Before dawn | Dark romance

Chapter 26 - Poison

May 7, 2024

Tuesday

Dear diary,

Let me tell you about my day.

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It has been three days since I last saw or heard from Luca. He said he would call, but so far, nothing. After that breathtaking kiss when shared on Saturday evening, I spent all day Sunday by the phone, hoping to hear from him. Each text message that came in made me think it was him, but it never was. By Monday evening, when I still hadn't heard anything, I decided to change my attitude. I wasn't going to sit around waiting for him. I had let a guy have the best of me once before, and I still got cheated on. I learned my lesson from that—I wasn't going to let it happen again.

When I got out of bed today, my entire mood had shifted. Where yesterday I felt down and sad because I hadn't heard from Luca, today I simply didn't care anymore. Taj definitely noticed my change in demeanor. Though he didn't mention it at first, he eventually asked me when he invited me to grab some lunch with him outside of the office. We don't do this often because usually, Grace joins us as soon as she finds out we're going somewhere for lunch. Sometimes Emily joins too, but today neither of them could make it. Grace was out baby shopping with her mom, and Emily was in bed 'sick'—or, as I call it, love-sick. She also hadn't heard anything from Vinny yet, but because she did more with him on Saturday evening than the innocent tongue wrestle I had with Luca, she's now heartbroken and sulking in bed. I don't have the heart to tell her 'I told you so,' but deep down, she knew what she was getting into. Beautiful men break your heart; it's lesson one-on-one.

After spending an absurd amount of time talking with Taj during lunch, we finally got back to the office around 3 PM. Since I was with the boss, I guess it was permissible. We had a lot to catch up on, having not really had the chance to update each other on our lives recently. I told him about William and how I found out he had cheated on me. Taj was fuming as I told him that story, but I also told him about Luca situation and what had been going on. Luca was confusing, but at the same time, he intrigued me. Taj laughed after my confession and told me that there was nothing he could do because I was already caught in Luca's trap.

Taj then shared about Grace and how she was slowly turning into this person he was scared of. "Pregnancy is scary, Maddie," he said, which cracked me up. I tried to defend Grace, explaining that hormones can do the craziest things to a female body and that it was likely scary for Grace as well. But when he told me she threw a vase at him because he was breathing too loudly, I couldn't find any more excuses to justify her behavior, and we both just cracked up. It was good to have that one-on-one time with him.

When I got back to the office, I had less than two and a half hours left to finish my tasks for the day. I knew it was an optimistic goal to begin with, but that didn't stop me from trying. I put on my headphones and flew through my work. It was only when my phone buzzed with a new incoming message, and I glanced at the screen to check who it was, that I was pulled out of my workflow.

I take my phone and see I have a text from an unknown number. My heartbeat speeds up as I hope it is from the person I had been waiting to hear from for days.

From: Unknown Time: 4:49 PM

Madeleine, I will pick you up tonight at 7:30. If I don't hear from you, I'll assume that's a no. - Luca

That's all? He waited three days and this is all I get? And he tells me he's going to pick me up instead of asking? Who the hell does this guy think he is? Instead of asking me if I want to go somewhere with him, he's demanding, and I do not like being treated like that.