Chapter 27: Yvonne can ask later
Lauren sat across from him and rested her chin lightly against her knuckles.
"You seem to like her."
Luke’s smile weakened.
"She was nice."
"Only nice?"
He picked up a piece of fruit and studied it rather than eating it.
"She was helpful."
"Mhm."
There it was again.
Luke’s eyes narrowed slightly, but Lauren reached for the bread and acted as though nothing unusual had happened.
"She sounds experienced," she said.
"She wasn’t."
Lauren paused with the bread halfway to her plate.
"No?"
"It was her first time playing too."
She set the bread down and looked at him properly.
"Maybe the two of you were lucky to find each other."
Luke remembered Yvonne sitting on his hips. His fingers pressed into the piece of fruit until juice dampened them.
"Maybe."
Lauren noticed the reaction and slowly spread butter across her bread.
"What else did she do?"
Luke looked up.
"You’re asking a lot of questions."
"I bought you the system." Lauren gestured toward him with the butter knife. "I think I’m allowed to ask if you had fun."
"I did."
"Because of the fighting?"
Luke wiped the juice from his fingers with a napkin. He took longer than necessary, keeping his face lowered until he trusted himself to answer.
"Mostly."
Lauren stopped spreading the butter.
Her eyes moved over his bent head, the tips of his reddening ears, and the tension in his shoulders. A pleased smile appeared before she could stop it.
Luke saw the expression when he looked up.
He hurried to change the subject.
"My partner had daughters who wanted to become heroes."
Lauren’s knife stopped against the bread.
"Actually, now that I think about it, the two of you might become really good friends."
"Haha!"
The laugh burst out louder than Lauren intended. She quickly covered her mouth with the back of her hand, but Luke was already staring.
"Really?" she asked, lowering her voice.
"Yeah. Her daughters are heroes, or at least training to become heroes. She studied their combat recordings because she wanted to help them."
Lauren folded her hands in her lap so he would not notice her fidgeting.
"That does sound familiar."
"She worried about them a lot too."
"Any mother would."
"Her voice also sounds a little like yours."
Lauren’s back straightened.
Her thumb rubbed across the side of her index finger beneath the table while she waited for him to continue.
"It isn’t exactly the same, though," Luke said. "She speaks differently."
"How?"
He shifted in his chair, and the legs scraped softly across the floor.
"She calls me darling."
Lauren’s lips parted. She lowered her eyes toward her plate before he could read her expression.
"Oh."
"And she teases me."
The quiet pleasure in Lauren’s face gave way to curiosity. She leaned forward slightly, resting both forearms on the table.
"What does she tease you about?"
"A lot of things."
"Such as?"
Luke stared at her.
Lauren held his gaze for a second, then seemed to realize how interested she looked. She sat back and picked up her cup, though she did not drink from it.
"You’re acting strange, Miss Lauren."
"I’m only curious."
"About whether a woman teased me?"
"About whether you had fun."
Luke looked down at his breakfast and nudged a piece of strawberry around his plate with the end of his fork.
"It was fun."
Lauren’s fingers relaxed around the cup.
"I’m glad."
For a moment, neither of them spoke. Morning sunlight stretched across the table, and the closed café below left the apartment unusually quiet.
Luke looked up again.
The gentle woman sitting across from him seemed completely different from Yvonne. Lauren’s blouse covered her body, her apron was tied neatly around her waist, and concern entered her face whenever she thought he might be tired.
Yvonne would have leaned across the table and forced him to admit exactly what he enjoyed.
The resemblance had to be a coincidence.
"Do you want to meet her?" Luke asked.
Lauren inhaled at the wrong moment and coughed into her hand.
"What?"
"When you start playing. We could all enter a dungeon together."
There was one obvious problem with that idea. Lauren could not appear as Miss Lauren and Yvonne at the same time.
She reached for her cup to give herself a few seconds. The rim touched her lips, but she barely drank anything.
"I’d love to meet her," Lauren said carefully. "Unfortunately, I have far too much paperwork piled up over the next few days."
Luke nodded.
"You did say you had taxes."
"Yes. Taxes, payroll, supplier invoices, and several other terribly boring things."
She set the cup down and adjusted its position twice before releasing it.
"You should focus on becoming better friends with her instead."
Luke stared at the table and considered the suggestion. His shoulders loosened, and he finally picked up his fork.
Maybe that’s for the best.
If Lauren joined them, Yvonne might stop teasing him. She certainly would not sit on his hips or press herself against him with Miss Lauren watching.
Yvonne probably wouldn’t be so affectionate with me if Miss Lauren were there, right?
Across the table, Lauren watched the relief settle over his face.
A brief stab of jealousy caught her off guard. Her nails pressed against her palm beneath the table before she remembered she was jealous of herself.
The ridiculousness of it nearly made her laugh.
Luke wanted more time with Yvonne, yet he could barely look at Lauren that morning.
She wondered whether the vision from the previous night had shown her something real.
Lauren lifted her cup and studied him over the rim. His eyes briefly dropped toward her chest before darting back to his plate.
Her fingers tightened slightly around the cup.
Perhaps Oracle’s Glimpse had not shown her an imaginary future. Perhaps it had shown her the truth.
Lauren set the cup down.
"Luke?"
His fork stopped halfway to his mouth.
"Yes?"
She considered asking whether he had passed her bedroom during the night. One direct question might answer everything.
Then Luke looked at her with the same nervous expression she had seen in the vision. His fingers shifted uneasily around the fork, and his knee bounced once beneath the table before he forced it still.
Lauren lost her courage.
"Eat before it gets cold," she said.
Luke lowered his head toward the plate.
"Right."
Lauren smiled softly.
There would be another dungeon. Yvonne would see him again, and perhaps she could make him confess what had happened without revealing that she already suspected the truth.
For now, Miss Lauren would remain gentle and responsible.
Yvonne could ask the dangerous questions later.
