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“Sophie is fine, and so am I,” I replied. “When are you coming back?”
“In two weeks,” she replied, and I frowned.
“You’re in consistent contact with Sophie, aren’t you?” I asked. “Aren’t you two friends? Shouldn’t you know how she’s doing? How come you’re asking me?”
“Uh…” she seemed stumped, and I waited for her response. It soon came. “You’re asking too many questions, Lucien,” she said, and I shook my head because what else was I expecting?
“I’m going,” I said. “By the way, Sophie’s here with me. Do you want to say hi?”
“Uh…” A long silence followed. “Yikes, hi Sophie?” she said, and I truly wondered what this was about. They were much closer than this if I recall, especially because of that book-reading hobby that they both shared.
“Hi Elena,” Sophie greeted, and I couldn’t help sneaking a look at her beautiful face. Her features used to be much softer and rounder, but perhaps it was the change in hairstyle or the bolder her makeup looked, or perhaps every part of her changed since her breakup. She seemed sharper, more sophisticated, sexier… it was as though some magical dust had been sprayed over her, and just like that, she had become a different person.
Someone I couldn’t get out of my head and someone I realized now that I wanted to spend intimate time with. I could picture it, both of us alone in my kitchen, talking. There was so much she already knew about me, yet so little I knew of her that wasn’t concerning work or the credentials I needed to know to have offered her the job in the first place. She had been transferred. She was working for one of the sales managers, and then my assistant Lourdes needed to leave to attend to healthmatters of her daughter in Chicago, so Sophie had been sent up as a temp.
I remembered not being very impressed at first given how weak she’d looked, but a few months later I was comfortable with her. So many mistakes had been made; I had been impatient most of the time. But through it all, she’d taken it all in stride and adapted, and now she was damn near perfect. I just could have never imagined that perfection would extend to more aspects than I could have ever imagined.
“Well gotta go… you know relax on my vacation. Bye!” Elena hung up before either of us could even respond. I chucked because she was acting weird.
“How about…” I started as I neared the intersection of choice. It was either we went to a restaurant from here or I took her home with me. “How about I take you home?” I asked. “It's a purely platonic invitation, don't worry,” I said. “It's just that now that Elena mentioned my pasta, I'm craving it. And aren’t you the least bit curious to try it? She said it even beat the original.”
At this, I saw a beautiful smile spread across her face as she considered this.
“Your kitchen is the most gorgeous kitchen I think I have ever seen,” she said, and I nodded.
“That enough to convince you?”
“Yes, and the platonic promise, of course.” I smiled but didn’t respond to this because I had meant it. I wanted to get to know her a little bit better, and I was certain as a result that nowhere else would be better than the privacy of my home.
Chapter 48
Scarlett
The way life and my emotions fluctuated around him was insane. From being absolutely confused and certain that I was going to be saying goodbye to him forever, I was now somehow heading over to his home and about to cook dinner with him.
To say that I was excited would be an understatement. The nasty, nervous, and anxious feelings were still present though, but my excitement was more than enough to push them down just a little lower, and thus, I was well able to focus on the time ahead.
Soon, we arrived at his apartment, and although I had been here before, I just couldn’t get used to how grand it all was. I promised myself then as he led me into the gorgeous foyer that someday soon after I began my law practice, I would ensure to get myself an apartment just like this. Perhaps in this very building, if by the end of all of this, we didn’t fall out so badly that neither of us ever wanted anything to do with the other again.
“Make yourself at home,” he said as soon as we got in and then started to head up the stairs. I had no idea exactly what thisentailed, and so I stared around, hoping he would come back. When five minutes passed and he still hadn’t, I turned around then and headed over to the kitchen. The sight brought my mind back to Elena and how she almost exposed me the last time I was here.
Somewhere at the back of my mind, I was almost sure that she would tell her brother about us, so I had to say that I was quite surprised and almost impressed by the restraint that she had shown earlier. I know she didn’t mean any harm whatsoever. Since she had found out, she had no doubt been bursting at the seams trying to keep it in and not tell Lucien, and it just made me shake my head.
She hadn't even gotten back from her destinations yet, and her attention was already divided and for some reason much more interested in my drama. Also, I had no clue what oil pasta was, and so while I waited for Lucien to rejoin his abandoned guest in the kitchen, I pulled up the recipe online and began to peruse through. It was quite easy to make, I found, and so I began to search around his kitchen to ensure that we had everything that we needed.
I found the spring onions, and the peanut butter, but couldn’t find any peanuts, but that was okay. Then I found some meat as well, and everything that we needed. I was surprised to see it because from what I knew of him, he didn't eat at home much. This was not a question I could ask him because as his assistant, it was something I was supposed to know more than anyone else. And so before I made another huge blunder, I once again texted Sophie, and this time around, she replied.
Sophie: Hey, how’s it going?
I stared at her message and truly couldn’t help but shake my head. She was so unserious and had become lackadaisical, and it truly made me wonder if she even actually cared about her job anymore. So this was the first question I asked instead.
She called me immediately. “Why wouldn’t I care about my job?” she asked. “Do you know how much we spent in getting this wedding together?”
I furrowed my brows and lowered my voice just in case Lucien suddenly came down the stairs and overheard me. “What wedding?” I asked suspiciously. “Please don’t tell me it’s back on after two days of being locked in your apartment together.”
“We’re just talking,” she said, “and he hasn’t been here. He left this morning.”
“Hmm, hm,” I replied and heard her smile through the receiver.
