The billionaire's sweet editor
Chapter 44: Lucas: Rematch

Chapter 44: Lucas: Rematch

THE GASTROPUB is abuzz with life, from the people casually talking and laughing on their tables, to the waiters moving around and delivering food to the clients.

Even though the scent of meat, veggies, and spices is filling the air, beckoning at me to have a taste, my appetite isn’t exactly at its peak right now. Mostly because I’m sitting across Jerald. He isn’t glaring at me and making me uncomfortable, but any normal being would be considering what took place yesterday.

A waiter dressed in black and white places a glass of water in front of me. That’s all I could order after being asked what I wanted to eat. My throat is dry, probably from the uncertainty of what’s about to transpire, though some of it is because of the anger.

Laying my eyes on this guy had me reminiscing how he hurt Iris’ elbow and made her bleed in the same spot again. Don’t get me started on the tears she had to shed afterward. He fucking hurt her. For someone who has been acting the brother figure all along, that was the lowest he could stoop in front of us.

"Is Iris okay?"

After a whole fifteen minutes of sitting in silence since coming here, this is the first I get to hear coming from his mouth. His eyes are swollen and have dark circles under them like he’s been crying all night and didn’t have the time to sleep.

"No, she isn’t," I cut to the chase too, not bothering with the greetings. If he’s going to be an ass, I’ll be one too.

"Let me guess, she doesn’t want to see me anytime soon, and she keeps crying?"

I scrunch my face. "Yes, and she’s been constantly changing moods every minute."

Sighing loudly, he rubs the back of his neck and looks directly into my eyes. "Look, I know I was an ass."

"A stinky one that hasn’t been washed for centuries."

He pauses, obviously shocked by my outrage. "Yeah, that too. I wasn’t in my right mind. I shouldn’t have said that to her, I was too angry at you guys."

"Doesn’t justify what you said."

"I know. If there was a way I could turn back time to take back my words, I would."

"But there isn’t," I shrug.

Jerald glares at me. "You’re not exactly being helpful here sass mouth."

"They want me to kiss your forehead and tell you everything is okay and you’ll get through this just fine?"

He visibly shudders, grossed out by my ridiculous offer. "I’d rather die than have your ugly lips on my skin."

"Then shut the fuck up and let me feed you the truth with these ugly lips so you may repent," I hiss back.

He slouches on his chair, the fabric stressing when he twists his legs to face the other side such that his upper body faces me whilst his lower body faces the other end like an owl.

"So we’re good?"

"I don’t see why we wouldn’t, but you hurt Iris and that’s enough ground for me to be mad at you isn’t it?"

Eyeing me closely like my face is the locked safe to the secret he seeks, he squints his eyes at me. "Are the two of you really dating?"

I want to tell him we are, but seeing him on a rampage made me realize that even a white lie could become deadly once it comes out in the open. Bracing myself for impact, I decide to do the right thing.

"No, we’re not dating."

"I knew—"

"But I like her," I cut him before he goes into full detective-found-the-clue mode. His face drops like I suspected and he adjusts his sitting position.

"Does she know?"

I expected him to lash out at me and start a fight again, but this. He’s too calm for a man who lets his anger lead. "No, I haven’t told her yet."

"Why? She seemed like she likes you too."

"That’s because we agreed to act like a couple in front of everyone." He scrunches his face and I have to explain the whole dating deal thing to him in detail for him to finally grasp what I’m saying.

"Even though, Iris is too suspicious of people for her to ask to sleep over at someone’s place for two weeks. Her being comfortable around you is progress on its own."

"She’s comfortable around everyone at work," I argue with his reasoning.

"Of course she is. Iris has trust issues not issues with people being around her. The two are different. She is a normal lady when you meet with her and speak to her, but deep inside is a complicated piece of work even I couldn’t crack. When she first came to play with us, I was afraid of her."

What?JeraldwasafraidofIris?Ishouldn’tlaughduringsuchaseriousconversation.

