There's always a phase of regret at the end of every episode of life. At least, there is for me.

Two men walked past me and made nasty comments. I shivered. Most people would have felt regret at having chosen to walk alone right then. But I was regretting other stuff. I shouldn't have spent so much time trying to live forever when I had Luke with me. In trying to make things last longer, I had just lost them while I had them. I had been too greedy, and I was being punished for it. I should have slept cuddled with him every night while he wanted me to. Reaching further and further had gotten me trapped.

I arrived at the Premier Inn and pressed the button to call the lift. But it didn't come. I needed a room key to make it work. Damn it. I would look very suspicious standing there at the reception and getting on a lift when somebody came in. I headed for the stairway, but it was also closed. I couldn't believe it. I felt like I was at the freaking Gringotts Bank in Harry Potter instead of at an ordinary hotel. I acted like someone was calling me and talked on the phone to myself. The disguise of our time.

Finally, an elderly couple came in and called the lift. I sighed, relieved. I said goodbye to myself, and went in after them.

I found Luke's room very easily. I hesitated. What was I even doing there? He wanted someone else. But I pushed that thought away and knocked on the door.

"Who's that?" he asked.

My saliva was too dense, and I couldn't say a word. Should I lie so that he would open? Or would he open knowing it was me?

"It's Tess."

He sighed.

"I'm sorry, Tess, but I'm exhausted. I don't want to see you now."

He couldn't mean it. He hadn't seen me for months apart from our fight earlier. He must be dying to see me and touch me. It was Luke. I pictured him at the other side of the door, wearing his brown pyjamas, moving his hands through his messy hair.

"Luke, I'm sorry for what happened at the lab before. I didn't mean it."

"You have nothing to apologize for, Tessa. You've lived without me, and I've lived without you. What happened at the lab was just natural."

I sighed in disbelief.

"Natural? Luke, do you remember me at all?"

"Of course I do."

"Then how can you say that was natural between us? You've changed. And I don't understand why. Please tell me what's happened. I need to know."

I was crying. I was aware I looked desperate. But I didn't mind. It was Luke. He knew me. I didn't have to put up an act to impress him.

"Luke. Please. Say something."

He still didn't answer, and I didn't even hear his sights or wondering steps. He had probably put on his earplugs and dozed off. Was he my enemy? Was that it? Was I too in love and blind to see the blaring truth?

"Luke. Do you still love me? If you still care about me just a bit please answer and open the door."

Tears kept flooding my eyes. I sat down on the corridor and hid my head in my arms. A girl walked by and offered me a tissue. I thanked her and felt embarrassed. Pathetic. Why did I even want him to open the door?

"Luke. Please." I implored again, soaking in tears and humiliation. "I am so confused. I need an explanation so that I can close my episode with you and go on with my life."

Another couple of minutes passed, and nothing happened. Then, mixed with the sound of my nervous crying, I heard him moving and approaching the door. He grabbed the doorknob, hesitated for a second, and then opened.

He didn't look the way I had imagined him. He was wearing pyjamas I had never seen before, and he had cut his hair. I hadn't noticed that before in the moonlight at the lab. He had definitely changed. But his scent was still the same beguiling mix of lavender and hazard.

My tears stopped. I got up and walked a step closer to him.

"Hey." he said, and he invited me in with his hand.

I got up and followed him into the room. I had expected to see piles of papers all around, hints of his alternative way of helping me. The only excuse for the way he had treated me, if there was one, was that he had been working restlessly on finding the traitor. But everything was neat and... normal. The TV was on. An old East Enders episode. It was the room of a relaxed, ordinary twenty-three year-old.

"Has something drawn your attention?" he asked, staring at my puzzled expression.

"No, it's just... normal. Everything's too ordinary. That's all."

"And, paradoxically, ordinary is surprising to you. Or so it seems." he pointed out.

I turned to face him, annoyed.

"Come on, Luke. When has anything been normal for the two of us? Do I have to remind you we met while I worked on... fucking... eternal life?"

He chuckled. It struck me to see his smile after the tense moment we had just lived. He looked as if he had already forgotten me begging on his door.

"You're right. It wasn't exactly the usual way of meeting a girl for me."

He sounded like a teenager from an American high school film. It bothered me.

"And was it usual when you met Camille?" I snapped at him.

He sighed. I knew I sounded hideously jealous, desperate, and broken, but I couldn't stop myself. I wanted to hear the truth. It looked as if he was thoroughly thinking what to answer, but then he just said:

"Well, as a matter of fact, it was. It was ordinary. Plain."

"And comforting, I guess."

"Why do you say that?" he asked, frowning.

I paced to the bed and sat down, without asking for permission. I was exhausted.

"I haven't studied for three months. I haven't sat at Starbucks to read Cosmopolitan." I pointed at the TV. "I haven't watched East Enders."

He sat by me, and a disturbing rush of anticipation made my whole body shake. I managed to focus again, and I continued.

"I just... wasted time lost in my head, in impossible or useless plans, and waited for the..." I searched for the right words. "...presumed... love... of my life to take me back. As if I had nothing else to do. I froze. So I miss the ordinary. And I get it's what you want. It's easy."

He sighed and got up again.

"It's David." he spilled.

"What?" I cried, and I stood up.

