I go rigid, like I’d been caught making out with Tom.
“Luke, I’m sorry.” I hold up his bag as a peace offering.
“I don’t care about that,” he says, taking the bag and tossing it into the tiny house somewhere. I wait, confused. “Were you looking at the northern lights without me?”
“No. I mean, yes. We tried, but it’s too cloudy.”
This time it’s Luke who looks confused.
“Who’s we?”
“Oh.” This time I really do feel like I got caught doing something wrong—which I shouldn’t—but the guilt burns hot on my face. “I met a bunch of people from Wales at this restaurant and they invited me to come with them to go find the northern lights.”
“Harper,” Luke says, full of disappointment. “Where was my invite?”
“You were with Cassie! For all I knew, you weren’t even coming back tonight.”
Luke gives me the face that he always does when he thinksI’m being ridiculous. He steps aside so I can come inside the tiny house.
The place is definitely tiny. It has an open concept living room and kitchen combo. On the left side are kitchen cabinets, and on the right side is a couch. A little above the sink and off to the right is a small TV on one of those stands that lets you pull the TV out and away from the wall and angle it however you’d like. On the backside of the building is one bedroom that is quite literally only a bed. In fact, it looks like you walk in and there’s only enough room to open the door before you hit the mattress. The walls are tight on both sides of the bed, with not even enough room to walk around to the side of the bed. I guess you’re just supposed to just climb in from the foot of the bed?
The room beside the bedroom is a bathroom, which considering it’s a tiny house, looks pretty big, though at this moment, I’d prefer a bigger bedroom.
When I booked the place, it looked adorable. But it was Ava I was supposed to be sharing the bed with, not Luke.
I glance over at the couch, which isn’t even long enough for one of us to lie down on, because again, tiny house.
Luke reaches for his bag and starts pulling things out, which reminds me that I’ve been holding his bag hostage this entire time.
“What time did you get back?” I’m afraid to hear his answer in case it brings me even more guilt for how late I’d been out.
“Sometime around dinner? I assumed you didn’t want to eat dinner alone again.”
“You didn’t want to go to dinner with Cassie?”
The question makes him take a deep breath. “Yeah, I don’tthink I’ll be seeing Cassie again.”
The news makes me feel excited, which in turn makes me feel worse about the fact that I’m excited that the person Luke was interested in is out of the picture before she was even really in the picture.
“What happened?” I ask.
Another shrug. “Guess girls don’t like when you sleep in beds with other girls.”
Oh. I’m not sure if I want to know how that conversation with Cassie played out.
“I’m sorry.” Sorry mostly that I was the reason they broke up.
“It’s fine. She was getting to be a bit much.”
“I know,” I say immediately. “I mean—” I stop myself, because I said what I mean, I just didn’t mean to say it. “Sorry, I’m just tired.”
Luke laughs. “You and me both.”
We both take a minute to unpack our things and take turns in the bathroom. Luke goes first and by the time I come out of the bathroom, all the lights in the tiny house are off. There’s a small nightlight in the kitchen, letting me see where I’m going as I make my way over to Luke in the bedroom.
He’s on his phone, the screen lighting up his face, already tucked in for bed.
I climb onto the mattress, crawling up next to Luke. Perhaps the only weird part is how natural it’s starting to feel to get in bed beside him.
