The Pull of Destiny

by Hotcheri

  “But it will be fun to diss Ahmed about wearing a pirate costume,” Luke snickered loudly.

  Making a face, Shazia said, “That’s not gonna work. He thinks it makes him look sexy.”

  “OMG!” We all jumped as Robyn squealed loudly, bouncing up and down on the hard bench. “Todd made a touch down! Go, Todd!”

  Shazia rolled her eyes and smiled as Luke leaned closer to me and whispered, “Who’s Todd?” in my ear.

  “Her boyfriend,” I replied.

  “That’s why you’re freezing your asses off out here, coz Robyn’s watching her boyfriend play football?” Luke asked incredulously.

  Shazia nodded, throwing her hands up in the air. “I pretty much said the same thing!”

  “They’re providing moral support,” Robyn interjected, finally calm again.

  Luke stared out at the field and shook his head. “Look at those guys. I’m glad I stopped playing when I did. It’s way too cold to be running around in shorts. And to be sitting here.” He nudged Robyn. “Robyn, can I steal these two and take them someplace warmer?”

  “Lucas Astor, nobody is forcing you to be here,” Robyn told him haughtily, tossing her hair over her shoulder.

  “But she’s forcing us to be here,” Shazia muttered. I don’t think that Robyn was meant to hear that, but she did.

  Pouting, she said, “I thought you were here with me because you love me!”

  “We do love you, muffin!” I said, reaching around Luke to pat Robyn’s knee and almost falling into Luke’s lap in the process. “We just- don’t like the wind, that’s all.”

  “Nobody likes the wind,” Luke intoned in tones of doom.

  Robyn glared at Luke. “Luke, what are you doing here anyway?”

  A mock scared look on his face, Luke said, “Don’t get pissy, I was just joking. You guys are welcome to sit in the wind.”

  “No, really. You just randomly come up and sit with us and start chatting like you do this all the time.” Robyn had the curious light that I knew so well in her brown eyes. “What’s up with that?”

  Tactful- not.

  Biting his lip and glancing at me, Luke said, “Way to drop a hint, Robyn.”

  Robyn’s cheeks reddened as she tried to rectify the situation. “I’m not- I wasn’t-,” she stammered, looking mortified.

  “Don’t worry, Robyn, I actually gotta be somewhere pretty soon,” Luke assured her, looking at his watch. “I was just looking for CiCi.”

  He put a warm hand on my knee, a gesture that wasn’t missed by Shazia and Robyn. I am so gonna get it when he leaves.

  “And why were you looking for- CiCi?” Robyn asked, obviously biting back a laugh.

  Luke grinned cheekily at Robyn and I swear she swooned. Please don’t let her faint. “From my lips to her ears,” he said to her. In other words, mind your own damn business, Robyn.

  Leaning closer to me till his lips really were at my ear, Luke whispered, “So, are you free today to- you know?”

  I could practically feel Robyn straining to listen as I whispered back. “I have to volunteer at the hospital today,” I said, real regret in my voice.

  “Oh. Okay.”

  Was it just me or did he look disappointed?

  “But I get off at 6 if you want to meet after that,” I added hurriedly. I wanted to hang out with the guy, okay? He was cute, nice and he smelt great.

  And judging from the slow smile that spread over his face as I said the last part, he wanted to hang out with me too. “I don’t mind, sounds good to me.”

  I sighed (inaudibly, I hope) with relief. “Okay, 6 it is. I heard that the view is amazing at night.”

  I hoped he wouldn’t call me on that because I had no idea who had told me that the view from the Empire State Building was beautiful at night, but he just grinned at me.

  “Yeah, me too.”

  Our eyes met and locked as another jolt of electricity passed between us, quickening my pulse and leaving me breathless.

  This definitely is not normal.

  And this time, I knew that I wasn’t alone in feeling the connection. Luke’s green eyes widened and his perfect lips parted as he stared into my eyes wordlessly.

  We could have stayed like that forever if Shazia hadn’t said, “Ahem!”

  I dragged my eyes off of Luke’s face and found myself looking at Shazia, who looked extremely amused.

