“Okay,” I whispered, but I didn’t know if I believed it.
“Okay,” Luke repeated. “Yeah. Okay. From top to bottom again. There’s a better chance that Drixie ended up on a higher floor.”
“Okay,” I said again. “Thank you.”
He looked at me like there wasn’t anything he’d rather be doing.
I stammered on, “For helping me. I don’t know anyone who’d take the time to carry mattresses up twelve flights or search for a cat. Well, except for Glen, but she doesn’t really count.”
“That’s what friends do,” he replied. “Right?”
With a lump in my throat, I nodded.Friends.He had friendzoned himself for me.
“Still, thank you.”
Luke called the lift, and the signature hum of it descending broke the silence that had fallen between us. Luke was staring at the numbers above the lift slowly trickling lower as if content to give me the opportunity to uninterruptedly study him. While the silence was kind of comfortable, I still felt the urge to say something. Explain myself and the earlier dismissal of his invite to hang out. How would I even go about it? In the most awkward fashion... So obviously, I clamped my jaw shut and drank in Luke’s handsome face for as long as he’d let me.
The lift opened with a ding, and his face lit up, making my heart skip a beat. He was gorgeous when he smiled like that. Genuinely smiled. Gorgeous, kind, funny and patient like Glen had said. And he was interested in me a little, at least. Enough to tease and flirt. Enough to invite me over to see if it could go somewhere. Certainly enough to help me look for Drixie.
“There you are, you little trouble maker.” Luke’s voice took a higher tone, like he was talking to a child—or an animal.
I flipped my head to find Drixie, all smug, in the corner of the lift staring back at us.
“Oh, thank God, I was really starting to worry.” I rushed inside, and to Drixie’s annoyance picked her up, pressing my nose in her fur. She purred despite herself.
“Well, that’s that, then.” Luke joined us in the lift much slower and pressed both tenth and twelfth floor buttons before sliding his hands in his pockets and resuming his staring into space. It was accompanied by a quiet tapping of his foot.
As the floors flew by, somehow faster than ever before, nerves plagued my stomach. This wasn’t Glen’s plan. Nothing had gone according to her plan at all. I was supposed to end up in his flat, so I could get to know him better. I wanted to get to know him better! But now that we’d found Drixie, we’d be going our separate ways. He assumed my earlier ‘maybe next time’ was forever, and he wasn’t going to push it. He’d made it clear on several occasions that he didn’t want to make me uncomfortable, and I’d obviously been uncomfortable when he asked me out. If he wasn’t going to say anything, I would need to. Before it was too late.
With Drixie pressed to my chest and my eyes flicking from the dial to Luke and back, I couldn’t swipe at the sweat that I felt dripping down my forehead.
“Haylee.” Luke cleared his throat. “I’m glad you came to me. For help. I’m glad you came to me for help.”
“Me too,” I replied quietly, my heart in my throat. Time was running out. That was all we were going to say to each other.
The dinged sounded final when it pierced the space between us, and I squeezed my eyes shut. Breathe. Just breathe. But gasping for air did nothing to calm my nerves. Luke didn’t move for a beat, and the swirling in my gut intensified.
“Okay.” He met my eyes, rubbing his palms against his trousers as if they were as sweaty as mine. “Yeah, okay. I’ll see you around, Red Cheeks.”
He moved then, slowly stepping off the lift, hands fisted on his sides. Blood rushed to my cheeks as if to be worthy of the nickname, but he didn’t look back as the doors started closing.Shit.
“Luke,” I breathed, taking all my courage and unwrapping it in one long stammering gasp. “I would very much like to learn how to make proper pasta if you’re still willing to teach me.”
He turned around then, searching my face for something. What? I didn’t know. He seemed to have found it, though, because he slid his foot between the closing doors just before they could slide shut, purposefully trapping himself between them.
“You mean it?” he asked through the crack.
I squirmed under his intense stare. “I do. I really do.”
Next thing I knew, Luke’s fingers slipped into the space his foot had reserved, prying the doors open, and I rushed to press the ‘open doors’ button. Luke grinned victoriously when we won the battle with the lift.
“I would very much like that too, Hals,” he murmured.
