Wait For You - 'Look After You' Sequel - A Michael Jackson Fanfiction

Chapter 27

Evelyn
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The blinds were pulled halfway, letting thin slats of late morning light crawl across the edge of my desk.

It was quiet. That rare, early-in-the-day kind of quiet where the floor below hadn't picked up yet, where things hadn't started falling apart.

My office was clean, ledger open, pen sitting perfectly across the margin, but my eyes weren't reading the numbers.

They were drifting.

Again.

God, I hated that Michael still did this to me.

Even in silence. Even in absence.

He left the way he always did. No warning. No softness. Just space where he used to stand. And now, every inch of that space echoed.

I pressed my knuckles to my temple, sharp and controlled. Snapped myself out of it.

But the ache stayed. Just beneath the surface.

The door clicked softly.

I didn't look up.

"Didn't mean to interrupt," Luca's voice came, low and smooth, with that rough edge he'd been hiding for days now.

"You didn't," I said. "There's nothing happening."

He stepped in, closed the door behind him like he owned the air inside it. I still didn't look up.

"You're a terrible liar," he said.

I finally glanced up.

He was leaning against the closed door, arms crossed, sleeves rolled, eyes fixed on me like he already knew every word I wasn't saying.

"What do you want, Luca?"

He pushed off the door slowly, walking across the room like he had all the time in the world — like he hadn't been waiting for this exact moment.

"To look at you," he said.

That stopped me.

I blinked once, face steady, but inside — I felt it. The way my stomach dipped. The way something sharp and warm pulled behind my ribs.

"You always have a line, don't you?"

"Only when they're true."

I closed the ledger, leaned back in my chair, watched him without blinking.

He didn't flinch under the weight of it. If anything, he stepped closer.

"It's been hard to focus," he added, quieter now.

"Then get some rest."

"That's not the kind of focus I meant."

He was in front of the desk now, hands resting on the edge, looking down at me like I was the thing that hadn't let him sleep all week. And maybe I was.

"You gave me a window, Evelyn. You can't act like you didn't."

"I gave you nothing," I said, even though my voice didn't sound as sharp as I wanted it to.

"You gave me enough to know I'm not crazy."

"And now you think what?" I asked. "That you're owed something?"

His jaw tensed. "No. But I'm not walking away either."

I stood. Slowly. Came around the desk. Stopped just in front of him.

"This," I said, low, "is a mistake."

"Then why are you still standing there?"

I didn't answer.