Chapter 27

I sat on the couch waiting for Lucas to return, feeling calmer than I had in months. Years, maybe? I didn’t know for sure and couldn’t have said why—since I felt like I should be anxious—but I felt wonderful. Lucas, the man I’d met only a couple days ago, the CEO of Wellington Enterprises, was off ordering us pizza.
And a movie! I wondered what movies he might have. Did he watch classics, like Casablanca, or did he prefer newer movies? Comedies? Action films? Or, dare I think it, romance? The latter was, perhaps, awkward wishful thinking. I didn’t actually care what kinds of movies he liked, or what in particular we watched, but I enjoyed the idea of sitting in his guest home and watching a movie with him. By ourselves, alone, with pizza, like some kind of casual date.
Of course it wasn’t a date, but some small part of me had classified it as that. He had a wife, told me multiple times he needed to be faithful to her, but why? I didn’t want to ruin his marriage, not by a long shot, but I wanted him to be happy. She left for weeks at a time from what he mentioned, and when she was here she rarely spent time with him from what I knew, so it wasn’t a very expressive marriage. Convenience and association, and since they both came from well-to-do families it made sense, but that didn’t mean marriage needed to be that way.