LUKE: Complete Series (14 page)

The young Asian girl at the door wore a silver headset that curled over her left ear, a plain black T-shirt, and jeans. I almost shook my head at the unofficial uniform of Maxwell Computers; the uniform that I had despised and complained about a million times. I would take back every complaint and wear that uniform every day if it meant Luke and I could go back to way things were six weeks ago.

As it was, I was wearing a plain white T-shirt, plain skinny jeans, and silver flats. Jill had tried to convince me to wear something sexy, but she didn’t understand that, to Luke, this outfit
was
sexy.

The girl scanned my invitation and turned the LCD screen on the scanner toward me. The number 1457 flashed on the screen then disappeared.

“Thanks,” I said, as I entered the lobby of the conference center.

A second woman waved a metal detector wand over my body, searching for other communication and recording devices, then waved me forward. I pulled the phone out of my pocket and punched in the pin number. The screen unlocked and a few icons for native apps flashed on the screen lined up above an icon labeled
Blaze
. I touched the icon and a countdown clock filled the screen.

11 min 18 sec

until launch

I stared at the seconds counting down for a moment before someone called my name—and they didn’t call me Hilda.

“Brina, is that you?”

Fuck!
It was Jesse Niven, Ryan’s former best friend whom I had been dodging for months.

I shook my head as he approached me looking very confused. “You can’t say my name here,” I whispered, as he glanced at the press pass dangling around my neck.

“What are you doing here… Hilda?”

Jesse had just graduated with a degree in journalism from the University of Washington a few weeks ago. I knew because his sister had emailed me to give me the date and time of the ceremony and I ignored the email. I hadn’t seen Jesse since before Ryan’s death. Seeing him now made me want to turn around and leave.

I glanced at his press pass and saw that he was there on behalf of
The Seattle Times
. The painful memories brought on by the site of him were replaced with a swell of pride.

I threw my arms around him. “You did it,” I whispered.

He chuckled as he hugged me back. “Yeah, the business and tech section. Not sports like Ryan wanted, but I think he’d be proud.”

I pulled away and bit my lip as I stared at his press pass. “He would definitely be proud.”

His smile disappeared and I braced myself. “Hey, a couple of us are going to visit the grave for his birthday. You should come.”

I clenched my teeth as I bit back the dozens of angry and irrational replies whizzing through my mind. “I can’t go.”

“Come on, Brina. We’re gonna bring some—”

“I can’t.”

Jesse stared at me, his blue eyes slightly shadowed by a swoop of black hair, but the disappointment was unmistakable. “Yeah, okay.”

“It was good seeing you,” I said, as I kissed his cheek then patted his arm. “Congrats on the new job.”

I drew in a shaky breath and walked away before he could say anything else. The last thing I needed was to see Ryan’s name on a headstone. Ryan and I had always agreed that when we died we wanted to be cremated. I wanted my ashes tossed in the sound. Ryan always joked that he wanted his ashes flushed down the toilet so he could spend eternity with his pet goldfish Lenny. I didn’t know when he changed his mind, but the will he drew up while serving said nothing about being cremated. For some reason, this made me angry. It was just one more secret I had to find out after his death.

I queued up outside the conference room and stared at the screen on my phone until the countdown reached 00:00 and the display flashed with brilliant orange light. Then the password appeared: Charlotte. Luke’s grandmother’s name. Also, the name of his boat; the location of our first tryst. I should have known.

Once I was in, I quickly grabbed a seat in the back. I didn’t want him to know I was there until I approached him after the presentation. I didn’t know if I still had the power to make him nervous, or if
anyone
had that power, but I didn’t want to take any more chances with Luke’s career. This time I would play it right.

I was prepared to sit in my seat and agonize over his exquisiteness for three hours. I wasn’t prepared for my heart to stop the moment he stepped onto the stage.