"She was always quiet and said the weirdest things only adults would understand. She was too smart for her age and reliable and we thought she was just a genius when in fact, she was just calculative. She tried to avoid doing things that’d piss people off, and we later learned it was because she was afraid we would leave like her mother did when she left her outside the—"

I raise my hand at him. "I know the story."

Jerald looks at me, bemused and curious. "She told me herself," I quench his curiosity.

"Wow, you two are closer than I thought."

Fuckthat. Ifhe knewallthisaboutIris, whydidhebringuphermotherabandoninghertoherfacelikethat?

"Why did you remind her about such a bitter memory if you know it affected her so greatly?" I quip, not able to keep my thoughts to myself any longer.

"I told you, I said it out of anger. I thought I was looking out for her. Iris didn’t have a very memorable childhood and I don’t want her to suffer in her adulthood too. I’ve known you long enough to know you’re obsessed with that fucking magazine of yours to care about anyone, that’s why I was so against the idea of you two being together. But then she defended you and..."

He trails off, picking up his water glass and taking a large gulp. Drawing in a heavy breath, Jerald turns back to me.

"See, the point I’m trying to make is, you have a chance with her. I’ve seen her angry at me before, but every time that happened, it was over petty issues siblings fight over or because of Mary. To see her get angry at me because of you was a different kind of experience and instead of taking it the way I should have, I ruined the moment instead."

"What way are you talking about?" I ask, my heart racing for no reason as I expectantly wait for his next words.

"She trusts you."

Oh. Not she likes you or she loves you. She trusts you. How bitter could life get?

"I can see you’re disappointed, but trust me, that’s all you need from her before you land in your final blow."

"Okay, stop sounding like an old wise monk and just get straight to the point," I hurriedly say, getting fed up with his sudden change in speech patterns.

"To Iris trust is more than love. Make her trust and rely on you more, and when the time is right, tell her you love her."

"And when will it be the right time to tell her that?"

He shrugs. "I don’t know, but I’m sure you’ll know."

"There you go again sounding like a monk."

"It’s the least I can do after what I did yesterday," he replies, giving me a smile I’m used to by now.

"About that, I think you’ll need to speak to her sooner or later before the damage deepens. She was deeply affected by your words you know."

"I know," he mumbles more to himself than me, "but like you, I have to wait for the right time or I’ll deepen her wound. That’s why you need to keep our meeting a secret from her."

Nodding at him, I sip my water.

"Please keep my sister safe. It might not look like it at the moment, but I do love her and I want the best for her. I will be watching from the sidelines and if you hurt her, you’ll have to answer to me."

His glare is back but it’s contained this time. Controlled.

Smiling at him, I raise my water glass. "You have my word, I will keep her safe. But I’ll need your help making sure she’s mine before you take her away from me again."

We both laugh, sipping water like it’s wine. The couple sitting on the table next to ours keeps giving us weird side glances, but I’m too busy chatting with my wannabe brother-in-law to care.

I can’t believe it took a bloody fight for him to acknowledge my relationship with Iris just like that. If only that was the case with—

"What about Mary and Jerald?" I ask and his smile immediately drops along with his face.

The next moment, his face turns into this ugly grimace or wince, puffy eyes turning red as a glassy sheet of tears forms in them.

"She left with Phineas. I’m home alone and it’s fucking lonely there with the TV broken. I haven’t even eaten a proper meal all day long and my head hurts."

Oh. Sohe’salreadygettingpunished.

"Want me to order a meal for you?"

Nodding shamelessly like he isn’t the owner of this pub and can’t ask the waiters to bring him a meal before they whip it up in thin air, I raise my hand as a waitress makes her way towards our table.

I’m going to arrive home a little bit later tonight, probably drunk too. I just hope Iris gets a good night’s sleep before I arrive home looking like shit, and smelling like it too.

"Okay, let’s do this quickly, i have a woman back home waiting for me."

"Show off!"

★★★★★