“Do you want me to take you home?”
I turned to stare at him as he faced forward. The glow of the instrument panel highlighted how wildly his jaw muscles ticked and how he tightened and flexed his hands on the steering wheel.
“What do you need, Luke?” I’d give it to him. If he needed space, as much as I hated the thought, I’d leave him alone. His parents just told him I was gutter trash under his shoe and to step on me but leave me in the street. I couldn’t imagine what was in his mind, but if he needed a moment to sort through that, then I would understand.
Well, I’d do my best to understand.
“I need you to tell me where you want to go,” he gritted out.
“Your place.”
He darted a glance at me, then nodded with his face forward again. He didn’t say if that was what he wanted or needed when I hoped he would, but it was what I needed. I needed to be alone with him. I needed to wash away the last few hours with something that was only him and only me.
I rested my chin on my knees and didn’t say a word as he turned north. The shadowy forest lining the road faded as city life grew thicker around us.
Cressmann loomed ahead, and we kept straight for the heart of it. I didn’t know where we were. I didn’t know this part of the city beyond the recognizable skyline. The streets Luke took us along were much quieter, but the tall buildings were still in view. Warehouses and businesses lined the roadway, but with one turn, it changed into something more residential.
He pulled into a below-ground parking structure. The low ceiling and rows of cars made it uncomfortably cramped compared to the night sky it replaced. When he stopped at anumbered space and turned the engine off, he didn’t move to get out.
“I might not be great company tonight.”
I dropped my feet and reluctantly reached for my heels. “Sounds like a challenge to me.”
He’d said I could make him laugh or smile when in the worst of moods. This might be a true test of that.
He didn’t, though, not even a twitch of his lips. He nodded as if he were too tired to do anything but give in.
Right. Challenge, it would be.
When he still didn’t move, I opened my door. “Come on. At least show me your toilet. I’ve had to piss for an hour.”
He didn’t laugh or smile.
I grabbed my bag, and he reached for our coats. The parking level wasn’t as cold as the night had been, but my thin shirt allowed the chill to dampen my desperate mood further.
Luke walked to an elevator. I followed. I wasn’t liking this attitude of his at all. Once inside the car, I thought about closing the distance, getting cozy under his shoulder, but he did that stranger thing where you stare at the changing numbers on the screen to not make eye contact.
Well, okay, then.
The elevator stopped on his floor, and we walked into a wide hallway with three doors. Artwork hung on a wall. Two doors had homey wreaths hanging off them. The one Luke stopped in front of did not.
I was about to see where he slept and ate, another piece to his life revealed. So far, it seemed like a nice apartment building, but a little impersonal.
Luke unlocked the door and held it open for me. The interior was dark. My heels clipped on a wooden floor. A dim light from somewhere ahead cast shadows.
“This way,” Luke said as he brushed past me, the door self-closing behind him.
I followed him deeper into his home. He didn’t turn on any lights as we went, then flipped the switch in a hallway with stairs leading up.
“Bathroom,” he said simply as he opened the door beside us.
I thanked him and rushed inside. There was only a sink and a toilet. Though I wanted a shower, I actually did need to pee. I took care of it quickly and washed my hands. When I came out, Luke had turned on a lamp in the living room and stood next to a wet bar.
“Drink?” he asked, back toward me.
“I’m nineteen.”
He slammed his glass down. “Fuck.”
