It’s Only Make Believe

Chapter 31

Chapter

Thirty-One

TIA

“ H e’s my friend,” I snap back at Luke when he asks me why I can’t see that Justin is toxic. He isn’t toxic, as I said, he’s my friend, and I really hate the way Luke is constantly judging him. Something obviously happened last night, and Justin obviously thinks Luke was involved somehow, and even if he wasn’t, that doesn’t mean Justin isn’t just genuinely mistaken.

“Oh, open your fucking eyes. He’s not your friend. He is hanging around hoping you decide to get back with him,” Luke shouts.

He doesn’t wait for an answer although I’m already shaking my head when Luke stands up. I really want to believe Luke had nothing to do with Justin’s injuries. I do believe him in fact. But it’s strange that Luke has just said exactly what Justin told me was the reason he beat him up.

Luke storms past me and heads for the door. He throws it open.

“Luke, wait …” I say, standing up, but he ignores me and leaves the office, and slams the door behind him leaving me standing there looking at the space where he stood only seconds ago.

I pushed him too far; I know I did. I should have been a better girlfriend and made it more clear to him that I believed him. As much as I do believe that Justin is my friend and only my friend, and for that reason, I want to defend him, given the choice, I would take Luke’s side over his, and I don’t think I showed that at all during that conversation.

What also convinces me that Luke is telling the truth is the fact that Louisa insists Justin is a creep. She didn’t like him when we were dating, and she didn’t like it when I decided to remain friends with him. When she found out he was in Chicago, she even said she thinks he only moved here because I did, and he wants to get back with me. Maybe there is some truth to it. Is it too much of a coincidence that the two people I am closest to both think the same thing about Justin? Am I somehow blind to his real motives?

I decide to give Luke a couple of hours to cool down or whatever it is he needs to do, and then I will come back this afternoon and apologize to him and make him see I do believe him, and I will stop seeing Justin if that’s what he wants. I won’t lose him over this. I can’t bear the thought of it. I just have to hope that Luke is willing to forgive me.

I get up and leave his office, swallowing back tears. Whatever happens, I am not about to burst into tears at my place of work. I draw the line at that.

I go down to the web development team’s working space, and I sit down and open up my laptop and go back to making the tweaks in the coding I’ve been working on. I force myself to concentrate only on my work and not let myself get distracted by any of my thoughts of Luke, and for the most part, I manage it, only looking up from my screen to greet Karl and the rest of the team as they come into work.

I’m making decent progress on my task, and I’m glad it’s something I have to really concentrate on and not have a chance to let my mind wander.

“Louisa,” Karl says, and I look up from my screen.

“Yeah,” I say.

Karl laughs.

“That’s like the third time I’ve called your name,” he says.

“Sorry,” I say.

“Don’t apologize for being engrossed in your work,” he says with a smile which I return.

I must have been deeper into my work than even I realized for him to have called me three times, but then again, it’s easy to tune out background noise and still hear your name, but of course Louisa isn’t my name. If he had said Tia, I probably would have acknowledged him the first time.

“Luke wants to see you,” Karl says.

“Ok,” I say. “Thanks. I’ll go along on my lunch break.”

Has he seen sense or is he going to tell me it’s over between us and my internship with it?

“He said it’s important and to tell you to go now,” Karl adds.

“Oh, umm, ok,” I say, and I lock my laptop screen and get up and head up to Luke’s office.

I guess he’s dumping me after all then because if he wasn’t surely, he could have waited until my break and not demanded to see me now. I reach Luke’s office door after smiling in at Mel, and I realize I’m once more on the verge of tears. I look up and blink them away and take a deep breath and then I knock on the door.

“Come in,” Luke shouts.

I open the door and go inside and shut it quickly. If I’m about to be yelled at and dumped and fired, I don’t need Mel to hear every word of it. I don’t know if she knows we’re together even, but I don’t want her to have a front row seat to us ending things. Luke hasn’t spoken yet and I go and sit down because my legs feel unsteady, and I don’t want to embarrass myself by falling down.

I reach his desk and sit down, and he still hasn’t spoken, although he has watched me walk towards him. I decide if he’s going to remain silent, I’ll get in first and apologize and hopefully change his mind about dumping me.

“I’m sorry,” I say. “I do believe you, Luke. Honestly, I do. I know I didn’t make that clear enough earlier, I realized that as soon as you left, but I promise you I do believe you.”

