Always You - A Second Chance Romance

Chapter 21

I pulled up into the front of the hotel just as Luke stepped out of the lobby. He smiled widely and waved as he walked over to my car. I could barely contain the my excitement. My hand trembled as I pressed the unlock button on my door and I squeezed it into a tight fist to try to settle my nerves.

Luke opened the back door and put his backpack on the seat before hopping in the passenger seat next to me.

"Hey," he said with a wide smile. I felt like all the air in my lungs had escaped, I was completely breathless seeing him again.

"Hi," I barely mustered. We sort of looked at each other for a while, each of us processing seeing each other again. It took everything in me not to lean over and kiss him. His eyes flicked to my lips momentarily and I wondered if he was thinking the same thing.

"Ready?" He asked softly. I nodded and we drove off to the office. The car ride was quiet, but a comfortable silence.

When we arrived a few minutes later I gave Luke a quick tour of the office. I showed him where the kitchen and bathrooms were and walked him through the showrooms. He met a couple designers and developers on the team as well. We ended the tour in the workshop we would be working in for the next week.

"This is a great space," he said as the door to the workshop closed behind us.

"I masked off on the floor the dimensions of the space for the convention," I pointed out. Luke nodded and walked around the blue tape perimeter on the floor.

"It looks smaller than it is," he commented. I nodded.

"I think we're going to have our work cut out for us to fill this space," I told him. "I figured we could maybe start with a 3D mock up, and then we can order the materials.... What do you think?"

"Just what I was going to say," he said with a smile. "Want to get started?"

Luke and I huddled around a large computer monitor and I started modeling out the design we had in mind for the booth using a design program. We threw up walls, put in cut outs for clear display boxes, shelves, posters of lifestyle imagery, everything we needed for a successful display. Before we knew it is was well past lunch time but we had finished our design.

We decided to take a break for lunch and then revisit what we had come up with before we made any decisions. When I asked Luke what he wanted for lunch, he instantly brought up a taco shop we used to go to all the time when we were dating.

"Mexican food just isn't the same outside of California," he reasoned. "I've been dying for some fish tacos."

"Fish tacos it is," I said.

"How was your flight?" I asked him as I drove us to the taco shop.

"It was good," he said. "I don't miss dealing with LAX though."

"I don't blame you, I hate flying out of there every time," I replied.

"Is the office always that quiet?" He asked. I nodded.

"Yeah things have been pretty slow, most people work from home. There's only a couple times a year when we're at capacity."

"The Chicago office is so different," Luke said. "I'd get looked at sideways for wearing jeans." I laughed.

"It's the opposite here. One time I wore black jeans and Tim, one of the directors, asked me if I had a job interview later," I said with a laugh. Luke laughed and shook his head. We fell into another comfortable silence.

"I love your laugh," Luke said suddenly. My heart beat erratically in my chest and I felt my ears start to burn with my blush.

"Th-thank you," I stuttered. I pulled into a parking space and quickly turned off the car, suddenly feeling like it was too stuffy.