Love & Conditions (New York Billionaires Book 2)

11| Favor

┏━━━✦❘༻༺❘✦━━━┓

Favor

┗━━━✦❘༻༺❘✦━━━┛

Chapter 11: Favor (Jules's POV)

"Red?" 

I snapped out of my thoughts, my pencil slipped from my fingers where I spun it over my fingers while staring off into space and falling into the downward spiral of my thoughts. 

Despite Christian volunteering to be all ears for my problems, I told him nothing. It felt too strange and just the thought of getting close to Christian again put me on edge. I didn't want that. Christian, out of all people, was very different, it was always different with him in an inexplicable way. Everything was ruined a year ago and I wasn't going to take three steps back now after coming so far and finally moving on from him. 

Or at least trying to.

"Don't call me that, Mr. Lukov. Can I do anything for you?" I asked, straightening in my seat. 

He watched me for a moment from where he stood at the door. "I'll be staying back at the office tonight for some work. Office hours were over twenty minutes ago but you seem to be too busy to notice," he paused, something unrecognizable flickering across his eyes for a moment but it was gone just as fast as it was there. "In other words, Ms. Declan, you're free to leave for the day." Before I could respond, he turned and left, the door closing behind him with a quiet thud that echoed slightly in my office room. 

I glanced at the clock as I stood up and gathered my things, answering my ringing phone as I got on the elevator. "Yes, Dad?" 

"Honey, do you want to join us for dinner tonight? Do you think you can come over to the condo tonight?" 

"Um, actually, I'm leaving work just now. The condo is a bit far from my apartment and I have work tomorrow morning. Maybe tomorrow night?" 

My Dad waited before replying and in the meantime, I heard my Mom questioning in the background, "When is she bringing Christian?"

A soft sigh escaped me as I shifted my weight from one foot to the other, stepping out into the lobby once the elevator stopped. 

"You hear her asking, don't you?" Dad chuckled. 

"Yeah, I sure do," I mumbled out a response, starting to walk to my apartment while keeping my eye out for a cab driving by. 

"It's all right, Jules, I understand that you're both busy with work and your own lives. You just let him know that whenever he's free, he's more than welcome to join us for dinner one night, okay?" 

I cringed, reaching up to scratch my brow with my free hand. I didn't enjoy lying to my parents, obviously, but it felt like I had no other way out. If it wasn't for Alex's wedding, I might have even considered telling them the truth about my broken engagement, but the fact that they've already promoted this engagement and Christian to our entire family made me nervous and queasy. "Of course. I'll let him know, Dad. I need to get home now, so I'll talk to you tomorrow, all right?" 

"All right. Goodnight, Peach." 

"Night, Dad." Hanging up and tucking my phone into my purse, I stopped under a streetlamp as a cab drove down the road, stopping for me. I got on and told the driver my address. Throughout the drive, I couldn't help but overthink this mess of a situation I was in.