my tinder disaster - luke hemmings

twenty six

POV: Luke

She stared back at me with her beautiful blue eyes from across the booth.

I felt so lucky.

I didn't deserve someone like her. So kind and genuine, I didn't even see myself that way.

I had expected her to run out of the restaurant right about now. But she didn't even know half the story. There's still time for her to get away from me.

"Do you want to get out of here? We can go back to my hotel, or just walk around somewhere. We don't have to talk about this here."

"Yeah, that sounds good."

I wave my hand in order to get the waitresses attention.

I attempt to wipe of the sweat from my hands on my leg before returning the check back. I've never felt this nervous before.

Riley gets out of the booth with me following after her. I study her body as she walks out of the restaurant. So elegant and simply beautiful. I had only felt this way once before.

She turns her head around over her shoulder. "Thanks for dinner." She stops me in my tracks to give me a peck on the cheek. I give her a smile in return.

"My pleasure." She takes my hand and leads us out the door.

The lights of the surrounding buildings compliment every part of her. She glowed as we walked down the streets of New York City.

"Can we go back to your hotel? Only if you don't mind." She says disrupting my thought.

"Of course! I can order you one of those room service sundaes." She giggled in response. Her laugh was the cutest thing.

*******

Moments later, we are walking through the door of my hotel room. It felt as if she had never left. She plops herself down on my bed making herself comfortable.

"I'm back again," she says grinning.

"That you are." I smile as I walk towards her. "Riley, I want to tell you the real reason why I'm in the states," I confessed as I sit down beside her.

"Oh?" She responds, completely turning her body to face me. "Did you kill someone? Are you a fugitive?"

"No no no, nothing like that." Her face returns to a state of relief.

"Geez, you had me worried." She pushes my shoulder.

"I'm sorry," I let out a faint laugh. "It's just, shit kinda went down between me and Maya."

"What do you mean?" She questions.

"The last couple of months have been constant fighting over Harley. It got really bad a couple of weeks ago." The slightest reminisce of this made the feeling of being away from Harley ache even more.

"Were you guys...together?" She asks while fiddling with her hands.

"No. Well-I mean, yes." I stammer.

She stares back at me with a glance of confusion.

"We were together for a year and then Harley happened. But we've been broken up since this March." Saying these words brought me back to the time I wanted to forget. The only good thing that was to come out of my relationship with Maya was our son. And it was still messed up in every way possible.

She stares at me with her doe-eyed look.

"Why didn't it work out?"

That was the question I couldn't answer. I mean, I could. But I didn't want to. Not to Riley, that is.

"It's a long, long story," I say hesitantly. I knew that if I started this conversation there would be no turning back. Typically, I would avoid this situation. But I've been avoiding it too much.

I chime back into the conversation once I gather my rambled thoughts.

"I guess you could say, I did some things." The look on her face worried me. It wasn't a scared look, but it was uneasy for sure.

"I didn't hurt her physically or anything like that. I just...I wasn't, ok."

I could only imagine what thoughts must have been running through her head. She's probably worried that she's in a hotel room alone with a complete psychopath. I mean, she didn't really know me.

And I wanted that to change.

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to. It's your business." I was relieved with her response, but I knew deep down she wanted to know. And I didn't want secrets between us. Because whatever is going on between me and her, I didn't want to chance losing it.

I had to tell her why I lost custody of Harley.

"Well...a couple weeks ago, Maya and I had gotten in a huge argument. Worse than the ones we would normally have. It was an argument about me. Well-because of me."

A puzzled look was drawn over her porcelain face.

"Because of what I was doing-did, I'm not allowed to see Harley anymore." She glanced up at me while twiddling her thumbs. "That's why I'm here, in New York."

"Oh," she mutters. "You can't see Harley anymore?"

"No." My eyes are glued to the floor. I felt ashamed to answer that.

"Not even on weekends? No joint custody?"

"Nope. Nothing."

Saying these facts out loud only hurt me worse. I missed my son. And I was dreading to tell her the reason why.

"Luke, you don't have to explain if you don't want to. I don't want to make you feel pressured to tell me anything you're not comfortable saying."

She was sweet even when she didn't have to be. I didn't deserve it.

"I want to tell you," I say in response. "I just know you will see me differently." The second part came out as practically a whisper.

"I promise, I won't." She leans closer to me as she plants her lips upon mine.

Here I was again, connecting lips with Riley. The familiar warmth tingled up and down my body as her lips grazed mine.

How was I to tell her.

______________________________________________

*MAJOR RECONSTRUCTION TO THIS BOOK.* i need to go back and rewrite because like the first 10 chapters suck ass lol. so i apologize in advance if u keep getting notifications that i'm updating the book, i'm just shocked people keep reading this considering the writing is terrible, lmao. LOVE U.*