The Summer I Spent With You {L.H} ~ Book 2

Chapter Three

"G, I need your advice." I said as a threw myself onto the sofa beside her and propped my legs up on the coffee table that was littered in books, stained coffee mugs and three week old receipts. The morning sun came streaming through the floor-to-ceiling windows and provided perfect Vitamin D for the fake flowers I'd put out on the balcony.

"What's up?" Gloria replied, throwing her phone to the side and turning her attention to me. When I first met Gloria she was an art major but half way through her course she changed to be a high school teacher. Apparently her passions had changed from creating art to teaching it. I personally couldn't understand her logic in teaching bratty teenagers with big mouths but hey, who was I to judge?

"Luke messaged me and I managed to ignore it for a good twelve hours, and I now need your help to reply." I opened up my twitter app with all my one-hundred-and-twenty-seven followers and clicked onto my direct messages. "Take a look, read it out loud."

She carefully took the phone from my hands and began to read. "Hey Mila, was great to see you yesterday. Was wondering if you wanted to meet up for a coffee or something? Would love to catch up. Luke. - Awe, and he even put a kiss at the end. What a sweetheart!"

"He's not a sweetheart Gloria. Last time I checked, he was a complete dick." I exclaimed and stood up. "Did I not tell you what he did to me?" I began pacing the floor anxiously.

"Yes, and I don't condone what he did. But he's obviously changed. He confessed his love for god sake, and you rejected him. He's trying to make amends." Gloria suggested. "And anyway, you always tell me to forgive and forget; part of your psychiatric shit. So pull some therapy sessions on yourself and go meet him."

"Gloria, I can't. What about Drew-"

"You and Drew aren't even a thing anymore." She interrupted. "Nada, nothing-"

"Okay G, I get it. You don't like the guy." She smiled at me patronizingly.

"So, what are you doing today?" She asked, changing the subject.

"Oh, I don't know. Pondering over my life regrets, addressing that intense feeling of emptiness I get every so often, maybe I'll tidy the bathroom later?"

"Well be ready for two. You're meeting Luke at Coffee Beans Coffee Palace where they sell, and I quote, the most deliciously, scrumptious, sizzling hot cup of coffee that will fulfill your needs whatever they may be." As she said this I slowly turned around on my heels and stared at my phone in her hand. She did not just do that. Fucking bitch. "Don't even try to get out of it."

And that's the story of how a few hours later I was sat across a wooden table sipping on some hot chocolate, because I don't even like coffee, from Luke and trying not to say anything that would let it slide that I kinda didn't want to be here. Although I kind of did.

"So where about is it you work again?" He asked me as he sipped from the cardboard cup in his hand. "You probably told me but I have the memory of a goldfish."

"Well it's a private therapy business. We deal with all kinds of patients. Mental illness, family therapy; stuff like that."

"That sounds like a really rewarding job." He smiled and I nodded in agreement. "But enough about work, what are you up to these days?"

"Erm, not much really. I share an apartment with my best friend Gloria, so every now and then we have a party. I like to work out, you know, go to the gym and stuff." Why did I sound so fucking weird and normal and like someone's forty year old mother?  "Tell me about you. What do you do these days? Apart from touring all around the world and playing shows to like what? Thirty thousand people, five nights a week?" He laughed at my exaggeration.