She Gets Me | #DarkRomance | RomePi™

֍7: Setting The Bait֍ (UPDATED 10/23/2022)

~UNEXPECTED~

"Hey, is everything alright?" She asked as she opened the door and observed the remorseful look on his face.

"Yeah, I'm good. Honestly, I just didn't want to sit at home alone. I hope I'm not bothering you?" He seemed kind of down as he leaned against the frame.

"Oh, no. You're not bothering me at all. Come in... please."

Torren waved him across the threshold. She noticed Luca's careful glance around her apartment as he walked inside. She led him to her living room and invited him to join her on the couch.

"I'm sorry to bother you so late. When I realized how close it is to the holidays and the fact that I would be spending it alone yet again, I honestly started feeling kind of lost."

Luca's face revealed so much more than Torren expected. Pain was riddled within his features. Regret hit her hard when she considered she may have had a hand in his suffering.

"Aren't you visiting your family?" She approached the question tentatively.

"It's just me. The only family I have is my mom, but she gave me away a long time ago. So, I guess you could say I don't have any family." He replied as a blankness filled his expression.

Torren's heart sank further into the floor. Not only had she insulted him, but she also made him feel low at a very sensitive time of the year for so many people who were alone. A thought flashed through her mind as she was reminded that even her boss attempted to include him in their company's events to prevent him suffering from loss during the holidays.

Luca rubbed the back of his neck and then his face as he settled back onto the couch. He found a place on the ceiling and focused his attention on it before his eyelids rested on one another.

"Can I get you something to drink?" She asked him with the hope of breaking up the thick silent fog of emotion that held them both in place.

He refocused his attention on her as he turned his face to glance at hers.

For a moment, Luca said nothing. He seemed far away evident only by the stark emptiness in his eyes. Then as if her words somehow broke through the void to register in his mind, he responded to the question with what appeared to be a fake sense of ease.

"Do you have any hard drinks?" He asked replied.

"Yeah. I have gin and whiskey. Which would you prefer?" She offered.

"Whiskey... neat... is fine." He accepted placing his order.

"What is whiskey neat?" She asked not sure of what he was requesting.

Her response brought a little chuckle to his previously saddened expression. Apparently, he found her question to be comical. Since there was no reason to be offended, Torren simply waited for him to provide her with an answer.

"A whiskey neat is a bar term. It means to serve the drink without anything added." He explained to his host.

"Oh, okay. Kind of like a shot?" She responded.

"Yeah, exactly." He smiled as she walked into the kitchen to prepare the drink. When she reappeared in the room, she had two glasses and a bottle of Seagram's 7 Crown.

"I hope you don't mind that it's a blended liquor. It's mixed with sweet vanilla undertones." Torren explained pausing for his response. His face wasn't changed by her offering.

"That's fine." He replied.

Torren sat on the other end of the couch and placed the frosted glasses and the bottle on a coaster in the middle of her coffee table. She poured a generous serving in each glass and they toasted before sitting back for a brief moment of silence.