NO SHAME

XII

"Aspen, have you seen my phone?" Luke called from his room.

    "It's in the kitchen," I called back. "I'll grab it for you."

    "Thanks!"

    I stood from the couch and grabbed Luke's phone to bring it to him, finding him in his room. I had discovered in my two weeks of living here that Luke liked to walk around his house without a shirt on, not that I was complaining. I've said it before and I'll say it again, he's attractive. Anyone with eyes can see that Luke is an attractive guy, I just chose to ignore that fact while I was still with Jake.

    "Do you know what a shirt is?" I teased as I handed him his phone.

    "No, I don't think I do, sorry," he joked back.

    I rolled my eyes at Luke and started to make my way out of his room, when he spoke up again.

    "We should go out to dinner tonight, I'm bored of eating in," Luke suggested.

    "As long as you wear a shirt, I'm fine with that," I responded.

    "No, Aspen, I was just planning on going out to a restaurant shirtless."

    "Don't lie, if it was socially acceptable you totally would."

    "Key word: socially acceptable."

    I once again rolled my eyes at him and successfully escaped his room to go get ready for dinner.

-

    "You look pretty," Luke said from behind me as I stood in front of my mirror. I turned around so I was facing him, taking in how nice he looked for dinner.

    "Thanks, you look not so bad yourself," I replied as I reached up to brush a stray curl from his forehead.

    Since breaking up with Jake, I noticed that Luke and I had started to become more flirty with each other. I don't know if we had always acted like this when we were together, or if it just started to happen because we no longer had Jake to worry about, but it became a regular thing.

    "Are you ready to go?" Luke asked as he swatted my hand away from his hair.

    "Yep," I smiled and let Luke lead the way.

    We weren't going anywhere fancy, just to a small local restaurant that we both had said we wanted to try. It was really cute, and the perfect place for Luke to be, because it wasn't too busy, and the windows were all tinted. The hostess sat us at a table towards the back or the restaurant, which gave us some more privacy from the rest of the customers in the building.

    "Alright Aspen, we have like a week until your birthday, what do you want to do?" Luke asked me after we had ordered our food.

    "Honestly, I don't want it to be a big thing, maybe just hang out with you, Ash, Cal and Mike," I explained.

    "It's your 21st, though."

    "Yeah, but I'm not really a big party person. Plus, I don't really have any other friends here in LA."

    "Makes sense. What do you want as a gift?"

    "You don't have to-"

    "Don't pull that card, I'm getting you something. So what do you want?"

    "I don't really know, I mean honestly, I'm just really thankful for everything you've done for me."

    "Well, I guess Calum is going to have to figure it out on his own, he's the one who wanted me to ask," Luke chuckled.

    "Speaking of Calum, he texted me last night and has planned an entire day for me and him to hang out," I giggled.

    "He's literally obsessed with you, he loves you."

    "Good, I love him too," I smiled and Luke pouted. "Don't look so sad, Pretty Boy, I love you too. I love all four of you."

    Luke nudged my foot with his own under the table and smiled at me.

    "How are you holding up after everything," Luke questioned.

    "Relieved. It's so nice to be able to go home and not be scared of what's waiting for me. I didn't realize how much fear I had because of him, but I'm glad it's gone. I finally feel safe now," I voiced.

    "I should've helped you sooner."

    "No, Luke. This isn't on you, you did help me. You have no idea how much you helped me when I felt like nothing would ever be okay again."

    Luke reached forward to grab my hand, giving it a squeeze when he did.

    "I'm glad I could help you," he uttered. "You helped me too, you know. I was in a really awful place and being with you, having something and someone to look forward to, it helped. You made me feel okay again."

    I didn't know what to say to Luke, and instead I smiled at him and squeezed his hand back. I hadn't even realized it, but in the process of trying to save both of our careers, we had also saved each other.