“Goodnight, Lucas.”
I watched her as she headed down the steps to the subway. I wanted to see her again in the worst way. I hated seeing her look so sad, but she was married. Marc was a jerk, but there was a child involved, and I was sure things were complicated, or else Sam would have left him. Starting anything with her, even a friendship, would be opening up Pandora’s Box.
When I got back to my apartment, I took Sam’s business card out to get her cell.
Me: It’s Lucas. Checking to make sure you got home OK.
Her train was probably underground, but I was worried about her on the subway alone so late at night. Twenty minutes later, I heard my phone buzz.
Sam: Thanks for checking. I’m home now. Hope to see you soon.
Me: Shake Shack, Friday, 1PM
Sam: OK. Sure. See you then!
All right, Pandora. Game on.
Three
Samantha
I didn’t expectmy reconnection with Lucas to go further than that one night. By the time I arrived home, we already had plans to see each other again. It had been almost two months since then, and we saw each other a couple of times a week and texted daily. Working in such close proximity, it was easy to run to Starbucks for a quick coffee break, or lunch when we weren’t too busy.
After all this time, Lucas was still sex on legs. His sandy brown hair was shorter than I remembered but still hung below his ears. He always had the perfect two-day beard growth that made him look downright delicious. I had to remind myself over and over again that we could never be more than friends.
Falling back into our old friendship was easy. Lucas gave me advice about work and listened to me complain about Marc. I shouldn’t have brought him up, but he was getting progressively worse, and I needed to vent to someone. Sometimes Marc didn’t come home at all. When he traipsed through the door the next morning, he claimed he’d been staying at a friend’s house so he wouldn’t have to hear me nag. I could tell Lucas was holding in all he really wanted to say by the way his jaw clenched or he shook his head. But like the good guy he always was, he just listened and tried to convince me that I wasn’t the problem. It was probably on the tip of his tongue to ask me how stupid I possibly was to stick around, but he was nice enough to keep it to himself.
“How could you not watchSons of Anarchy?” Lucas looked at me like I had three heads as he sipped his coffee. I got momentarily distracted as he brought the cup to his perfect lips.
“I usually just read when I put Bella in bed. Other than reality stuff, I don’t keep up with much TV.” I shrugged as Lucas narrowed his eyes at me.
“What kind of stuff do you read?Pleasedon’t tell me you like the same smut my cousin does.”
“It’s not all just smut. It’s romance. It’s a nice escape from real life—and don’t judge.” I stuck my tongue out at him, and he laughed.
“Sticking your tongue out? Guess you told me.” Lucas’s mouth turned up in a smirk. I crinkled my napkin into a ball and threw it at him.
“You should watch, Sam. It’s a perfect mix of sex and violence to keep the interest of both men and women. Hell, even I think Jax is a little dreamy.” He waggled his eyebrows and I let out a chuckle.
“Fine, I’ll watch next week and give it a try. Speaking of reading, I need to see if that guy is selling Kindle covers in the street today. Bella broke mine while she was pretending it was a butterfly and dropped it.”
“Hopefully, it was off, and she didn’t get to read anything. Not sure you want to explain that to the teacher. Didn’t you say she was the best reader in her class?”
I cringed, as that was the first thing that crossed my mind when I caught her playing with it. Not that she would know what she was repeating, but that was a meeting I never wanted to have.
“It was off, I think. I hope. Oh, God.” I put my face in my hands, and Lucas thought my discomfort was hysterical.
“I’m sure she didn’t see anything. Sorry to cut this short, but I have to get back. With Thanksgiving this week, I have to cram a week’s worth of work into three days.” Lucas got up, and as usual, held out his hand to help me up. It was a cute little gesture, and I couldn’t deny the jolt I felt when I put my hand in his.
“I’m sorry. You should have told me you were busy; we could have rescheduled.” We headed outside, and I realized we were still holding hands. When I looked down, Lucas let go of my hand.
“But then we wouldn’t have seen each other until Monday. I didn’t want to go that long. I’m too used to your face now.” Lucas gave me a wink and a smile.
I smiled and nodded back. I didn’t want to go that long, either. Lucas was always the best part of my day, even if I could never tell him.
“Well, Happy Thanksgiving!” I gave Lucas a kiss on his cheek, and he surprised me by wrapping his arm around my waist to pull me closer.
“Happy Thanksgiving to you, too.” He kissed my forehead. “But we’ll probably talk before, after, and during, right?”