"You're never going to get anywhere with him as your lawyer, because he is the one that sold your idea to Fleming&Florey."

David. My support. He couldn't possibly...

"Wait, wait. Hold on... why do you think that? I think you're wrong. David's been my biggest support during these three months... and, God, I think he is in love with me."

Luke laughed in disbelief. It bothered me.

"He's probably trying to make you believe that. But you have to open your eyes."

"You think he got hold of my work through his father's relationship to Professor Abbey."

"Thank God you're a bright girl." he sighed.

The way in which he called me a bright girl bothered me. As if I was a classmate. Some random girl who had helped him through his surgery exam. But I was Tessa. I had to be much more than a bright girl for him.

"So you basically found a link to my work that isn't the two of us and made a theory out of that." I said, mocking him. It didn't make any sense.

He turned to face me. He looked hurt.

"Of course not! I am not an idiot, Tessa."

"I know, thank God you're a bright boy."

He got my point and couldn't help but smile a little. He walked to his suitcase and took out a piece of paper that he handed to me.

"I started to have suspicion when I found this at work. That was two weeks before New York."

"Oh my God. He signed a four million agreement with Fleming&Florey?"

"Yes. Four million pounds, Tessa. I found this on Kate Rosewood's desk. Then New York happened, and... I had to leave, I had to stay out of the whole mess in order to be able to figure it out. It was my only way to help you, Tess. I didn't have any proof. But then I contacted Camille, and she told me he was your lawyer. I know he was Africa's boyfriend's friend, but it all seems too much of a coincidence. I know I still need more proof, and that's why I had no choice but come back, but... Tess?"

Even the sound of my name in his mouth wasn't enough to get me out of the shock I was drowned in. I tried to remember the first time I had seen David. He seemed so sincere. And Luke already knew when he and I... and he didn't warn me.

"David and I kissed."

His eyes opened wide. The opacity almost turned transparent for a second.

"Twice." I admitted. "He was my only fragment of normality during these three months, my comfort." I added, feeling the need to explain myself.

"I... I... why are you acting so hurt about the fact that I left, then? You've already replaced me? God..." He shook his head and walked to the window.

I couldn't take it anymore.

"What the hell is wrong with you? You left me hanging and abandoned for three months! You had me waiting outside your door crying! You surely slept with Camille! And now you're implying you still want me? You were my only companion Luke, and you left me."

"I just explained why I did that, Tessa! For God's sake!"

"Well, sorry, but that explanation is not entirely logical for me, Luke. Who are you, fucking Edward Cullen from Twilight? Are you saying that you left me because it was the best for me?"

"As a matter of fact, I am. I didn't reach my goal, but it was a desperate shot at trying to help you. It was hard for me too, you know? But I considered it was the best I could do."

"You left me passed out in a hotel hall." I snapped at him, spitting the words through my clenched teeth. "And then you slept with her... Did you consider that was the best for me, too?"

"I was lonely! You kissed the man who took you down, Tessa!"

"We don't know that yet."

"We do. You just don't want to admit it."

I found it kind of funny how they both said that about each other.

"I'm too tired. My head hurts." I blurted, and lay down on his bed without asking for permission. Again. I felt like an intruder. He didn't seem to see it that way, though.

He opened a drawer and picked up a joint. My mouth fell open, but he didn't even notice my astonishment.

"Here." he said, and he handed it to me.

"So... you leave me crying on your door for what seems like an eternity, and then you expect me to get drugged with you."

He looked at me with a strange mix of amusement and negligence in his eyes. I couldn't tell whether he found the situation that we were in funny or annoying. I kept looking at him, still getting my mind around the idea that he was back. Just when I thought he wasn't going to say anything else, he spoke as if he could read my mind:

"I don't expect anything, Tessa, but... do you?"

I sighed. I knew I would sound too desperate if I gave an honest answer to that question, so I decided to stay silent. He took the joint from my hand, pulled a lighter from one of the pockets of his jeans, and started to smoke. I found myself hypnotized by the movements of his lips, by the way he closed them around the joint, and the way in which he absentmindedly expelled the stupefying smoke. The smell of weed mixed with his scent briefly took me back to our time in Central Park.

"You are right." he blurted after a few jams, without looking at me.

"About what?" I asked, and I tried to take the joint from his hand. He smiled at my surrender.

Our hands brushed, and I shivered. He watched me smoke before he answered to my question. He watched me as if my face was the most sensual sight he had ever stared at. The fire I thought was long gone started to build up between my legs. I coughed, as if trying to stop it. He laughed, and I didn't manage to stop myself from smiling. His three-month absence, his suspicion about David... It was all gone.

"I shouldn't smoke anymore." I said, and quickly passed him the joint, as if I wasn't able to control myself if I had it in my hand.

"Why?" he asked.

It was more than a question. It felt as if he was trying to soak in my thoughts, to see my insides naked and exposed, to have them in his hands and mold them, and caress them...

I definitely was not able to control myself.

"What was I right about?" I managed to say.

He sighed, as if regretting having made that confession, and then he smoked again before answering my question.

What did you think of this chapter? Do you think that Luke is right about David having betrayed Tessa? What do you think will happen next? Let me know in the comments! I am entering the Wattys 2016, so, if you enjoyed it, please don't forget to vote :)

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