"You're actually upset right now? Look at everything the world has given you, Luke."
"And that's great, but I'd rather have you."
• the story before "count on me" by sircalyum • book 1
// smut included //
chapter twenty-seven: you don't feel the same way?
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WEDNESDAY EVENING. The last two days at work had been strange without the boys. Emma was out of the office on Tuesday to interview for an article which made for an extremely boring day at the office, and today was strictly a meeting day. I was in meetings from nine in the morning to four in the afternoon.
On an exciting note, one of the meetings was a personalized meeting for me to discuss my future with Celebration! and it had gone very well. We brainstormed a couple of ideas for different segments to have on our YouTube channel, and we even discussed hiring more people on talent contracts to expand our platform and gain a larger following. There were plenty of online networks that had platforms similar to what we were hoping for, but we wanted to bring something new to the table. At least, that was our goal.
I hadn't seen Luke since work on Monday—we had hoped to see each other Monday night, but I got dragged to a birthday party for Danny's niece at the last second. I had babysat her a couple of times and felt obligated to at least make an appearance.
We had hoped to try again yesterday, but the boys had an interview with a radio station in the afternoon and were asked to stay for a couple of hours.
We had finally demanded to see each other, so Luke was on his way over. He had agreed to help me cook a surprise dinner for Madalyn and Howie. It was their five year anniversary today—if you don't count the two month break they took after senior year to have fun for the summer. In reality, they were both just miserable during the whole break and fell in love all over again once we got to college.
I was leaving Luke in charge of cooking while I baked my signature homemade snickerdoodles. It was a well-known fact that I couldn't cook, but baking was an entirely different story.
There was a knock on the door at about five-thirty and I did the math in my head to set a mental timer of about two hours. Howie and Madalyn were supposed to be here at around seven-thirty. I rushed to the door and opened it swiftly. I smiled as I saw Luke and he smiled down at me.
"Hello, stranger," I said as I opened the door wider for him to come in. I closed the door once he had stepped inside.
"Hey, you," he replied as he flashed me another smile. We walked to the kitchen together and I started by showing him the recipe. "I'm getting paid for this, right?"
"Shut up," I said, bumping my side into his. The recipe was a mimic of what they had eaten on their first date. "Do you think you can handle that?"
"Do you dare question my skills?" Luke countered which caused me to laugh. I sent him an innocent shrug and he shook his head in amusement. "And what are you going to do during this? Look pretty?"
