Chapter 31 — Luke

“Really? Fucking again!” I said as I tried to get up and realized we’d had one of our drinking sessions. One which resulted in the three of us passed out in Corey’s bed in the back of the bar.

“We seriously need to stop ending the night this way,” I slurred. Fuck. I was still wearing my suit and I’d woken up in a cold sweat.

“Is asshole Corey still here?” Ed asked as he used my hand as leverage.

Why the hell the hell was Ed calling him names?

Another example of why grown men, shouldn’t drink, smoke, and be frustrated all at the same time.

“We’re at Corey’s.”

“Fuck! We are, I forgot. I thought you was Hayley.”

Not this game again. I swear Ed just needs to go on a cleanse for at least a couple of years, his confusion and attitude are ones even I wasn’t appreciating at the moment.

I moved Ed's arm away from my back and tried to sit up. As I opened my eyes fully, I looked up, only Corey would have a full-size mirror above his bed. Yep, we were still at Corey’s but the question, where was Corey? I stood up and took off my tie, jacket and opened up my shirt. I needed a shower and more, ideally to be hosed down with bleach and then left in a sterile room for a few minutes.

As I got up and opened the door, I was shocked to see Corey sitting at his desk. He blurted out, “Is the bastard still there?”

I wasn’t in the mood to play daddy today. Whatever was eating these two up, they would have to sort out themselves. I had a wedding to go to and a girl to pick up beforehand.

“You going?”

I nodded, thinking about Corey’s pep talk last night about not letting the one person who had put a smile on my face since forever getaway.

“Yep!”

He stood up and handed me a suit. “We’re the same height and build, so I asked my fiancée to pick one up last night while the prick was being an idiot. Shower, dress and get ready, by all accounts you have fifteen minutes until Craig's here with the limo.”

“Thanks. I’ll be ready in five.”

* * *

I arrived at the building, wanting to tell April I shouldn't have reacted like that, it wasn’t her fault Jeff was a perv or he'd offered for her to be his Thursday’s girl.

Also, I didn’t help myself, by not telling her in advance about hiring a new assistant. No doubt she got the wrong idea after I ignored her after spending the weekend with her. Corey had made me see I was as much to blame for this mess, just because I didn’t know how to communicate, not like him and certainly not like Ed.

His story was one I would be dealt with later. Ed had a crisis, one I was sure all married couples went through, wanting a piece of what was on the other side and thinking it would make him happy. Something Corey had for years and now wanted to settle down. I could relate, but if it didn’t work out then we would be here for him. Except Ed was letting his bad situation cloud his judgment and I spent most of the night making sure two of my best friends didn’t kill each other.

I wrangled Ed into the limo and dropped him off at home.

When Craig opened the door for him, Ed turned and grabbed my arm. “Whatever you do. Don’t fall in love.”

I nodded pushed him out of the car, but his advice had come too late, I was already falling for April no matter how much I tried to deny it.

I waved to Hayley and mouthed sorry. I would make it up to her later. For now, I had to get to April and I felt like the limo was moving slower than I wanted.

Half an hour later, I was running inside April’s apartment center.

“It’s okay. I’ll go up. I want to surprise her.” I said to the new doorman as I opened the door and he quickly shoved whatever he was reading behind the reception desk.

“All right, Mr. Winters. Have a good day.”

I smiled at him, thinking it was something to be said as I was leaving the building not entering it.

I met him the day I left, after staying the weekend. The only thing that went through my mind back then and reappeared again, was how he was too young to be working as a doorman. But then I suppose things have changed and there wasn’t an age group for the position. It didn’t matter, I wasn’t planning on applying for the position as a doorman, but my mind was wondering because I was stressed, I thought about the most stupid thing whenever I was stressed. Then, I would get annoyed about thinking about it in the first place. I was trying to distract myself because I was nervous, and I felt as if my heart was about to explode in my chest.

The elevator door chimed and I stepped into it, hoping she wouldn’t reject me. Then again, if she did, then I would take it like a man and move on.

As I stepped out of the elevator and moved slowly to her door. I pressed the bell and there was no response. I kept on pressing it again and again. Fuck. I stopped when I realized it was silly for me to assume she would be in.

Now, two things should never happen in any man’s life and that was for his assistant to be caught on his desk by his employees on her desk and another was to have to beg her to come back. Somehow both felt irrelevant in this case, seeing as I had too much to lose.

I decided to give up, I felt defeated when a half-naked Vanessa opened the door and I realized there were three things that should never happen in a man’s life. One of them included seeing his staff half-naked and probably drunk from the previous night.

“Where’s the fire?” Her eyes widened and she was standing with her bra in her hand. I loved a woman who was confident with her body, but not like this.

“Vanessa. It’s Luke. Is April here?”

“Somewhere,” she shrugged, “go look.”

Then she waved her hands up in the air and staggered into the kitchen or the bathroom, I couldn’t tell which direction she was going in, but then again neither did I care.

I shut the door and entered the open living space, ignoring the suitcases at the side of the door. April was leaving, not that I blamed her. I'd sacked her and she must have assumed she had to leave this apartment. I smiled at the idea of her having nothing when she moved in, to having cases full of clothes and shoes since she’d been here in a short space of time. Stephanie and April were lying across the sofa. Both of them were still wearing their work clothes and for some reason, they were both on the opposite ends of the black sofa and Stephanie’s feet were an inch away from April’s head. I laughed at seeing them both lying down as if they were dead to the world, which explained why neither of them saw me standing over them and why neither of them even heard the bell.

“April,” I said and neither of them budged, if anything Stephanie’s feet moved on top of April’s mouth and she was trying to move it away as if she was squatting a mosquito.

I called out again, but this time a lot louder.

They were both startled and April fell on the floor. Thank goodness there was a rug there and Stephanie followed as she rolled on top of April on the other end. I moved the glass table in front of them, so neither of them had a nasty accident. But Stephanie was startled for a second and then she carried on snoring dead to the world. I couldn’t believe she fell off the sofa and didn’t move again. It was crazy seeing these professional women out of office, while April was crawling like a child.

“Whose feet are these?” She crawled to my feet.

“There’s a man in here!” She screamed as used my legs as leverage to get up, I could have helped her but seeing her on her knees made me lose focus.

“Ah, he seems just like Luke, Luke oh Luke,” she was chanting as she was moving up from my feet up to my knees. It brought a smile to my face to see she was thinking of me, just the same way I thought of her. Her eyes were still closed, as I took her hands to help her up.

“Yes.”

She shook her head as if it would help her open her eyes. There was something about her when she was confused and vulnerable like this which made me weak at the knees. I wanted her not just as a date, but for so much more. Time would tell if it was an option, but for now, I wanted her at the wedding. I had a lot to make up for though.

“We don’t have time for all this, you need to get ready for the wedding. The car’s waiting downstairs. Get showered, dressed, and let's go. I'll be waiting downstairs.”

She nodded as if she was trying to take in all the information. I was about to go, but as I let go of her hand, she said, “You still want us to go together?”

I didn’t get a chance to answer as Stephanie answered, “You heard the man, now go get dressed.”

Then there were screams and chaos as if they’d all been woken up from their darkest nightmare. I stepped over a bottle or two. I think my focus was more on where April was rather than the state of the place. It made me laugh as I realized she’d had as much fun as I’d had with the boys, a night of drowning our sorrows instead of telling each other how we really felt and moving on from such a bad situation.