  “That was a very intense look right there,” drawled Robyn, raising her eyebrows up at me as I flushed. Now, obviously I had every right in the world to be embarrassed- I had just had a ‘moment’ with a hot guy in front of my friends! But I was very surprised to see Luke blush. Very, very surprised.

  “I’ll see you there,” he whispered in my ear, squeezing my knee before he stood up. “As much as I’d love to kick it with you beautiful ladies, I gotta go. I have a meeting with my counselor.”

  I looked up at him, the wind blowing my hair into my eyes. “Did you get into trouble?”

  He paused in clambering over a bench and looked back at us, his hair blowing around his face, making him look rather edible. “Me, trouble?” He grinned, pointing to his chest. “Always. See you guys.”

  “Bye,” Shazia, Robyn and I said together, sounding like a really bad choir.

  The moment they thought Luke was out of earshot, the girls turned on me with a vengeance.

  “Celsiana Sawyer,” Shazia said, folding her arms around her chest.

  Stay cool, Celsi.

  “What?” I asked, smiling chirpily at her.

  Robyn laughed. “What?” she repeated as I squirmed uncomfortably. And my squirming had nothing to do with the hard seats. “You and Luke conjure up all that electricity and all you can say is what?”

  I looked down at my feet. So I didn’t imagine the sparks, there really was electricity. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said firmly.

  “Okay, I’ll ask you in layman’s terms,” Robyn continued. “What’s going on between you and Luke?”

  I bit my lip. Not what you think. I knew that I couldn’t tell Robyn about the list, which meant I had to fall back on my old lie- Science class. Luckily, Robyn and Shazia weren’t in my Science class so they had no way of knowing whether I was lying or not. Even though they probably knew that there was something off with that story, I was sticking to it.

  “I told you, we have a Science-,” I started.

  Waving her hand dismissively, Robyn interrupted me. How rude. “Yeah, Science project, blah, blah, blah. Shaz babe, help me out.”

  ‘Shaz babe’ was more than willing to help Robyn out and I cringed as she stood up and started pacing in front of me like Miss Trunchbull.

  “Okay, firstly, he calls you CiCi,” Shazia started. “A pet name.”

  “Lots of guy’s call girls pet names,” I protested, racking my brain for a magazine article I had read about that. “It just means he can’t be bothered to remember my real name.”

  Robyn snorted. “That’s bogus.”

  “Secondly, he’s squeezing your shoulder and putting his hand on your knee. What’s up with that?” Shazia asked, stopping in front of me with her hands behind her back and a stern frown on her face.

  I shrugged. “He’s just touchy feely, that’s all.”

  “No. I’ve known Luke my whole life and he’s never touched me. Ever.” Robyn gave me a ‘so there’ look.

  I couldn’t resist sticking my tongue out at her. “Jealous?”

  Shazia wasn’t done. “And finally, the whole gazing into ones eye thing,” she barked, sounding like a drill sergeant.

  Robyn spluttered with surprised laughter. “You seriously are on romance novel overload, Shaz babe. ‘Gazing into ones eye’? Last time I checked, it was called eye contact!” She turned to me. “And that was some lust filled eye contact. I was totally expecting you guys to start making out right in front of us.”

  I didn’t even want to think about the prospect of making out with Luke, so I pushed it to the back of my mind and stare
d wildly at Robyn. “I just- we just looked at each other!” I protested.

  “And the temperature went straight up,” Shazia noted.

  “You guys should work for TMZ and make mountains out of molehills,” I mumbled, pulling at a loose thread on my jeans.

  “We’re not,” Shazia said self-righteously. “Something’s going on between you two.”

  I shook my head. “Nothing is. He’s just a friend.”

  Great, now the image of Luke’s lips was etched in my mind. Thank you, Robyn.

  “So now he’s a friend?” Robyn pounced on that tidbit eagerly.

  just to be perverse, I asked, “Anything wrong with that?”

  “Nope. But if he’s just a friend,” Shazia started, making me tense. I knew I wasn’t going to like what was coming, “then why did he keep sneaking you little glances when he thought you weren’t looking?”

  Interesting development.

