Chapter 100: Chapter Twenty-Three: For The Love of Desks-6

I laughed and clapped a hand over my phone. “It’s Zoe,” I told Luke. “She might have already had a drink or two but she wants to talk to you.” Luke’s brows drew in. “Why?” I handed my phone to him. “She and Jill are taking me hostage for a girls’ night.” His jaw visibly hardened even as he took the phone from me. “You’re saying that I don’t get to stay with you tonight?” So Luke may not totally ace the not-too-possessive part of this test. “We’ll spend the day together tomorrow because I don’t plan on having a hangover and then you’re coming with me to wherever this birthday party is going to be,” I assured him. I would love to just sit at home and spend time with Luke but he and I were not going anywhere. We had time. In fact, we had the rest of our lives. And maybe after the kind of day we already had, I needed a minute to catch my breath. With a long sigh, he held my phone up to his ear. “Yes, Ms. Abrams?” A brief pause. “Alright, Zoe.” I stood there and watched the display of emotions play out on Luke’s face as Zoe worked her magic—or brand of torture depending on your perspective. “… absolutely not… of course… it better be… Yes. Okay… I said yes already…” Luke sighed and shook his head, looking half-exasperated, half-tormented. “Yes, I’ll walk her down right now.” He handed me back my phone and got up to his feet. “Let’s go, babe,” he muttered, picking up my lunch bag and pressing a hand on my back as we headed out. “The devil queen is waiting for me to deliver you straight to her hands.” I laughed and gave him a sympathetic pat on his arm. “Zoe’s actually pretty great. She just takes a little getting used to.” Luke rolled his eyes. “You might have man-haters for friends.” I gave him a harder smack this time. “They’re not man-haters. They don’t hate the general man. They just hate the shitty ones who eat broken hearts and drink tears for breakfast.” Luke didn’t seem convinced. “She promised me that there’d be no male strippers.” I gave him an incredulous look. “Why would you think there’d be male strippers present in the first place? It’s a girls’ night, not a bachelorette party.” Luke stopped and turned to me, looking pretty earnest. “Which brings to mind, when the time comes for your bachelorette party, Peggy’s going to organize it. She’ll keep it clean. Either that or I’m abducting you to Vegas with me.” Yeah. Whatever pill Luke popped, it dissolved commitment-phobia just like that. We haven’t quite stepped out of the building yet but I didn’t stop myself from taking his hand and slipping mine into it. He showed no surprise as he smiled and laced his fingers through mine. Waiting out front were Zoe and Jillian, looking comfortable in Zoe's candy apple red convertible that had a bunch of colorful balloons tied to the back of it. When they saw me, they waved, whistled and wailed my name. Luke glanced at me, unable to suppress his amusement. "If there's a bigger party girl in the city other than Zoe Abrams, nobody knows. Even though I'm going to miss you terribly tonight, I'm pretty sure you're going to have a blast." I smiled at Luke and stood on my tiptoes to give him a quick kiss on the mouth. "I'll miss you, too." Still holding my hand, he led me down the steps to the car. "Keep my girl in one piece and bring her back to me, okay, ladies?" Luke said as he opened the door to the backseat for me. Zoe beamed up at him with her giant old Hollywood sunglasses. "Sure, boss." "It's one night, Mr. H," Jill added gamely. "How much trouble could we possibly get into?" Luke grinned. "Between the three of you, I'd say lots." Then he leaned down, cupped both sides of my face and kissed me thoroughly in front of everyone to see. I had to smack him on the shoulder, once I'd properly composed myself after a delirious, reckless moment of enjoying it, to get him to stop. "We don't need to scar the entire world for life," I said lamely, my cheeks blazing even as the other two girls in the car just giggled. "Sorry but not sorry," Luke murmured with a smiling mouth against mine. "Have fun, baby." And the moment Luke stepped back to watch us go, Zoe, Jillian and I rode off into the sunset. ===