“I think you want to believe me. I think maybe you even half believe me. But that’s not enough Louisa,” Luke says.

“No, honestly, I swear I believe you and I will tell Justin we can no longer be friends,” I say.

I get up and go around to his side of the desk. I lean against it and look into Luke’s eyes.

“How can I make it up to you?” I say. “And show you I believe you.”

He looks back at me for a moment and then the corner of his lip curls up in a sexy smirk and he nods down into his lap and then raises an eyebrow. I know exactly what he wants, and I smile.

“What, here?” I say.

“Sure, why not? If anyone comes in, you’ll be hidden by the desk,” he says.

I grin at him.

“OK, but good luck acting normally, because I won’t be stopping,” I tease him.

I push off from the desk and get to my knees and Luke scoots his chair back. I get into the alcove beneath his desk, and he scoots his chair back in. I reach up and open his pants and I pull his cock out through the slit in his boxer shorts.

It’s already hard and I lean down and run my tongue over the tip of it, holding the base of it in one fist. Luke moans and pre- cum drizzles out of the tip of his cock and I open my lips and put the tip in between them. I suck on it, swallowing down his juices and then I bob my head forward and run my lips down his length, sucking all of the time I do it. I suck again on my way back up and I get into a rhythm of bobbing my head up and down while sucking Luke hard.

I can tell by the noises he’s making above me that he is getting close to his climax, and I smile around his cock when I hear someone knock on his office door.

“Stop,” he hisses, and I do, but I stay in place.

He shuffles, trying to get his pants fastened, but I’m still holding the base of his cock, and he gives up and just calls for the person to come in. The door opens and then closes, and I hear Mel’s voice.

“I thought I saw Louisa come in here,” she says.

“Yeah, she did, but she’s gone to the bathroom,” Luke says.

I let him get halfway through his sentence and then I run my tongue up and down his length and swirl it around the tip of his cock once more. I hear the slight change in his voice and it’s all I can do not to giggle as I suck him back into my mouth. I start sucking on him again, my head bobbing and my fist working in time with my mouth so that no part of his cock goes untouched.

“When she comes back, will you ask her to pop in to see me on her way out please,” Mel says.

“Yes,” Luke says. He bangs his fist on the table, and I picture Mel jumping. “Yes, I will.”

“Umm are you ok?” Mel says. “You look a bit flushed and you’re acting weird.”

I hear her start to move closer.

“I’m fine,” Luke almost shouts. I don’t give him any reprieve; the whole time he is talking to Mel I’m working his cock in my mouth. “Is that your phone ringing?”

“No, I don’t think so,” Mel says after a pause.

“Well, you best go and check,” Luke says. “And I will send Louisa along when she comes back.”

I hear the office door open and then close again and I still keep sucking Luke who moans loudly and comes in my mouth. I swallow down his seed and keep sucking, wanting to drink down every drop of his semen. I suck and swallow and suck and swallow until his cock softens and then I release him from my mouth.

Luke scoots his chair back, and I crawl out of the gap and stand up and then I perch on the desk beside him when he scoots back in. He looks at me with a grin and shakes his head.

“I can’t believe you did that,” he says.

“You seemed to be having such an enjoyable time. It seemed a shame to stop,” I say.

He shakes his head again but he’s laughing,

“I’m going to go out on a limb here and say Mel is probably suspicious about something happening between us at this point,” he says.

“Or she just thinks you’re absolutely mental,” I add.

“Or that,” Luke agrees.

“So, I’m forgiven then I take it?” I say.

“Of course,” Luke says.

I stand up.

“I’d better get back to work then,” I say.

“Wait, I haven’t actually showed you what I called you here to show you,” Luke says.

“Oh. I thought you called me here to dump me,” I say.

“To dump you? What? Why would you think that?” Luke says and he looks genuinely puzzled.

“I didn’t think I’d made it clear enough that I did believe you,” I say. “And I figured you didn’t want to be with someone who doubted your word.”

Luke thinks for moment and then he looks up at me.

“Admittedly, I did think you only half believed me, but I didn’t want to dump you. I could understand from your point of view why you were struggling because Justin is your friend,” Luke says. “I went to get proof to show you. I’m still going to show you it, but I’m glad that we had this conversation first, because now I know for sure you believed me fully before I show you this.”

“I don’t need to see it,” I say. “Really.”

