Page 57 of Scripted for Love and Poison
He saw Sol getting out of Lola’s car and was walking fast in her direction when he realized she was meeting someone else there. Sol’s appointment in Santa Monica was actually a chat with David. Luke recognized the ex from some pictures she’d reluctantly shown him, and he crumbled under the discovery.
He stopped in his tracks and watched Sol from a distance while she had what looked like an extremely pleasant conversation with the man who’d been married to her. Could Luke have fucked things so gloriously with her that she was thinking about getting back with David? Was that why she’d been acting so distant since they had landed in Los Angeles? Was she garnering second thoughts and realizing she made a mistake when she left California—and David? And then she made another mistake when she started shagging Luke?
Of course not.
But why was he having all those absurd feelings? Since when was he insecure in his relationship with Sol? Since they’d landed in that bloody city, that’s when. And why did Sol look so utterly pleased and enchanted with the ex? It was as if she couldn’t stop smiling!
He got several texts from Alex then and was glad for the distraction. Anything would be preferable to watching Sol be delighted in the company of her ex-husband.
Alex Martín
sending a ton of screengrabs from the house sec cams
that’s def the dude who left Sol’s note yday
Luke opened the pixelated pictures Alex had sent with the texts and saw what looked to be a person of medium build and height, dressed all in black and wearing sunglasses and a cap. It was hard to see any distinguishable features or traits, but it was the person who’d left Sol the note urging her to read Simon Smith’s manuscript. They could be seen delivering the note to the house in one of the images, slipping it into the mail slot by the front door.
A couple more messages from Alex arrived then.
Alex Martín
same dude popped up in the footage tday
this is 10 mins b4 Sol left with my mom
Luke opened that last picture nervously and recognized the same person from the previous screengrabs.
“Fuck!” he muttered and started walking in Sol’s direction.
He didn’t care if he was going to interrupt a cozy chat with the ex; he needed to make sure Sol was safe.
But in his haste to reach her, Luke hadn’t realized she was no longer standing in the same spot she’d been for a while and had already left David and started walking decisively in Luke’s direction. It was only after she was almost on top of Luke that he grasped she’d been walking toward him.
“I’m so sorry,” a distracted Sol, who was checking her cell phone, said when she almost crashed into Luke. It was as if an invisible thread had pulled them together, like the two opposing poles of a magnet. She then lifted her eyes from her device and recognized him. “What are you doing here?”
Before she could say anything else or realize that he had been following her, he blurted out, “I love you.”
Sol stopped in her tracks and remained immobile in the middle of the street, her eyes wide open, her mouth agape.
“The only reason I haven’t told you before is because I’m an idiot. I’m sorry,” Luke continued, taking advantage of her being totally stunned. “I’m also sorry for pretending I had any right in telling you what to do yesterday. I just want to make sure you’ll be fine. I’m terrified at the idea of something happening to you ... because I love you.”
After what felt like an eternity in which Sol remainedimmobile, looking him in the eyes, her lips still parted in astonishment, Luke said, “Sol, I need you to tell me what you’re thinking.”
“I’ve been trying to say those words to you for weeks,” she told him, her eyes not moving one millimeter from where they were pinning his.
“What words?” he asked, even if he knew the answer.
“I love you.”
“Why didn’t you?” he said, a smile tugging at his lips.
“Because I’m the idiot here. Because I’ve been hurt too many times. Because I didn’t want to say those words ever again and then have to take them back.”
“Let’s make sure we don’t ever have to take them back then,” he said, and he could see the emotion in her when she heard him.
“I’ve just had a somewhat unpleasant conversation with the most obnoxious of all my exes, and I really never want to have a chat like that with you,” she told him. If it wasn’t because he’d never seen her crying, he’d say her eyes were welling up. “Ever.”
“We won’t.” And that was a promise. “But as happy as I am about this turning point in our relationship, we need to leave.”