  “Um, really?” I asked curiously. Maybe I had something on my face? Or maybe he was just looking at me because- what, Celsi?

  Shazia nodded. “Oh, yeah.”

  Not wanting to be left out of the loop, Robyn added, “I think he likes you.”

  My mouth dropped open seconds before I burst out laughing. “What?” I spluttered. “Shut up!”

  Robyn punched my shoulder. “You shut up,” she giggled.

  “And I think you like him,” Shazia said sternly, no trace of a smile on her pretty face. “Friend. Humph. A guy and a girl can’t be friends. It’s been scientifically proven.”

  I rolled my eyes. “That’s crap,” I said.

  “But you guys do like each other,” Shazia insisted.

  just to get them off my back, I finally admitted, “He’s cute, okay?”

  “He’s hot,” Robyn corrected me.

  “Okay, he’s infernally hot,” I agreed.

  “Sizzling hot,” Shazia said.

  “And I do like him a little bit but that doesn’t mean anything,” I said, talking loudly over Robyn’s ‘aha!’ “It’s just a tiny crush. Like the one I have on Ahmed.”

  Shazia groaned. “You’re such a fool for that one.”

  “Can you guys stop giving me the third degree about Luke now?” I pleaded.

  Giving me a blithe smile, Shazia said, “We stopped talking about Luke ages ago. Why do you keep bringing it up?”

  “Shut up.”

  CHAPTER 13

  What happens on top of the world.

  Empire State Building

  Luke was waiting patiently outside the Empire State Building as I walked up. He had a coffee in each hand and as I drew closer to him, he handed me one. I took it gratefully, silently groaning with the quiver that ran through my body as his fingers grazed mine.

  Celsi, you’re wearing mittens, for Pete’s sakes! What’s wrong with you?

  Luke withdrawal. I thought I had gotten the whole ‘I shiver when Luke touches me’ thing out of my system after all the Baskin Robbins cuddling but apparently- not.

  Luckily for me, Luke never seemed to notice these episodes and I hoped that he would continue being the King of Oblivion.

  “Thanks,” I said, taking a sip of the burning hot coffee.

  “No problem. I thought you’d be kinda cold.” He looked around. “Did you walk over here?”

  I nodded. My MetroCard had just expired and until I got my next paycheck I was going to have to hoof it. I was definitely not asking Aunt Kelly for transport money.

  “Yeah.”

  Luke sucked in a breath. “Bummer. I’m giving you a ride home today, even if I have to kidnap you,” he told me.

  I shook my head. “You don’t have to,” I protested weakly, even though I was already (in my mind) leaning back against the comfy leather in Luke’s limo.

  “I know I don’t have to. But I’m going to. So there.” He stuck his tongue out at me playfully and I grinned.

  “Okay. You don’t have to kidnap me, I accept your offer.”

  “You damn right you do,” Luke laughed. He linked his arm through mine. “C’mon, let’s go inside before we get arrested for loitering.”

  We walked into the building and once we were through with the security check, walked to the ticket purchase line. It was long.

  “Have you ever been arrested for loitering?” I asked, looking up at Luke curiously.

  He grinned, shaking his head. “Nope. You?”

  “I’ve never been arrested. Never had trouble with the law.”

  Luke grinned wider. “Goody goody,” he said.

  “Have you ever been arrested for anything?”

  “Yeah,” Luke replied, looking off into the distance. “Two DUI’s. My dad wanted to neuter me after the second one.”

  “Oh.”

  Every time Luke said something about his dad, it sounded kinda bitter.

  “Ugh, look at the lines! We’re gonna be here till midnight,” Luke complained, exaggerating, of course.

  “That’s part of the appeal of being here,” I told him. I didn’t mind waiting in the lines. As long as I had my hot coffee and Luke by my side, I could wait forever.

  “Waiting is not appealing to me,” Luke muttered darkly, sticking his free hand into his pocket.

  The line moved torturously slow but finally we reached the ticket purchase desk.

  “Hi, we’d like two tickets please,” Luke said, smiling charmingly at the lady behind the desk. She was wearing a smart suit and a nametag saying ‘Kendall.’

