LUKE: Complete Series by Cassia Leo Page A

leaned back against the seat to hide behind the partition separating our table from Miss Winkyface and Luke took the opportunity to plant a kiss on my lips.
    “Are you bored already?” he asked, his lips brushing mine as he spoke.
    “You never answered my question.”
    He smiled as a waitress with bright sparkling eye shadow and glossy lips approached our table.
    “Hey, Luke,” she said, flashing him a seductive smile.
    “Hey, Nia. This is my girlfriend, Brina,” he said, as he turned to me. “What do you want to drink?”
    My stomach fluttered with the wings of a million butterflies as I tried to bite back my grin. “Rum and diet.”
    Nia’s penciled eyebrow rose as she turned to Luke.
    “The usual,” he said, and Nia flashed us a fake smile before she left. “Why are you grinning?”
    “Why haven’t you answered my question?”
    “Oh, right. Time for our first therapy session.”
    “Make it quick. You’ve got exactly one hour before I drag you to the Four Seasons for a different kind of therapy.”
    “Well, in that case… It started about a year after my dad kicked me to the curb. I was finally staying in a motel room with the money I was making doing computer repairs. I made an illegal Hackintosh for Jerry Wilshire and when he found out about the side project I was working on he decided to present my schematics for the M-360 to some venture capitalists. Within eight months, I was eighteen years old and sitting on $13 million in my share of VC funding as I worked on the OS.”
    “I knew you were young, but I didn’t think you were that young.”
    “Yeah, well, I was smart when it came to computers, but pretty stupid when it came to a lot of other stuff. I showed up at my parents’ door thinking that all would be forgiven once they saw how well I was doing. I didn’t even get a glimpse of my mother or sister before my dad slammed the door in my face. He said he didn’t want my money and he didn’t want anything to do with me.”
    “Why? Why would he do that?”
    “That’s the big fucking question that I still don’t have an answer for. I think he might have thought I was coming back to prove that he was wrong for throwing me out, but I wasn’t. I really just wanted to help them. I do help them out, but it’s all wired to an account under my sister’s name and she handles the money.”
    Nia set our drinks on the round knee-high table in front of us. “You all set for now?”
    “We’re fine. Thank you, Nia,” he replied, as he handed her a hundred dollar bill.
    I took a long sip of my rum and diet, trying to slurp up as much courage as I could before it was my turn to spill my guts. I expected him to prod me to start talking, but he waited patiently until I finished my drink. I took a deep breath as I could already feel the tears stinging the backs of my eyes. I blinked a few times and began.
    “The summer between my sophomore and junior year at Cornell, Ryan came to visit me for a few weeks.” I paused as I remembered the taxi door opening and throwing my arms around him as he stepped out. “I was so happy to have him there that I never even questioned why he traveled three thousand miles to visit me for three weeks when he could be partying with his buddies during their summer break. It wasn’t until the last couple of days of his visit that I noticed something was wrong. He looked… troubled.”
    I picked up my glass and tried to take a sip before I remembered that I had already drunk the whole thing.
    “Here.” Luke passed me his glass of bourbon and I took a hard swig and handed it back to him.
    “He told me he was thinking of dropping out of the University of Washington. I was in shock. He and his buddies had talked about going there since they were in junior high. He went to a billion sporting events there in high school. He lived and breathed U-Dub.”
    I smiled as my mind drew back to the time Ryan got drunk and almost had a purple W tattooed on his ass.
    “But that