’s hand. “Wow… fiancé? Congratulations, man.”
“Thanks,” Luke responded graciously. Robyn smiled and congratulated us both as well.
Luke looked forward again, but said nothing more.
“Wow… fiancé,” Gerard repeated as he bugged his eyes. “That’s… that’s great!”
I nodded, but didn’t reply.
“I must’ve missed the ring when I saw you the other night,” he added. Slowly, before he’d notice my empty finger, I covered my left hand where an engagement ring should’ve been. Luke noticed and then looked forward again.
“When’s the big day?” Gerard asked.
“Next Thursday,” Luke interjected.
“Wow!” Gerard said once more. “Well… congratulations again. The four of us will have to get together over dinner sometime. My treat. Consider it a wedding gift,” he concluded just as the elevator door opened.
I was beyond grateful that we were free from the confined space. Luke and I waved at Gerard and Robyn as they walked away.
“So, that’s him, huh? The ex?” Luke deduced based on the awkwardness and the fact that I’d mentioned the night before that Gerard lived in my building.
I nodded and rolled my eyes. “Yup.”
“That must be awkward—him living here.”
I shrugged. “On occasion, but I deal with it. Won’t have to for much longer, though; he’s moving soon.”
“Well… do me a favor,” Luke chuckled, running his hand down the stubble on his chin. “Don’t tell Matt he missed something.”
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