He wore jeans and a plain white T-shirt that hugged his solid chest and shoulders. The crowd exploded in applause and, not surprisingly, a few whistles and catcalls. He smiled modestly and I leaned forward and hugged my knees as I stared at my feet. I couldn’t watch.

I spent three hours staring at the carpet and playing with my $40,000 phone, only glancing up occasionally when everyone oohed or applauded. When the presentation was finally over, I still wasn’t sure I understood what Blaze technology was, but I knew it had to do with artificial intelligence and that Luke predicted it would come standard on all electronics and appliances within seven years.

I remained seated in the back of the room, waiting for most to leave, watching as Luke schmoozed with dozens of reporters and tech bloggers. I could tell by the glazed looks on their faces that they were in complete admiration of him, but he never seemed to notice or acknowledge the gaga expressions. He gave everyone a few minutes as if he had all the time in the world to chat. When the crowd around him dwindled to less than six, I stood up and made my way to the aisle between the seats.

I stood in the center of the aisle, frozen by the sight of him. Was it possible for a man to be this beautiful? Then he laughed and... that laugh. How I missed the days when he laughed like that for me.

Someone brushed past me and before I could process what was happening, a tall blonde threw her arms around his neck and mashed her lips against his. He pulled away and smiled at her, looking a bit surprised. Then he glanced over her shoulder and looked right at me.

My stomach bottomed out and I turned around quickly. I had taken no more than two steps when I heard his voice.

2: LUKE

“Brina!” I called out as I peeled Olivia’s arms from around my neck and set off down the aisle. “Brina, wait!”

“Luke!” Olivia called to me.

I didn’t turn around as I shouted, “I’ll be right back.”

Brina burst through the doors and disappeared into the lobby. I tore after her, dodging a group of tech bloggers. They called my name as I passed, but I didn’t bother responding. I didn’t have time.

I burst into the lobby and glanced around, but I didn’t see her anywhere. It didn’t matter. At least a dozen people were staring out the glass entrance doors and I quickly made my way out to Pike Street. I could barely glimpse her hair bouncing as she raced across the street.

I dodged the crowds on the sidewalk and ignored the surprised looks. “Brina!” I called out again as I crossed Pike.

She finally stopped in front of
Clay’s Market
and spun around. She stared at me as I walked toward her, her chest heaving with each breath. The look on her face, a mixture of pain and terror, made me want to take her in my arms, but that wasn’t an option anymore.

“Why did you run?” I asked, when I reached her.

She shook her head. “I’m sorry. I guess I panicked. I….” She closed her eyes as she composed herself. “I came to congratulate you.”

“Is that your way of congratulating me? By making me chase you into oncoming traffic?”

“I didn’t make you chase me. Look, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have come.”

She turned to leave and I grabbed her hand. “Wait.” She glanced at our hands and quickly wrenched her hand out of my grasp. “Brina, don’t leave.”

“Why?”

She looked me in the eye and I wanted to say, “Because I love you,” but it was too late for that—and Olivia was waiting for me.

“I don’t know.”

She heaved a deep sigh. “Is she your girlfriend?”

I contemplated the question for a moment. My buddies called Olivia a rebound when we began dating three weeks ago, but somewhere between then and now it had turned into more.

“You’d like Olivia. She’s a lot like you.”

She narrowed her eyes at me. “Olivia is a lot like me. What is that supposed to mean? Is she…? Oh, God…. Is she your new assistant?”

I gritted my teeth as I began to feel angry with myself. I had visualized this moment in my mind for weeks and now I was saying all the wrong things.

“I am such an idiot,” she continued. “What does that make me, the last link in a long chain of ‘assistants’?”

“Brina, you were never my assistant.”

“No, I wasn’t. I was the fuck buddy who nearly screwed your career. Easily defeated and, apparently, easily forgotten.”

Even with her eyes narrowed at me and insults spewing from her mouth, she was still the most beautiful woman I’d ever laid eyes on. It took everything in me not to kiss her right fucking there in front of this crowd of onlookers.

