Luke is standing on the hotel porch when their taxi enters the hotel entrance. He's in his gray shirt and black jeans, still with his morning face and semi-wet hair, probably from hastily washing his head to wake himself up; the view Cobie doesn't get to see every day. Once he spots her behind the backseat window, he jogs down to the car and opens the door on Georgia's side.
"I'm sorry to wake you up this late," Cobie says, grabbing their bags from the car's floor. "I'm not sure if she's asleep or passing out, she really is not responding to my attempt to wake her up."
"It's fine," Luke replies before shoving his hand under his secretary's knees and carrying her bridal style to the hotel lobby.
After paying for the taxi, Cobie runs a little bit to catch up with his steps to reach the elevator and push the button for them. Georgia stirs awake, frowns from the hotel lobby light, then snuggles deeper into Luke's chest.
Still with her not fully sober mind, Cobie believes she did the right thing by calling Luke. There is no way she can bring Georgia to their hotel room by herself. But seeing how intimate the two are right now, she starts to think that she should have just asked the taxi driver and paid him extra for carrying Georgia upstairs. Darn alcohol. Her brain always shrinks into a half size after the buzz.
"Are you alright?" Luke asks when they're standing inside the car.
"Yeah. Why wouldn't I?"
"You just groaned. Headache?" Luke peers at her to examine her, the exact stare that makes her feel uneasy. "You look tired and a bit red."
She rolls her eyes. "What should girls look like when they leave the club at one o'clock? Looking neat like when they go to a Sunday mass?"
"Ah, sassy Evans. I haven't seen you tipsy before," Luke says before grunting as he adjusts his hand around Georgia's back.
Cobie takes a deep breath, trying to block her mind from thinking why she feels irritated with Luke all of a sudden. Scratch that. She's irritated with the view before her. "I'm sorry. You're right, I'm just" —she shrugs— "tired, I get snappish when I'm tired."
Luke nods, a grin growing on his face. "I'll tuck you two to bed soon," he replies, earning a snort from Cobie.
"If I didn't know you enough, I swear I would think you're a perverted weirdo."
"Maybe you don't know me enough." Before she can reply to him, the elevator dings and the door slides open. Luke steps out of the car, leaving her behind with her gaping mouth.
When the doors start to close up, she quickly jumps out of the elevator before jogging to her room. She fishes the room card out of her purse, taps it on the door handle, and yanks the door open. Following her direction, Luke strides to Georgia's bed and puts her down carefully. But when he's about to get up, Georgia refuses to let him go.
"Where are you going?" she complains, her voice slurring as she wraps her hands tighter around Luke's neck.
"Back to my room of course." The man holds his secretary's wrists and drags them apart before freeing his neck from her grip. Yet Georgia keeps pulling him back to her. "I need to go. Cobie needs to sleep too."
"Cobie? What is she doing here?"
"You guys are sharing a room, remember?"
Crossing her hands over her chest, Cobie leans against the hotel wardrobe door and watches Luke struggle to untangle himself from the girl's hands. "Try to sleep. Ssshh. That's it. Close your eyes." He adjusts the duvet over Georgia's shoulders, wrapping her hands under the cover. Once Georgia stops attempting to move, he jumps up and walks away.
"Come back here..." Georgia's voice falters as she tries to free her hands but they fail to escape the duvet. In the next seconds, she starts snoring again.
Glancing at Georgia, Luke stops two feet from where Cobie is standing, a little bit too close for her liking. The man slips his hands into his pockets and smiles at her. "Are you sure you're okay?"
"What if I'm not? Are you going to tuck me in, too?" Once the words leave her mouth, Cobie is so close to smacking her own head. Why did she say that?
Luke chuckles. "I might."
She laughs, trying to subtle her nervousness. She looks down at her own high heels and kicks them off. She needs to keep herself busy to avoid unnecessary eye contact with him. "Thank you for helping us, and goodnight, Luke. I'll see you in the morning."
"Anytime, Evans. Sleep well."
Cobie nods, still refusing to look him in the eye, but he can feel his intense gaze on her. In the next few seconds, which feels like forever, Luke makes his way out of the room. She waits until he disappears behind the door before she can breathe normally again.
At least she didn't break any rules this time.
She shouldn't have showered. It sobers her up and now she has trouble falling asleep. Dammit.
Cobie tosses around under her cover, and Georgia's peaceful sleeping face is the first thing she sees. It's hilarious how she looks like an angel when she's asleep but behaves like a lioness when she's awake. Despite her uneasiness to see the secretary openly show her feelings to their boss, Cobie has to admit that she admires her. She wishes she had the bravery and confidence. She used to, though, but Peter took it away, and she never gained it back. Showing feelings to the person she's attracted to is declaring defeat, and that's a fact.
The blinking green light from her phone draws her eyes to her nightstand. Right, Harry texted her when she was in the taxi, but she didn't have a chance to check it. Georgia demanded her attention more.
She extends her hand to grab the phone.
Harry: I so dont why cant she get me for once? What she want from me?
Cobie rereads the message three times, trying to make sense of every word displayed on the screen. Harry doesn't text like this, and he definitely doesn't text her this late. Has someone used his phone to prank him? Or...oh.
