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“Oh, nice to meet you. I’m his aunt, Rachel. Well, I guess that will make me your aunt, too.”
She takes me into a big hug, and I immediately feel the warmth of her spirit.
“It’s nice to meet you. I’m sure my mother will be glad to know you’re here. Let me go get her.”
“Uh, actually, Simone. I really need to talk to you.” He turns to his relative and speaks. “Dad is up those stairs and outside if you want to go surprise him.”
He’s being very cryptic, but I follow along. She takes off for the rooftop, and he shuttles me into the kitchen.
“Okay, Lucas. What’s going on?”
“I don’t want to fight anymore. This animosity between us has gone too far. So tonight, my place, dinner. Just the two of us so we can clear the air. Nothing else, I promise. I want to do this before the wedding tomorrow. I want to do this before the sunrises in the morning.”
I start to say no, but it wouldn’t be fair to either of us. Plus, he’s right. Chances are we’ll be seeing a lot more of each other after five PMtomorrow afternoon.
“Okay. Text me your address.”
“Cool.” He takes out his phone and sends me his location.
I stare at it for a few minutes and realize it’s only fifteen minutes from me. “I didn’t realize you were so close,” I say when I put in his address to map.
“Yeah, well, I bought it for a great deal. Couldn’t pass up the chance.”
“Simone, I’m ready now. I met Charles’ sister, and she is such a delight. We invited her to dinner tonight. I hope that’s okay,” my mother speaks upon entering the room.
“Mom, Lucas and I have to close out some business, so I’m going to have dinner at his place and skip dining out with the parents tonight. Plus, we have to finalize things for tomorrow.”
“Makes sense. Well, come on, let’s go get our wigs split.”
I’ll never get used to my mom trying to use modern terminology.
Lucas grabs my hand as I try to walk away. “Tonight?” he says, looking at me intently with those piercing gray eyes of his.
“See you at seven.”
Lucas Weathers
Dinner’s done, wine is chilling, and I think I’m about to walk a hole into my oak hardwood floors, I think to myself. I’ve had women over here before, not that I’m a cad or anything of the sort, but the fact Simone is on her way up the elevator has me nervous. Tonight will be the defining moment of what will or will not become of us moving forward. I plan to lay it all on the line, after we clear the air. I thought I made my intentions clear, but since the staffing change at work on Monday and our blowup in front of everyone on Tuesday, I didn’t know what would happen. I knew nothing was going on between her and Edwards, I was in my feelings. I wasn’t happy about being offered the position over her, and when I tried to explain it, she didn’t give me the chance. So, I was like fine, fuck it. It was the wrong way to handle things.
A knock at the door breaks my inner thoughts, and I rush to answer, buying myself a few moments to relax before swinging the entrance open.
“Hey, Simone,” is all I can muster. She’s breathtaking. Her hair is styled for tomorrow’s event, but the spirals frame her beautiful face.
“Hi, Lucas.”
“Come in. Make yourself at home.” I step to the side, and she enters. The scent of her perfume is totally throwing me off my plan. “Would you like something to drink? I have wine or water if you’re not drinking.”
“Oh, no. I’m drinking. I just spent three hours at the hair salon with my mom and my aunts, who joined us shortly after we got there. They had me listening to things I wouldn’t tell my plants.”
She laughs, and my heart skips a beat and the sound. Even when she’s being mean, I still want her. In fact, I want her more.
“That bad, huh?” I comment, handing her a glass of Cabernet.
“Let me put it to you like this: If you thought I was embarrassed at dinner Wednesday night, you would’ve thought I died today.” She takes another sip and licks her lips in delight at the dark tones of the beverage.
I cautiously think about what her tongue and mouth do before pulling my thoughts back to reality. “Simone, I asked you here as sort of a truce.”
“Yeah, I’ve been thinking about that. Actually, I haven’t been able to sleep well because of it.”
