Checkout || l.h.

america

CHAPTER NINETEEN

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"No, I don't ever want to go back," Aliyah laughs. "New York was way too busy and crowded for me to ever want to live there." Jacob's fiancée hands Julie a bottle of Coke before sitting down next to Jacob on the opposite couch. Aliyah and Jacob had gotten engaged over a year ago after being in a relationship for about two years.

"So, no business trips for quite a while now, right?" Julie clarifies, setting her bottle down on the table after taking a sip.

"Yeah, I talked to my boss about not having enough time at home to plan for the wedding, so he's being more lenient with the trips for a few months," Aliyah explains with a nod.

"Good, because you've missed the last few lunches with my parents and they miss you," Jacob chuckles and she smiles over at him.

"Have you guys decided on a date yet?" Julie wonders curiously, looking back and forth between the two of them.

"We're thinking around the beginning of January, maybe a week or so after New Year's, but not a specific date yet," Jacob answers and Julie nods.

"But, enough about us. Jacob tells me you've got a boyfriend now," Aliyah smiles knowingly and Julie lets out a groan, shifting her gaze over to her brother to give him a glare. "How's that going?"

"It's going good," Julie responds vaguely, not wanting to go into detail about her and Luke.

"Just good?" Aliyah chuckles. "There's got to be more to it than that, I mean, you're dating a celebrity. Isn't it kinda weird?"

"No, it's not weird," Julie shrugs, playing with the Coke bottle now in her hands.

"You both are gonna be fine while he's in America, right?" Jacob chimes in.

"What are you talking about?" Julie scrunches her eyebrows, looking at her brother with a look of confusion.

"Yeah, they're leaving in a few days," Jacob trails slowly. Julie lets out a breath, dropping her eyes down from Jacob's gaze and taking her bottom lip between her teeth.

"Maybe he hasn't told her yet," Aliyah mumbles to Jacob quietly, but Julie still heard her. She shakes her head, standing from the couch and grabbing her phone and keys from the table before quickly making her way out of the living room and to the front door.

"Julie, wait, what are you doing?" Jacob questions her as he follows her out of the room.

"I'm gonna go talk to Luke," she mutters without turning to face him, crouching down to slip on her shoes.

"Just calm down first, before you go over there and say or do something you'll regret later on, okay?" He advises as she stands up and rolls her eyes.

"Yeah, whatever. I'll see you both later." And then she's gone.

Julie gets to Luke's house within a half hour and she takes a few minutes to calm herself down as her brother told her before making her way up to his door.

"You're mad, did I do something?" Luke questions cautiously after getting one glance at Julie's face.

"I'm not mad, I'm just," she huffs out a breath and crosses her arms, finally snapping her eyes up to meet Luke's. "When were you planning on telling me you're leaving in two days?" Luke closes his eyes, bringing his hands up to his hair in frustration because he knew this was going to happen since he couldn't man up and tell her himself.

"I'm sorry, princess –"

"Don't pull that princess shit on me, Luke," she glares at him as he opens his eyes again. "Why didn't you just tell me? I know it's your job, I wouldn't have gotten mad at you."