Chapter 41 #3
Luke walks back over to the counter and gently shoves Misty to the side from the stack of mail and papers she’d been sleeping on.
That’s when I realize what they are—the closing documents for the purchase.
I’d meant to take them upstairs and file them in my safe, but I got distracted with everything that happened yesterday and left them out in plain sight, completely forgotten.
Luke must have found them when he came downstairs.
That’s why he was so cold with me when I walked in.
He wanted to confront me about it before everything took a turn.
“I can explain,” I say quickly.
“No need,” Luke snaps back, all of his cold vehemence turned on me. “Dmitry already told me everything. About the money. The house. All of it. I had to find out through my best friend that my boyfriend lied to me. And that he helped you do it!”
“I swear I was going to tell you soon,” I continue, knowing how feeble the excuse sounds in the face of Luke’s accusations. “I was waiting for the right moment. I wanted to tell you all along, but I was…afraid, maybe. I don’t know.”
Luke shakes his head and gives me a look of such reproach that I know he doesn’t believe me. “You’re afraid to do a lot of things.”
“What do you mean by that?” My hackles raise at the suggestion in his words. Is it a commentary on my slow roll in telling my friends the truth? That I’ve been too scared to come out?
Luke must think better about following that train of thought to where it leads. Instead, he changes trajectory as if he never said anything to that effect.
“I don’t care about the money, Ethan,” he says.
“It means nothing to me if you’re rich or poor.
You could have lived the rest of your life never telling me about it and that would have been well within your rights.
The part that pisses me off is that you treat me like some fucking charity case with it. ”
“What?” I scoff. “Where’d you get that impression?”
“The truck.” Luke stares me squarely in the eye. “Did your mom really give that to you because she didn’t need it anymore?”
“Luke….”
“I need you to be perfectly fucking honest with me,” he snaps. “If we’re trading secrets, you don’t get to be chintzy with yours.”
I sigh, shaking my head. “No. My mom didn’t give it to me. I bought it specifically for you while I was in Florida seeing her.”
Luke laughs humorlessly before his brows furrow as if I’ve confirmed his worst nightmare.
“But what’s wrong with that?” I protest. “You needed a car while you were here. I was just trying to help you out. And you asked that we don’t talk about money.”
“That’s not the point, Ethan. That’s never been the point. You don’t consider my feelings before you go off and make these kinds of big decisions for me. You swoop in to save the day before you’ve even asked if I want to be saved.”
“Oh, god. Put your pride away for two fucking seconds, will you?” I snap without thinking.
Luke freezes, cutting me the sharpest glare I’ve ever been on the receiving end of, his eyes narrowing. “Excuse me?”
I know I should keep my mouth shut, but the door is open, the words erupting from me like a volcano.
“I understand you don’t like it when people try to help you, Luke.
I really do. I’ve been fighting you on that since the day we met.
But just because you’re shit at allowing anyone to care about you, and god-fucking-forbid they do, it doesn’t make it wrong for me wanting to help. ”
“Fuck off.”
“You know I’m right.” Jesus, why did you say that?
“You don’t know me well enough to make that kind of judgment call,” Luke hisses between clenched teeth. “You’ve known me for three months, Ethan. Three. Months. And maybe that was three months longer than you should have.”
“You think so?” I ask. Stop it! What’s wrong with you?
“It would have been better off if we’d never met.”
My heart jolts in my chest, my brows furrowing. “You don’t mean that.”
Luke wipes the tears from his face and turns his back to me, sighing resolutely. “I can’t do this anymore, Ethan. It’s too much for me to handle. I’m done.”
“What do you mean ‘done?’”
“I’m done. We’re done.”
“So, what… You’re breaking up with me?” I ask, feeling how my blood turns to ice in my veins, my heart cracking around the edges. “Just like that? You won’t even give me a chance to explain?”
Without facing me, Luke drops his head, his shoulders shaking. “We don’t work. We’ll never work. And I’m done pretending.”
“Jesus fucking Christ, Luke. You can’t be serious. After all this, you’re just going to walk away?” Blood rushes in my ears, the world constricting around me.
Luke doesn’t answer me. He’s as rigid as a statue, fists clenched at his side.
“At least have the fucking guts to look at me and tell me to my face,” I snap.
Suddenly, a shift takes over like a switch has been flipped, and Luke relaxes his shoulders. It’s like watching him morph into an entirely different person, donning a different character. “Take care of Misty for me,” he replies, his voice eerily low.
Without another word, he turns and brushes past me without a glance.
His face is a stoic mask, devoid of any emotion.
He goes through the garage door, leaving me standing frozen like a statue in the kitchen, staring after him, numb and paralyzed.
I can’t tell if I’m still breathing—if my heart’s still beating.
I don’t even register that I’m crying until I feel the tears on my cheeks.
What the fuck just happened?