New Man

Part 13: Love & Lust

     Your eyes stared intently at the clock and for some reason you could hear the loud ticking it produced even in the busy office space. You let out a deep sigh and tried to focus on the spreadsheet you were supposed to be making for this article. You were finally getting back to work after being away for nearly a month. It was a change and you were desperately trying to get on top of your things. Interviews had to be conducted and articles had to be made. It wasn't all that bad, working for a popular magazine company had its advantages. Your disadvantage at the moment was that you were stressed. It was just five minutes until you were able to leave and all you could focus on was yourself. Your eyes adverted to the top left hand corner of your computer screen to see you had received a new email. The cursor hovered over the tab and you clicked on it. It was a message from Scott:

Hey Beautiful,

I hope your day is going well. It's day three of hell week, but thinking about you and the baby keeps a smile on my face. Anyway, I have to get back to work so stay safe and I love you!

Scott xoxo

Scott was on a business trip for the week. You knew you should have felt as if you missed him, but honestly you were glad to be able to breath. Ever since Miami Scott had been extra clingy and it had started to annoy you. You stared at the message with a bored look and hesitated on hitting the reply button. You let out another sigh and then began to type out a response just to let him know you were doing alright and that the DNA results hadn't come back yet. Once you had hit the send button you looked at the clock with a smile and began to pack up your stuff. It wasn't like you didn't enjoy work because you did. Being a journalist was your dream job, but all day your mind had been on something else or more so someone else. After you had packed everything up and clocked out, you made a dash for the elevator. "Someone's in a rush!" your coworker, Talia, chuckled as she held the elevator door open for you. You laughed at her words and stepped inside the elevator before leaning up against the wall out of breath.

"I just have some errands to run," you told her, pulling out your car keys. You pulled out your phone and began to dial Luke. Raine was going to be staying with his parents for the weekend which allowed you to think about a lot of things. Luke had answered the phone on the first ring. Nowadays anytime you called he was usually on standby just in case something had happened. "Hey!" you chirped into the phone.

"Hey is everything okay?" Luke questioned. Your teeth sunk into your bottom lip at the sound of his voice and you had to stop yourself from blurting out what was on your mind.

"Yeah it is," you told him, "I was just calling to see how you were." Silence filled the line after that and you could tell Luke was probably taken aback at your words. You hadn't asked him this question in a long time.

"I'm good thanks for asking," Luke chuckled. You could hear snickering in the background and soon heard Luke tell someone to shut up. "What are you up to?" Luke asked, placing his attention back on you. You exited the elevator and began to make your way towards your car.

"I just got off work...hey do you want to have dinner tonight?" you asked him, one eye squinting after you had asked the question. Your heart began to slam hard against your chest as you waited for Luke to answer. You had been thinking about a lot lately and you for some reason you wanted to talk to Luke about it all.

"You want to have dinner? With me?" Luke mumbled out in confusion. He went quiet once again. "I don't have anything else going on tonight so sure," he responded. You could hear the smile in his voice which only made you smile.

"Okay good I'll see you later then. Dress casual," you lastly said, hanging up the phone and tossing it onto the passenger seat. You felt a buzz of excitement run down your spine and drove off to head home and to get ready for the night.