  “Alrighty, then. Are you heading to the 86th floor observatory or the 102nd floor observatory?” she asked him.

  Luke glanced at me in puzzlement then looked back at her. “What? Don’t you just go straight to the top floor?”

  “They have two observation points,” I told him. Kendall was staring at Luke, obviously thinking ‘he must be a tourist.’

  “Jeeze, the more you know,” Luke mumbled. “Uh, the 102nd floor, I guess. Better views, right?”

  “Oh, definitely. And it’s amazing at night,” Kendall said. I told you so. “That’ll be seventy dollars, please.”

  Luke didn’t even blink at the cost as he reached into his pocket, drew out his black card and slid it across the granite table. “You can just put that on my card.”

  He looked across the lobby, groaning at the throng of people milling around. “These lines are killing me.” He turned to Kendall. “Hey, isn’t there any way we can- skip the lines and just get on the elevator? We don’t wanna go on the tour or anything.”

  I’m pretty sure there isn’t a tour, Luke.

  “We do have an express ticket that lets you skip to the front of the line,” she told Luke.

  “We’ll take it,” he exclaimed immediately, while my heart sank at the thought of how much it would cost. Luke grinned at me over his shoulder as Kendall recalculated our ticket fees. “See? Bitching works!”

  “But it’s forty-five dollars extra,” I whispered worriedly as Kendall announced the new total.

  “Yeah, that’s cool. Charge it,” Luke said easily.

  “Luke! We can just wait in the line; you don’t need to spend all that cash!”

  Sulkily, Luke said, “But I don’t wanna wait.”

  “Patience is a virtue,” I said wisely. It was wasted on him.

  “I am patient,” he explained. “I just don’t like waiting for something if I know I can change it.”

  Kendall handed us our tickets and Luke’s card. “Here are your tickets; the elevators are right over there. Enjoy yourselves,” she said, a smile on her face.

  “Thanks, we sure will,” Luke said, propelling me to an elevator. “We are gonna have so much fun! This is so awesome,” he exclaimed as the doors closed behind us. The lift rose quickly as the other passengers talked quietly amongst themselves. “Hey, CiCi. What’s wrong? We’re about to have an adventure, why do you look so sad?”

  I blinked, hardly believing that I was about to say this.

  “Luke, I can’t pay you back,” I whispered, stepping clos
er to him so that he would hear me properly.

  “For what?” Luke frowned, looking confused.

  God save me from ignorant hotties.

  “The tickets,” I elaborated. “Well, I can pay you back, but not until I get paid because my cousin- I mean, I don’t have the money right now.” I couldn’t hold his gaze and quickly looked away, feeling embarrassed. “I hope you don’t mind.”

  “Dude, you’re not paying me back.”

  “I have to, Luke. It’s too much-,” I started, wishing that I had waited till we were out in the observatory to tell him this. The elevator suddenly seemed way too small and not private at all. Great timing, Celsi.

  “CiCi, be quiet.”

  I gaped at him. “What?”

  “You’re not paying me back. What kind of a person would I be if I said you should pay me back?” Luke shook his head. “No way.”

  “Luke-.”

  “I don’t wanna hear it. Change subject.” Luke actually sounded and looked mortally offended and I bit the inside of my cheek.

  “Um, okay. Thanks. So much,” I said quietly.

  He glanced at me and sighed. “CiCi, it’s not a problem.”

  We were silent for a while as we got to the 80th floor and were transferred to another elevator. “What’s your name mean?” Luke suddenly asked, looking at me.

  Talk about changing the subject.

  I stared blankly at him, still embarrassed with the whole ticket thing. Open mouth, insert foot. “Huh?”

  “Celsiana.” My stomach flipped as he said my name, a small smile on his face. I kid you not. So much for him not remembering my name, huh? “I’ve never met a Celsiana before.”

  “Unless you’re talking about a rose,” I told him.

  “Celsiana’s the name of a rose?” Luke asked, screwing up his nose in thought. “Sweet! He nudged me. “No wonder you smell nice.”

  Hold up. Luke Astor just said I smelt nice. Memory book.