Down With Love

Chapter 5

It had been a while since I last saw Luke Dalton. He wasn't the most social person. I usually met him twice a year. I have known Rachael's aunt for seven years now, but we, Luke and I have barely exchanged more than five sentences. Rach's other cousins though, I am so close to them. Elena and her younger brother Laksh were the most cordial pair when I first met her family.

The others were a little hard to charm, but I managed it.

Luke though, he's an entirely different story. He was the most private person I've ever known. And that's something coming from me. Usually I had these categories in which I would place men. But not Luke. No, he had a category all for himself. The guy has ego size of Jupiter. Looks at you like he's contemplating if you are worth his attention. The answer is, obviously, no. Nobody is worthy of his attention.

And despite all the above mentioned because of which I thought of him as a jerk, he has a side many people are unaware of. He's super religious. Always attends church and helps in functions. He is also very close to his family. He dropped out of Law school because his mum was struggling with work and household. He recently got out of a three year long relationship. I'll pretend I didn't dance the second I got off phone after Rach called me to inform about the breakup.

That was two months ago. And I'm yet to hear about any rebound but then again it's pretty hard to get him to notice you, let alone hold it. And to think Marianne broke it off, I don't even want to know what she was thinking. No matter how he treated people, Luke cherished Marianne. His family was certain she was the one, but then the breakup happened and no one mentioned of her since.

He tilted his head slightly returning Rach's greeting and then the ebony eyes flicked in my direction..

I exhaled the breathe I was holding. It has always been like this. He barely acknowledged me, but even that split second was so intense, that the thoughts troubled me for the rest of the day. It was his eyes. His beautiful ebony eyes. They sparkled, enticed me. I've never been a eye person but with him I couldn't take my eyes of his. Hence my scrambled thoughts.

His long midnight hair were held back by a clutch, which exposed his fabulous face structure. His oval face was shadowed with 5 o'clock. It was when his pouty lips twitched that I realised that I had been staring. Perks of being brown, you can't tell when we blush. I blinked as though I was spaced out which was true, I was spaced out in his beautiful beautiful face but he didn't need to know that. Honestly I was surprised he was still here.

He assessed me with those sexy eyes before he cocked his thick eyebrow. (I am convinced that he goes to parlour! There is no way anyone could possess such shapey brows)

I shook myself. Now was not the time to get blindsided by his beauty.

"Hastings I assume." His throaty voice pulled me out of my thoughts.

Oh, he so knew who I was. But he couldn't admit it. That would mean he paid attention to who I was and attention wasn't something he gave. It would so tarnish his reputation.

And what was it with men and surnames?

"Dalton I assume." I reply

His nose flared in amusement. Even his nose was perfect.

"Just Dalton." My lips twitched at his response.

I shrugged. It's not like we are gonna talk anyway.

I turned to Rach who was busy talking to Ritesh uncle, the community garderner. What was he doing here?

"Namaste beta. Aapke bare mein bahut suna h." (Greetings kid, Ive heard a lot about you.) He said to me.

I raised my eyebrows and returned the greeting. He went back to chatting with Rachael.

"Mum hasn't stopped talking bout you. I doubt anyone would forget your name." Luke said.

"You did." Crap, now he'll think that affects me so I added "But then age does that to people."

Laksh who was carrying a bowl of curry to the table choked on his breathe. I guess he wasn't used to guests talking to Luke like that. Who was I kidding? No one talked to Luke like that.

I looked back at Luke and blinked.

Was he..?

No.

No.

Luke was biting his knuckles. Oh. Oh

I made him want to smile but he was trying not to smile. Because smiling meant paying attention to what I said. And.. you guessed it. He didn't pay attention to random people.

I do an internal shimmy dance. I made him smile.

As if aware of my internal thought his slightly shook his head at me and turned around.

It was going to be a fun breakfast.

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Love,

MJ