“Can we talk about this somewhere else?” I whispered. “We need to talk about this?”

She shook her head. “I don’t think there’s anything more to say. I came here to congratulate you and I did that. You have every right to see whoever you want. It’s none of my business. Goodbye, Luke.”

“Brina, don’t go.”

The crowd parted as she set off across 8
^th
without looking back. I instantly switched modes. It was the only way to make it back to the conference center without drawing too much attention. I put on a smile and nodded at everyone who smiled or greeted me as I crossed Pike Street and made my way back into the conference room. Olivia was standing right where I had left her, talking to someone on the phone. She didn’t see me.

The truth was that Olivia was nothing like Brina. Olivia got the same background check Brina got when she came to work for me, but Olivia came up as clean as the code for Blaze. No glitches.

Brina’s background check was dirty as hell. I didn’t know how the fuck her boss expected her to pull the wool over my eyes. But I was so curious, I decided to hire her. Besides, it was good practice for me. I already employed various hackers to attempt to crack the software on our phones. There was no reason not to hire someone to attempt to steal information from me. The moment I saw Brina’s name on the list of applicants the agency sent me, I knew I had no choice.

Her brother’s death had affected me more than any of the funerals of servicemen I had donated to. It wasn’t just the fact that he had committed suicide or that Brina had missed his funeral. Something about the fact that she was with him when he died made me want to know her. I wanted to know how someone could move on with their life after enduring something so horrific.

I didn’t expect to find that she hadn’t moved on. I didn’t expect to find someone so beautifully broken and haunted by regret. I didn’t expect to fucking fall in love with her.

Olivia finally saw me as she hung up the phone. She smiled weakly and, though I really wanted to, I couldn’t smile back.

3: BRINA

By the time I reached the Prius, Milo was asleep. I climbed in to the passenger seat and slammed the door shut.

“What the fuck?” he muttered, as he flipped up the driver’s seat and oriented himself.

“Can we please get out of here?”

I didn’t think Luke would come after me, but I felt an intense need to put as much distance between us as possible. I didn’t want to know about him or Olivia.

“What’s wrong with you?” Milo asked, as he pulled out of the parking space. “You look like you saw Prince Luke banging someone.”

I slid the box out from underneath the seat and stuffed the phone back in before I slid it back into place. I pulled off the fake press pass and tossed it into the backseat.

“Just drive. I don’t want to talk about it.”

Milo stared at me as he got in line behind a queue of cars waiting to pay the parking attendant. “What a fucking idiot.”

“Sure. Kick me while I’m down.”

“Not you; him. If he let you go then, yeah, he’s a fucking idiot.”

“Milo, you don’t have to try to make me feel better. I really don’t want to talk about this.”

“Fine, but I’m starving. Let’s go get some fajitas.”

I turned my face away from the passenger side window, away from the street, as Milo pulled up next to the automatic parking attendant. “I’m not hungry.”

He inserted his parking pass into the machine and moved forward when the lever went up. “I thought you said you owe me one. Come on, B.”

“Fine. Anything to make sure you never call me
B
again.”

He grinned as he pulled out onto Union and headed toward his favorite Mexican restaurant. “I know you don’t want to talk about it, but it looks like you need to get something off your chest. See, right there?” He pointed at my chest and I looked down. He flicked my chin and laughed as I flinched.

“What are you, 12?”

I punched his arm, but he just kept laughing as he fiddled with the stereo controls on his steering wheel. He stopped when he got to a song he liked and I recognized it as the band whose shirt he was wearing. The song brought up a memory of sitting in the backyard at my parents’ house with Ryan, Jesse, and Jesse’s girlfriend last summer. Jesse’s girlfriend was pre-law and a raging stoner. As I listened to the tinny electronic beat in Milo’s car, I could almost smell the weed and hear the laughter.

I guess one good thing came out of this fiasco: I got to congratulate Jesse.