Fake

10. Meeting For The First Time

ANNABETH'S POV
[March 13th, 2017]

I took the elevator down to the lobby and noticed a group of teenage girls sitting in the chairs off to the left. They were all on their phones and laughing about something, but I didn't care to know what it was. I assumed these were the girls that Luke was talking about and tried my best to keep my head down as I walked out of the apartment building.

Luke said he was in a black GMC Terrain, so that's what I looked for. I subconciously pulled on my black long-sleeved top, making sure it was down over the top of my jeans. I pulled my jacket over the front of my body, too, making sure that my shoulders were covered. It was March but New York was still kinda cold, so I of course, was wearing a very thick winter coat. It was black and matched my top pretty well, but it was so incredibly warm I could not be happier.

After a moment or two of just scanning the streets for Lukes car, I saw a pale arm wave out of a window. I walked towards it and crossed my arms over my stomach as I did so. I was really nervous, actually. I was meeting Luke Hemmings. I met him before, but it was under way different circumstances. I had to keep my cool this time, or else he would probably see that I was a total fake, and would probably never talk to me again.

The street was pretty busy, so as I got closer to the car I realized the people behind him were honking, telling him to move out of the way, which I didn't understand why since he was in a parking spot.

I walked up to the right side of the car where the hand came out of the backseat window and stopped there. Luke looked up at me and flashed me a quick smile. He was in a black tee shirt and no jacket, I did not understand why or how he was not cold! He set his phone down in his lap and lifted his sunglasses off of the bridge of his perfectly sloped nose.

"Hey," He said and opened the door from the inside for me. He scooted over so that I wouldn't have to walk around to the other side of the car and try not to die from all the traffic. That was nice of him. I smiled as I stepped up on the  foot step thing on the car and sat down where he had just been sitting. It was really warm where his butt previously was and I smiled because of it.

I closed the door and the window was rolled up for me. I looked in the front seat and saw a man with what looked like a black top hat. This must be Lukes driver. I didn't expect him to have a top hat though. I thought that was really only in movies.

Luke cleared his throat and I looked over at him. "Are you going to say hello?" He looked at me expectantly. His Australian accent was ridiculously hot. I could not believe how much I had missed hearing it in person.

"Hello, Lucas. How are you?" I fake smiled at him and he rolled his eyes. He mumbled something about how that was not his name and he crossed his arms over his chest like a little child. He told the driver where to go and I looked over at him confused. "I thought you said you didn't know your way around New York that well? Or that you didn't know of things in New York that well."

Luke smiled at me, tilting his head a little with a fake smile plastered on his nearly perfect face. "Well, since someone took so freaking long to get ready, I had time to look up restaurants that were close by." He faced forward again, looking somewhat annoyed.

I suddenly really didn't want to be here. I know I had been kind of rude to Luke, but it wasn't really intentional. I was just trying to get rid of my nerves and not be super weird around him. But Luke was making it seem like going out tonight with me was something he had been forced to do. He looked  like he didn't want to be here and I felt awful about it.

Also, being in a restaurant and talking to him out in public about the current situation made me uneasy. I didn't want anyone to overhear us or even see us out in public together, honestly. Someone was bound to take a picture and it would get around and I didn't want that at all.

I looked over at Luke who actually just looked bored. He had his head leaned back on the head rest, facing away from me so he was looking out the window. His hands were placed lazily in his lap and his fingers were lightly tapping the back of his phone. I reached out and touched his forearm lightly.

His head snapped over in my direction and he gave me a dirty, confused look. He almost looked repulsed that I had touched his arm. Every second of this was making me regret my DM to him in the first place. I kept my head up high though and cleared my throat. "Sorry for the way I acted," I looked down sheepishly. It's best to just be somewhat honest with him. "I'm actually just really nervous and sometimes when I'm nervous I tend to be sarcastic and annoying." I looked up at Luke and his face had softened a bit.

"I hope our child doesn't get their personality traits from you," He looked so serious but then cracked a wide smile. I laughed lightly and looked at him again. "But seriously, it's okay. I can understand why you're nervous," I doubt it. "If  you want we can just get take out and go to my hotel?" Luke suggested and I thought about it for a moment.

I was going to speak up but Lukes driver said that we were at our destination and I got very embarrassed when I realised he might have just heard all of that. "Do you just want to go to my apartment with this food instead?"

Luke smiled and nodded, hopping out of the car quickly then running around to my side to open my door. "Greg," Luke said and the driver turned around to face him. "We can just walk back from here, I'll call you when I need to be picked up later." Greg nodded and turned back around, waiting for me to get out of the car so he could leave.

"Chinese is okay with you?" Luke asked as he pulled open the door for me. I nodded and picked up a menu as soon as we were inside completely. The restaurant was kinda small and the lighting was dim. A woman came out from the back and took our take out order and told us to just sit down and wait for it to be ready.

Luke and I didn't talk at all while we waited and it was kind of uncomfortable because I knew there was so much that had and needed to be said, but I figured it would be okay because we would get all the talking done when we got back to my apartment.

The woman came back with our order in a few minutes and wished us a nice day. Luke opened the door for me again and we started walking back to my apartment. Luke was carrying the food and I could hear the bag shaking from him shivering. "Why did you tell Greg we would walk back?" I laughed as I said it, thinking about how ridiculous of a request it was.

"I have no idea." Luke almost whined. We made it back within 15 minutes, but Luke looked like he was about to suffer from frost bite. Walking into the lobby of my building was a blessing and a curse. Blessing because it was so incredibly warm that I almost moaned from the temperature change. Curse because the girls who had been there when I left, were still there and all screamed as soon as they saw Luke. We practically ran to the elevator and I hit the 'close door' button at least 10 times, trying to let none of them on the elevator with us.

We both looked at each other and laughed for some reason. I guess the situation was funny, but I was glad he was laughing, too. We walked to my apartment door and I dropped the keys. I groaned, mainly because I really didn't want to pick them up. Luke bent down before I could even try to. He came back up slowly and looked at my stomach as he did so. "You said you had a small bump, because you're like, what, 12 weeks now? I don't see a bump."