“I know you don’t need to see proof to believe me now, but aren’t you curious about what really happened to Justin?” Luke says and I nod. I definitely am. He shows me a thumb drive. “This is CCTV from outside of the pub we went to. I went to talk to the owner. Don’t tell anyone you’ve seen this because really, he’s not supposed to give it out to anyone other than an officer of the law, but it’s funny what promises of secrecy and a nice little cash incentive can make people do.”

He puts the thumb drive into the side of his computer and clicks to play the file. He fiddles around until he finds out how to skip it forward, and he does this a few times.

“We’re due to come out at any moment,” he says.

I expect the images to be grainy, but they aren’t at all. The damned thing is practically in HD. The door to the pub opens and I tense up, but it’s a stranger. Seconds later, it opens again, and this time, Luke steps out. He looks both ways and then turns and starts to walk.

He reaches out and pauses the footage.

“I was going to call a cab, but I heard Justin coming behind me. He had already told me he was into you and all of that shit, that’s why I walked away, and I didn’t want to discuss it further and I figured I would walk at least so far home and flag down a cab and he would walk the other way and avoid any further confrontation,” Luke explains and then he hits play again and the images start moving once more.

Luke walks a few more steps and then the pub door opens again and Justin steps out. He looks a bit unsteady on his feet but there’s no bruising on his face. I wonder if he managed to fall and hurt himself, but that would be some epic fall to do that much damage to his face. I keep watching.

Justin stalks along behind Luke and then Luke turns around. There’s no audio, but I see his mouth moving and he’s pointing. Justin says something back and then he goes for Luke. Luke pushes him away before he can do any damage and then Luke turns around and walks away, leaving Justin leaning against the wall of the pub. Luke pauses the footage again.

“That’s the last I saw of him. I walked the next block or two and flagged down a cab and went home,” Luke says.

I look at the time on the display.

“That’s only about half an hour before Justin arrived at my place. Say fifteen minutes for the cab ride. What the hell happened in the next fifteen minutes?” I say.

“Maybe he went back inside and got himself into trouble,” Luke says.

“Let’s see,” I say.

Luke hits play again and for a moment, Justin just stands there and then he pushes himself up from the wall he’s been leaning against. He stands in place swaying and then he says something which we can’t hear. I gasp as I see what comes next. Justin punches himself in the face.

Luke and I look at each other in shock and then we both look back at the screen. Justin spends the next few minutes punching himself hard in the face, slamming his face off the side of the building, and just generally beating the hell out of himself. Finally, he stops the onslaught and gets his cell phone out which is, I assume, when he calls the cab to bring him to my place.

Luke reaches out and stops the footage.

“Well fuck. I didn’t expect that,” he says.

“Me neither,” I say. “God he’s a real fucking psycho, isn’t he?”

Luke nods his head.

“It’s not normal to go to those lengths to get someone to break up with their partner so he can muscle his way in,” he says. “I know he’s your friend and I would never say you can’t be friends with someone, but please Louisa, promise me you won’t see him alone.”

“There’s no way I want to be friends with him after this,” I say. “It’s … far too much.”

“That’s a nice way of wording it,” Luke says, and we both laugh, and I feel a bit better, although I still feel a pit of dread in my stomach. Justin isn’t normal. Luke warned me about him and Louisa warned me about him, and I chose to ignore both of them, only to see for myself what a giant creep Justin is. I’m glad I’ve seen it for myself now though so I can make sure to cut off all ties with him. “Are you ok?”

“Yeah,” I say. “I’m just a bit freaked out that I was ever friends with this guy. I’m glad now that Emily left him for her sake. Oh wait, they might get back together, I should warn her.”

“They aren’t getting back together. Justin refused to apologize to her,” Luke says. “He told me before he turned weird.”

“That’s something at least,” I say. “I have to get back now; Karl will think I got lost. What should I tell him you wanted?”

“A blow job,” Luke says.

“Ha ha very funny,” I say.

“I thought so,” Luke grins. “Just say we were discussing your progress as an intern and that I’m very happy with your work and that you’re happy on the team. Assuming you are happy there?”

“I am,” I confirm.

“Don’t forget to pop in and see what Mel wants on the way out,” Luke says, and I feel myself blushing just at the thought of it.

“I hope she hasn’t been watching for me coming back from the bathroom,” I say.

“Don’t worry,” Luke says. “Even if she has put the pieces together, she’s discreet.”