Chapter 92 Chapter 92
Chapter 92 Chapter 92
Aria’s Pov.
Around me, the party kept moving like nothing in the world had changed. Music thumped through the walls. Someone laughed too loudly near the drinks table. A glass clinked somewhere behind me.
But the second Lucien’s name flashed across my screen again, all of that noise drifted away and left me standing there with my pulse climbing faster than it should have been.
Around me, the party kept moving like nothing in the world had changed. Music thumped through the walls. Someone laughed too loudly near the drinks table. A glass clinked somewhere behind me I sighed and picked up.
"Lucien…"
The sound of his breathing came through first, slightly uneven, and then his voice followed, lower than usual.
“Aria.”
He said my name like he had been holding onto it for a while.
My grip tightened around the phone. “Where are you?”
The sound of his breathing came through first, slightly uneven, and then his voice followed, lower than usual.
He said my name like he had been holding onto it for a while.
My grip tightened around the phone. “Where are you?”
There was a brief pause, then he finally spoke. “Outside.”
That was definitely not an answer.
“Outside where?”
A low laugh came through the line, “Somewhere with bad music,”
I closed my eyes for a second.
"Lucien..."
"Hm?"
"...have you been drinking?"
There was another pause.
"Maybe a little."
I leaned my shoulder back against the wall beside the door and looked up at the sky. "How much is a little."
"Enough that calling you seemed like a great idea." He said it like it was reasonable. Like that sentence made totally complete sense.
I pressed my free hand to my forehead.
"Why did you call me?" I said. "Four times. I thought something had happened…"
"Something did happen."
I went very still. "What?"
"I just…" He stopped and trailed off for a second. "I just wanted to hear your voice."
"What?" I said thinking I must have misheard him.
He was quiet for long enough that I thought maybe he had drifted off mid-thought, but then he answered, more honest than I expected him to be. "Your voice." He said simply. "It calms me down. I don't know…It just does something. I don't know what it is."
I forgot what I'd been about to say for a minute.
"Lucien," I said finally, surprised my voice wasn’t shaky.
"I know, I know. It's weird. I just…" He laughed quietly. "You always sound like you know what you're doing. Even when you don't. Did you know that?"
I wasn’t sure if he meant the words he was saying or it was just the alcohol but for some reason, heat crept up my cheeks.
Dammit Aria get yourself together he’s obviously wasted.
"You're drunk." I finally responded.
"I said that already."
"You need to go to sleep, Lucien."
"I don't want to sleep." He sounded genuinely opposed to the idea. "I want to…" Another pause. "Just keep talking. I don't care... Just talk."
"Lucien."
"Please Aria."
I exhaled, the way he said my name made me feel butterflies in my stomach.
I stood outside Théo's building in the night air with the sound of the party muffled through the walls, Lucien's voice in my ear asking me to just keep talking and my face doing something I was very glad nobody could see.
"You're going to feel terrible tomorrow," I said.
"Maybe."
I continued."Definitely. You're going to wake up and feel terrible, then you're going to remember calling me and feel worse."
"Probably," he agreed cheerfully.
"So go to sleep."
"Don't want to."
"Lucien…"
"Just a little longer."
"No." I made my voice firm. "You need water and sleep. Go."
He made a soft sound that might have been laughter, then he added, "You sound nice when you're telling me off."
Heat crept up my cheeks as I squeezed the bridge of my nose with my free hand. “You are impossible.”
"Yeah, okay… Goodnight, Aria."
"Goodnight, Lucien."
The call ended.
I stayed where I was for a moment after that, staring at the screen in my hand while the cool air touched my skin and the sound of the party drifted faintly through the glass behind me.
I stared at my phone for another moment before locking the screen.
He'd been drunk, that was all.
So why couldn't I stop replaying everything he'd just said?
I let out a breath and tucked the phone back into my bag.
Then I went inside.
The second I stepped back into the room, I found Adrien on the sofa with Elodie beside him. She had her head tilted slightly towards him, whispering something in his ear,
Elodie straightened the moment she saw me.
I walked over feeling irritated, christ! why can’t she leave Adrien alone.
"Hey," Adrien said, looking up. "What took you so long?"
I nodded once and slipped into the space beside him as if I hadn’t just walked back in all flustered from a call with his brother. “I had to take a call.”
"Everything okay?"
"Yeah, it's fine." I reached for his drink and took a sip. "What did I miss?"
"Jules lost a bet. He owes Théo forty euros."
I laughed "Classic Jules."
"Right?"
I felt Elodie's eyes on me briefly. Then they moved away.
Adrien shifted to look at me more directly.
"Who called you?" he said casually.
"A friend.”
"From Brooklyn?"
"No." I looked at him. "Just someone."
Adrien held my gaze.
"Aria," he said, raising his eyebrows. "Why do you look nervous?"
My chest tightened.
Because Elodie saw the name on my screen.
Because Lucien's words were still echoing in my head.
Because I was getting tired of lying to him.
"I'm not nervous," I said finally . "I'm just…"
Adrien didn’t look convinced in the slightest. "Aria."
He looked at me for a second longer than usual, the way he did sometimes when he could tell something was sitting a little off in my face, but before he could say anything else, Esme appeared at my other side and gave me a smile that looked almost too easy.
“Can I steal Aria for a minute?”
Adrien glanced between us, then he nodded. “Sure.”
Esme touched my arm lightly and steered me away without making it look like she was steering me anywhere at all. I let her pull me toward the other side of the room, though I kept half an eye on Adrien as we moved.
The second we were out of earshot, Esme leaned in a little.
“That looked tense.”
"What looked tense?"
"Whatever was happening on that sofa before you sat down." She tilted her head. "Elodie right?"
I exhaled. "Tell me about it."
"I saw her face when you walked over." Esme looked back across the room toward the sofa. "I don't like her."
"Welcome to the club," I said rolling my eyes.
"She's calculating." She said it simply, like an observation about weather. "Every single thing she does is calculated. I've been watching her all night."
I looked at Esme.
You've been watching her all night, I thought. Or have you been watching me?
"Yeah," I managed a smile. "I know."
"I would have…" She stopped and smiled slightly. "You know what, it doesn't matter."
"What?"
"I was going to say I would have dealt with it differently but that's not helpful." She shrugged. "You're better at playing it cool than I'd be."
I almost laughed. "I don't feel cool."
She glanced at me. "How's everything else going? The house, your mum, all of that."
"It's fine," I said. "Complicated but fine."
"And Lucien? You mentioned him the other day …I didn't get to ask."
I looked at her.
Here.
This was it.
I definitely don’t remember mentioning Lucien to her but I remember the plan I had told Lucien about the night before.
I'd been waiting for the right moment and she'd just handed it to me.
"Lucien's good," I said. "Actually… he's coming home this weekend. We have some stuff we planned together, he wanted to come back for it."
For the briefest second, something flickered across Esme's face.
It was gone before I could decide whether I'd imagined it.
"Oh nice, That's fun. Is it a family thing?"
"Kind of," I said. "Yeah."
"Cool." She glanced around the room. "Tell him I said hey.”
"I will," I smiled.
She smiled back warmly.
"Come on," she said. "I need another drink. Want one?"
"Yeah, sure.
We walked back into the party together, blending seamlessly into the crowd as though nothing important had just happened.
I curled my fingers a little tighter around my glass.
Now we wait.