Knocked Up(21)

She swallowed hard, then muttered through the seam of her tightly pursed lips, "Do not look at him. Do not make eye contact. Just keep talking.”

"That's gonna be kind of hard,” she murmured back, her gaze still locked over Tawny’s shoulder as she attempted her own version of ventriloquism. “He's headed straight for us."

"He's what?" Tawny practically choked, but it was too late. She felt him before she saw him. It was like the lights dimmed and the air had gone out of the room. Like, for some reason, all the noise in the place had dulled and she could only hear the deep rumble of his voice.

“Hey, Suzette, how are you?”

She could feel him looming over her but couldn’t bring herself to look up. Instead, she shifted the napkin in her lap higher and said a mental prayer.

“Hey, Luke, long time no see,” Suzette replied, a fake smile pasted to her glossy lips.

“Look, uh, would you mind giving me a minute to talk to Tawny real quick?"

"I..." Suzette stared at her friend, her eyes wide, but then she shrugged and gave him a shaky nod. "Yeah, uh, sure thing."

This was not happening. This was not happening. This could not be happening.

Any moment, she was going to wake up in her bed and find that this was all a terrible, awful dream. A dream with very vivid details, where he smelled exactly like fresh air and mown grass, but a dream all the same.

Tawny opened her mouth, but only a vague whimper came out as Suzette slid from the booth and made her way to the ladies' room on the far side of the restaurant.

This was it. The moment she'd thought would never come, that she'd hoped to avoid for the rest of her days.

For the life of her, she couldn't think who might have tipped him off. It was true Suzette had a big mouth, but she never would have betrayed Tawny's trust this way. Was it possible that someone had seen her in town and mentioned it to him? That seemed far-fetched, didn't it? Especially since they hadn’t been an item and no one knew they’d slept together. Not to mention that she was a relative unknown, having spent nearly all her time in Alhouette at the college until graduation.

"Hey," he said, sliding into the place where Suzette had just been.

She wasn't sure, at first, if she'd responded, only that his eyebrows had pulled together and he was gazing at her with those intense eyes of his. Maybe it was her imagination, but she could have sworn that he could see right through her, to the bottom of her soul, and she wished that the table between them was three feet wider, if only to give herself the room to breathe. Still, he was here and this was happening. She had to own up to her choices, to her decision.

"I've been looking for you," he said. "I think we need to talk."

"Right. I get that. I...I'm sorry I didn't call." She searched desperately for how best to explain herself, but the words were tumbling from her mouth without her consent, as if the more she spoke the easier it would be to fill the deadly, awkward silence. “I know I owe you an explanation. I’ve just been going through a lot and I wasn't sure if you'd want to hear from me so I...so I…didn’t,” she finished lamely.

His eyebrows pulled tighter together and he shook his head. “You don’t owe me anything, Tawny. I just wanted to ask how come you never called me back and to make sure you were okay. I didn’t realize until way too late that you had never…” he trailed off and shrugged his broad shoulders, “I didn’t realize you were a virgin and it’s been bothering me that I wasn’t more careful. And, if I’m being honest, I kind of wanted to see you again anyway.”

He doesn’t know. Holy mother of god, he doesn’t know.

She nearly passed out with relief and rushed in to fill the dead air space. “I’m fine. Yeah, totally good.” She forced a grin and tucked a stray strand of hair behind one ear. “I’m sorry I didn’t call back. I didn’t want you to feel like you were on the hook or anything because of that. I knew what I was getting into and that it was just a one night thing.”

It wasn’t ideal. Any of this. Until now, she’d fooled herself into believing she could just keep this news to herself, but now, seeing him, she realized just how unfair that was.

Still, that didn’t mean she had to tell him today…

Luke’s gaze searched her face and she could feel her cheeks flushing.

“You feel okay? You look…weird.”

She took a deep breath, ready to rush forward with another wave of excuses when the waitress appeared in front of her holding a tray full of waffles and two bowls filled with fresh strawberries.

"I talked to the chef and he insisted you had enough to take some home with you, too. We don't want mommy or baby to starve now, do we?" She winked and Tawny's throat went bone dry.