Second Chances

twenty-three

a l e x

"Fuck," I heard a groan from Luke as he walked out of his room.

It was already about noon, and he probably just woke up. With the amount of beer bottles I found in the trash when I was cleaning up in the morning, I could bet all my life savings that his hangover was killing him.

"Hey, good... noon."

He walked over to me and hugged me, burying his face into my hair. "Hey. You don't hate me anymore?"

His hand brushed the skin on my side from when my arms went over his shoulders and my shirt rode up. I felt tingles all over my body, and I involuntarily shivered.

"We're okay, Luke. Promise."

"Good."

I had taken an Uber back to my apartment after I woke up and made myself a little more presentable before going back to Luke's apartment and scouring pretty much the entire place for some painkillers because I knew he was going to feel like crap.

I also called his office right when I woke up, saying he wasn't feeling well, and they told me they would have it listed down that Luke wouldn't come to work for the day. It was a good thing I told Janet not to schedule anything for today.

"You should drink this," I handed him a glass of water and two aspirins when he finally let go of me. "It'll help with the headache, at least I hope it will."

He took the glass and pills from my hand before downing it and putting the already-empty glass on the counter. "Hey, don't you have a ball to attend tonight?"

My eyebrow raised at his question. "What ball?"

"That ball your mom made you go to," he hesitated, weirded out by my confusion. His hands were back on my waist, automatically sending a shiver down my spine the moment he touched me. "The winter ball where you can't bring a date?"

"Luke, that was yesterday," I informed him. "It's Monday today."

He laughed. "Nice one. Seriously, don't you have to get ready with your sisters?"

My eyebrows were scrunched together, and I had a perplexed look on my face. "Luke, I'm serious, it's Monday. I came here last night after the ball to check up on you. I didn't even get to change out of my dress."

His eyes widened, and he tightened his grip on my waist. "I have work. I'm so late. My boss is going to kill me, Alex."

I firmly grasped his hand, and I noticed his tense shoulders relax a little. "Luke, I already called them for you. I said you weren't feeling very well, which you really aren't, so you're all good not going to work today."

"They're probably going to be really confused about me being sick again," he chuckled. "But thanks for that."

I cupped his cheek and gave him a small smile. "It's the least I could do for accidentally emotionally tormenting you for two days. Now, go shower."

He looked at me and frowned playfully. "You're getting sick of me already, it's only been a few hours since you forgave me. You did forgive me last night, didn't you?"

"Yes, Luke, I did," laughter escaped my lips. "I'm saying you just really need to shower. I have nothing against your presence, you just kinda smell bad. Ashton told me you haven't showered since Friday."

Luke opened his mouth to say something, but realized he probably was getting kind of stinky. "Got it."

With that, he let go of my waist and walked back into his room to shower. It took him all of fifteen minutes to finish, and as he showered, I scrolled through Instagram and saw some pictures from the ball.