Page 5 of Part of Me
“Well, now that you have moved in with him, you two will have more time together,” Tori says before placing a forkful of spaghetti in her mouth.
“Yeah, I guess you’re right.” We eat our food and I push my worries about Luke and I not getting much time together to one side. Luke wouldn’t let our relationship suffer, and I have never been one to be needy or clingy. I don’t understand where these feelings are coming from, but I am determined to push them down. I love Luke, and he loves me. Nothing can break us, and nothing will tear us apart.
Chapter Four
I get back to the house a couple of hours later, and there is no sign of Luke’s car out the front. I feel slight disappointment that he isn’t home yet, but I know that we will be spending our evening together, so I don’t feel disappointed for too long.
I park the car on the small driveway and make my way into our terraced three-bed house. Luke has been living here for years. He moved out of his parents as soon as he could. Luke isn’t one to follow his parents’ rules, and they were always having a run-in about something or other. When Luke first told me that he was moving out, I was only seventeen and we had only been together for a year. I remember telling him how crazy he was to move out so soon, but he was working and assured me that he could afford it.
I worried about how he was going to look after himself properly, but I needn’t have. Luke flourished as he moved out and led his own life without the rules of his parents. I have always got on well with his parents, Monty and Rose, but I could see that they struggled with the career path that Luke chose. They thought that he could do better, I suppose. I never spoke about it with them, and I still don’t now. If we do see them, which isn’t very often, they tend to talk about meaningless day to day things rather than what their son is accomplishing in his life.
It is a stark contrast to my parents who couldn’t be happier about what the pair of us have achieved. My parents, Jack and Sophie, don’t have a problem with my job. They just want me to be happy in life, and they know that Luke makes me happy. Sure, they had their reservations when Luke and I started dating, but they quickly grew to love him. They treat him the same as they do me. Luke has always been closer to my parents than his own.
I make my way into the kitchen and pour myself a cold glass of orange juice.
“Charlie?” I hear Luke shout from the hallway, interrupting my reminiscing. I jump at the sound of his voice, but I quickly get over it as I turn the tap off, put my glass down and go to the hallway. As I exit the kitchen, I come face to face with Luke, who looks hot in his work suit.
“What’s up?” I ask as I notice that he looks a little pale and is sweating ever so slightly. He doesn’t answer me, but instead he stalks over to me, wraps me up in his arms and holds me close to his body. I am immobilized as I wonder what the hell has gotten into him.
“Luke?” I say questioningly as I bring my hands to his shoulders, and I push myself back slightly so that I can look into his eyes. As I do, I can see that something is bothering him. I know him so well, so there isn’t much he can hide from me. “Luke, what’s wrong?” I ask, worry starting to seep into every fibre of my being.
“Nothing. I just missed you, that’s all.” As I search his eyes for answers, I know that he is trying to glaze over whatever the problem is.
“Nothing? You seriously expect me to believe that?” He sighs and releases me, running his hands through his hair. I can see that he is struggling to form words, but I need to know what is bothering him. “You can tell me anything, you know that.” I make my voice soft as I try to coax him round.
“I just… I had a bad feeling.”
“A bad feeling?”
“Yeah. Whilst I was out, I just had a bad feeling, like something had happened to you.”
“What? Why would something bad happen to me?” I ask, not understanding where he is coming from in the slightest.
“I don’t know,” he says with a shrug of his shoulders. “I can’t explain it. I just needed to come back home and make sure that you were okay.” He looks a little helpless, and I’m not sure I buy his explanation.
“Okay,” I reply slowly. “Has something happened at work?”
“No. Work was fine,” he replies, keeping his answer short. He must see the doubt on my face as he continues to try and explain himself. “I was looking over the plans that I told you about, and I just got a cold feeling. I know it sounds crazy, but I couldn’t get rid of the feeling that something had gone wrong.” There is only one other time in our lives together that Luke has been like this. It was three years ago, and he was away working on some construction project a couple of hours from here. I remember the phone call I got from him, his voice full of panic and worry…
‘Charlie,’ he said as I answered the phone. I could immediately hear the relief in his voice. ‘Thank God you’re okay.’
‘Of course I’m okay,’ I answered, wondering what the sudden urgency was.
‘Where are you?’ he asked me.
‘Led on my bed, watching some television.’ Seeing as it was ten o’ clock at night on a Thursday, there wouldn’t have been many other places that I would have been.
‘It feels so good to hear your voice,’ he replied. ‘I’m coming home tomorrow morning,’ he said, shocking me.
‘But I thought that you needed to be there for another few days to finalise your project?’ I asked, confused.
‘I have done everything that I can. I need to be back home, with you.’ Of course my heart melted at that point. I loved the fact that he missed me just as much as I missed him.
“Charlie?” Luke says, pulling me out of the memory.
“Sorry,” I say. “I was just daydreaming.” I had never bothered to delve into the reasons that Luke had phoned me three years ago in a panic. I believed that he missed me, and then he came home and we spent the most amazing three days together. I guess it never registered as abnormal.
This time, however, I think differently. I can see that Luke’s body is tense and his reaction to the possibility of me not being here has me a little unnerved. Luke isn’t the type of guy to just have a bad feeling.
