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24
Luca
Friday morning.Five days after waking up with Lonnie in my arms and a huge smile on my face.
Four days after she told me she just needed some time to sort things out in her head.
And today, it’s D-Day.I’m ready for it too.Morethan ready.I've been living, breathing, and dreaming about the Chicago Fire Department's lieutenant test.Cap gave me yesterday off the engine to study.
Thankfully, he hasn’t asked me about how things with London are going.I think that’s more out of self-preservation than anything else.Who wants to talk to their daughter’s whatever-I-am, especially when the said man who’s dating the daughter is one of your subordinates?
Instead, he made sure I was kept fed and watered and monitored me like a wayward student, quizzing me and throwing out different scenarios so I could describe how I’d manage the scene.It was exactly what I needed and yet another thing Cap has done for me that I know I’ll never be able to repay.
Then I was sent home and told to do nothing but eat, relax, and sleep, and then turn up to the convention center downtown where the department’s promotional exams are held.
While waiting in the lobby to be called in, I pull out my phone.
Luca: I have another confession ...
Every day since Monday, I've been sending Lonnie texts.I respect her honesty and her need for space, especially since I took my sweet-ass time to realize I was totally gone for her.Our friendship turned into a relationship at warp speed after all, so if she needs a week or two, that's fine by me.Me and my feelings aren't going anywhere.Which is why I’ve been sending her messages with things I would tell her if she was with me, or curled up in my arms on the couch watching her rom-com movies, or teasing me about the wrong way to eat a taco.At the start, I figured if she didn't answer, at least I knew I was confessing my truths to her, the ones I’d denied for so damn long—toolong.
London: Okay ...another story about Jennifer Grant?
I snort and shake my head.
Luca: I’m going to regret that, aren’t I?
London: Maybe.I haven’t decided yet.I mean ...Icould always tell Mama Rossi myself ...
Luca: YOU WOULDN’T?!
London: I guess that depends on what you’re going to tell me.
Luca: Do you know the first thing I thought when you kissed me?
London: Was it ‘Oh shit, she’s kissing me’?
I chuckle to myself.
Luca: Well, THAT.Then it was GOD, this girl knows how to kiss.
London: And yet you froze
Luca: My life may have flashed before my eyes
London: Ha ha.Now that is funny.Shouldn’t you be sitting your test?
Luca: Just about to go in.Wish me luck?
London: You don’t need it.You’re Luca Rossi.You’re going to kick ass and take names.
Luca: God, I love you
I type it out without any hesitation, knowing it to be true.But now isnotthe time to be dropping that bomb on my best friend, so I delete it..
Talk about a role reversal.Now it’smewho is full of all these feelings and worrying about how soon is too soon to purge them all out of my system and tell Lonnie everything I want—no,need—her to know.
Luca: Couldn’t have gotten here without you, beautiful.
