Page 5 of Falling Hard
Frustrated, I stepped back and scanned their faces. Their silence felt heavy, and I wavered between thinking it was sympathy, curiosity, or judgment.
Tossing my purse on the chair, I grabbed a glass of wine they already had waiting. "Why are you guys acting like this?"
"You’re the one acting. Luke is getting married to someone else, not you, and it should be you," Demetria said without an ounce of hesitation.
My mouth fell open, but no words came out. For one second, it felt like the floor had shifted under me. Demetria’s words echoed in my ears.
Finally, I spoke. "What?”
"Liv, don't pretend," Mei suggested.
"Mei, stop looking at me like that."
"Like what?"
"Like that," I yelled. "I’m not in mourning. Luke is marrying the wrong woman, and as a friend, I have to stop him."
Alex patted the spot next to her on the couch, and I sat. "Do you hear yourself? Why's Solenne the wrong woman?"
"Because Luke should be marrying Olivia," Demetria said.
I jumped to my feet. What was wrong with them? Had all my friends gone crazy on the same day? "You're putting words in my mouth," I snarled. "We know nothing about this girl other than the fact that she looks like a model and her parents should've named her something fucking better."
From one end of the carpet to the other and back, I walked.
"Luke barely knows her. He’s thinking with his dick, not his brain," I ranted while silently blaming myself. I'd dropped the ball. Never should've let Solange get comfortable in Luke's life.
"She must be fucking amazing in bed then," Alex said, and I froze to glare at her.
Wasting no words, I went back to what I was saying. "Love isn't takeout; you don't order it in six months."
Demetria spoke up first. "Some people fall fast."
"Not Luke. His longest commitment is to sneakers. He’s making the biggest mistake of his life," I added then stopped speaking and walking.
I looked at the girls.
All three stared back with expressions that screamed sympathy, confusion, and frustration.
Clearly, my mask had slipped. Fuck! My throat tightened, and my neck felt warm, but I forced a smirk anyway.
"It's always been Luke. The rest of us are single because we never got the chance to meet a Luke. You've known him since high school," Demetria said flatly.
"Longer," I interrupted. We often joked and told people we'd known each other since the sandbox. While we didn’t actually meet in one of those, Luke and I have known each other since we were toddlers. Our mothers were best friends. They went their separate ways after high school, but reunited again when we were toddlers. From then on, Luke and I had no choice; we were attached for life. We’d spent summers in the sprinklers, complete with ice cream cones, birthday parties on the rooftops of our luxury buildings, and bicycle rides through Central Park. We went to school together, all of them: elementary, junior high, high school, and college.
"All my life," I said, sitting down and sighing, "Luke has been there. When my parents divorced, when my brother died, every happy moment or tragedy, he was there to hold me."
Mei’s eyes widened.
"How did you not figure out that you were in love with him?" Demetria asked and shook her head.
"I'm not stupid or blind. It just never crossed my mind he'd ... Luke has always been hot. I'll never forget the moment he first made my heart race. We were in high school, I got dumped the day before prom, and he ditched his date to take me instead. I could still remember the butterflies that appeared when Luke arrived in his designer tux, holding out his hand for me to take like it was the most natural thing in the world. We danced all night, and for a moment, I let myself wonder what it would be like if we … but I couldn’t. Luke meant too much to me. What if we began something and then broke up? I didn’t want to lose him. Remember, I hadn't met you girls yet. Luke was all I had."
"Makes sense," Mei said.
I nodded. "I wasn't the only one who leaned on the Forrester family. When my dad blindsided my mother with a divorce, it was Luke's mom who held her together and dried her tears. They mattered too much to risk. So that night, I made a vow to never cross the line with Luke, and on the ride home from the prom, I made a big thing about us beingfriends forever."I cringed thinking about it.
Alex refilled my glass. I didn't realize it was empty. "Shit. So now you plan to be the friend that watches him walk off into the sunset with another woman?"