Me: Did you drunk text me?
She's about to put her phone back on the nightstand when her phone chimes, blinking his name. Not wanting to wake up the sleeping lioness, Cobie jumps out of her bed and tiptoes to the balcony door.
"Hello," she says once she closes the door behind her.
"There you are. The favorite sister," Harry's voice vibrates from the phone receiver, a slur in his voice. Loud R&B music and the sound of people shouting and laughing make it hard for Cobie to hear him properly. But she notices his sarcastic tone. What is going on?
Walking to the balcony railing, Cobie leans in and watches the empty street while her attention goes completely to her ear. "Where are you now?"
"Where am I now? Why do you ask? Are you going to come and get me if I tell ya?"
"Okay. You're drunk. Let's talk when you're sober."
"No, no. Don't hang up. We haven't talked for a while."
"Not when you're at the...wait," Cobie says, focusing on the sounds in the background, "is it a college party or something? You're not at the club nor the pub."
"Bingo. And why are you up this late–" Harry's line is swallowed by girls giggling hard.
"Hello, Harry's girl, or oh my god! Are you Harry's mom? Too bad, he's not going home tonight, Mommy. Your son is being bad, bad, bad," a girl shouts, half slurring, followed by laughter in the background.
"Ugh, Diane, get your drunk ass off me," Harry grumbles before grunting loudly. "Wait, I'm gonna find somewhere quiet to talk."
"Why don't you just go home?"
"Rose told me you're out of town for a business trip now," he says, ignoring her suggestion. "But seeing you're wide awake this late, it doesn't sound like just a business trip to me."
A cool early-morning breeze gusts over, caressing Cobie's face. "It's two-thirty in the morning, Harry. Why don't we catch up after the sun shines?"
"Nah. I'm having fun. Hanging out with these kids is way more fun than being in my room alone. And I miss uni life."
"You're doing your dissertation now. Aren't you having more than enough uni life?"
"No, uh, yeah, I mean...you know what I mean."
"No, I don't know what you mean."
"I miss our uni life. I miss us. Harry and Cobie, the campus' cool kids! We used to be so good together, Cobie."
Cobie sighs audibly. "Go home, Harry, and we'll talk tomorrow, okay? There is also something I need to discuss with you."
The background is noticeably quiet now. "Did you ever have feelings for me back when we were in uni, Cobie?"
"Excuse me?"
"I never asked you this, did I? But now that I think of it, I swear we felt something back then but then you chose to date that loser after loser, but never me. Why?"
Cobie opens her mouth but then shuts it again, unable to form any words. What's going on with him tonight?
"Cat got your tongue, huh?"
"You're not making sense right now," she says.
"Was I that bad? Why did you choose everyone else over me? Sometimes I wonder what you think of me. Rose told me that you thought I was a good guy. Am I, Cobie?"
Cobie bites her inner cheek. "I don't know where you want to go with this question."
"Just curiosity."
"Curiosity kills the cat."
"The cat is dead already. It doesn't matter what your answer will be, it won't bring the cat back to life. I just want to know. So?"
"You're my sister's boyfriend. This talk is inappropriate."
Harry scoffs. "I don't know about that. Hasn't she told you we are taking a break right now? But boy is it so frustrating. She just doesn't get it."
"Hey, watch it! You're talking about my sister here!"
"Yeah, okay. Sorry. I was just trying to tell you whatever it is. We used to be able to share everything. What happened to us, Cobie?"
"Harry..."
"And I was asking if you ever had feelings for me at some point back then. It's not that hard to answer, is it? It's not like it's going to change anything between us."
Cobie groans inwardly while massaging her temple. "Fine. You know you were my favorite, and I cared for you, as a friend."
"That was all?"
"Yes. What are we trying to gain from this talk by the way?"
"Still the avoidant Cobie, I see."
"That's it. I'm hanging–"
"Yeah, yeah. Always run away every time being cornered with questions about feelings. Something just never changes, huh? What are you running from?"
"Stop."
"Your past, isn't it? Rose told me what happened."
Cobie grits her teeth, making a note that she's going to grill her sister's ass for taking things too far. "I'm not having this conversation. Bye, Harry." With that, she hangs up and turns off her phone altogether before groaning audibly. She leans farther forward and lets her forehead fall on the top rail, trying to calm her nerves.
What the hell just happened? Why did Harry out of the blue poke the dead story from the past? The story that has never really been there. Okay, maybe it was there, the spark between them was there but it was short-lived. No big deal. And isn't that what young people do? Admiring different guys at once?
However, that isn't the point. She was indeed attracted to Harry in the beginning, but she managed to ignore all the opportunities to date him. Cobie didn't want to go down the route again, and she definitely doesn't want to change it now.
"Getting involved with your sister's boyfriend is indeed not a good idea," says a deep voice across the balcony. "Too much to lose than to gain."
Cobie freezes when she recognizes the voice. She hopes she was just imagining it, that her new obsession with him has probably entered a hallucinations state, but when she slowly lifts her head and cranes her neck, the very person is there.
Luke is sitting on his dark balcony, next to hers, with a laptop on his lap. A dim light from its screen illuminates his handsome face as the man's eyes are staring at her with the sharpness of Tawny owls' eyes.
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