“Get a case,” Luke told him.
My eyes bugged out. A case of diet would last me a month.
Matt burst out laughing and hit the button on the elevator.
“I don’t need a case. I just need one,” I told Matt.
“A case,” Luke said decisively.
The elevator doors opened and Matt walked in. “I’ll get a case,” he told Luke and the doors closed.
“Really, that’s unnecessary,” I said to Luke.
He didn’t reply.
I sighed, heavy and annoyed. He wanted a case of diet? Fine. Who cared?
I gave up and scrolled through my missed calls: five from Sissy, one from Riley.
Hmm. Riley. Interesting.
“Ava,” my head came up and I looked at Luke.
Shit. It was time for the talk.
“Do you have any food?” I asked in an effort to delay. I didn’t like to eat before I’d had my diet soda but desperate times called for desperate measures.
“Yeah,” he answered.
“Do you mind?”
His body relaxed and his lips moved. They kind of twitched, like he knew my thoughts and found me amusing but was trying not to smile.
I squelched the desire to throw my phone at him as he offered, “Help yourself.”
I dropped my phone in my purse, walked around the counter the opposite side to Luke, and went to his fridge.
I was stunned to see it was packed with healthy eating options: low-fat yogurt, high-quality, multi-grain bread, tons of fruit and veggies. I spied a half a cantaloupe wrapped in cling film and pulled it out.
“Can I have some cantaloupe?” I asked, turning to Luke.
He tilted his chin up in a nonverbal “yes”.
There was a cutting board in his sink. I put down the cantaloupe and went to work cleaning the cutting board.
“You’re well-stocked.” Again, I was delaying “the talk”.
“Sandra went shopping.”
“Sandra?”
“A woman I’m seein’.”
At his words it took every bit of energy I had not to freeze, gasp or maybe vomit.
Of course he would be seeing someone. Luke was hot. Luke was a guy. Luke had a testosterone-fuelled job. He had to be getting it from someone. He didn’t strike me as the kind of guy who would be faithful to his hand like I was faithful to my vibrators.
“Will she mind if I eat her cantaloupe?” I asked, drying the board and not looking at him.