Chapter 5 FIVE

Alyssa Baker never thought she'd use a dating app, she didn't even know how to.

Then she also thought she wouldn't have a kid at twenty two-

-but here was with Elle.

The thing about the plans we make, is we aren't even sure how feasible they are. As a child, she wanted to be a pilot, then a gynecologist when she started watching greys anatomy.

Then a pilot again and then a pharmacist.

Then she had to settle to be a lover.

Tom always came first for some reason. Then there was college which she failed to enter on first trial and eventually she was given cell biology which was something she hated with her being.

But then it wasn't as bad, because she had Tom. She got out of college engaged, she still had him.

And four years and Elle later, she worked in a fucking advertising company. It was never the plan, but the thing is there was not even a plan.

So as she typed a reply, she got rid of the guilt by saying the usual. "Fuck it" That was the kind of person she was before, and the person she wanted to be now.

Open, wild and free.

And the person on the other end, was just willing to offer that. But at what cost? - "So you got any plans?" Armani said, looking into the rear view mirror at Alyssa who'd entered the car.

She sat in, closing the door before she took out her phone. "What?" She finally realized Armani had been staring at her, for a response.

"Birthday plans?" Truth was, she had even forgotten her birthday was in days.

Normally, it would be the one day she'd spend without thinking of her life, forsaking every responsibility and getting drunk and high on whatever.

But something just had been off the past few years, she didn't think she'd done much. Maybe because of Elle.

When she was twenty one, most of her responsibilities were college and Tom, but now, it was obviously more than she could forsake.

"Well, it isn't going to be any different than the past years" She lazily shrugged her shoulders and Armani just heaved a sigh, taking to the roads.

"You know-" He paused, one second making eye contact with her. "For someone who wants to live, you don't put in as much effort" He teased and a scoff escaped her lips. Her phone lit up in her hands the next second and you could guess who.

She tilted it to the side, peering over the screen as it kept chiming with new messages. Armani looked over his shoulders and noticed the brisk smirk that shaped across her lips.

"Didn't you hear me?" "Fuck you" She said, without even looking up at him. It was why she didn't see him reach for the phone.

And in a brisk second, he snatched it away from her, trying to balance it with the steering wheel. He consciously had to swerve in the moment of distraction but it was not too serious.

"Give me that" Alyssa stamped her feet as if Armani was to give in after that. She knew him more than enough to know if there was anyone more stubborn than she was, it was him.

He narrowed his eyes at the tinder notifications, letting out a gasp once he'd realized. "Luke Sanders?" He burst out laughing, letting the phone slip from his hands.

She grabbed it, inadvertently brushing against his crotch. But he was too humored to notice.

"That is the most basic white boy name ive ever head for real-" He paused, looking back to her.

"And ive come across alot on all of my apps" He added and Alyssa just rolled her eyes. "Shut up" "What the fuck are you even doing on tinder?" He asked, letting his laughter die down.

In that moment, the guilt seeped into her veins, making her heart skip a bit.

Her skin washed away it's color as she put the phone away. Why did she feel this way when he asked that?

Armani had noticed how pale she'd turned so he just brushed it off, knowing at least some of her problems.

Instead he just asked- "Is he fine?" She looked up with the corner of her eyes and there was that smirk again before she nodded and Armani smiled even wider.

She pulled out the phone and gave him the phone willingly this time, with Luke's profile across the screen.

Gauging his eyes between the roads and the phone, he still ensured he got a good look of one particular picture that Luke was shirtless. He was nothing like his name, in any sense. He had the bluest eyes in which you could see the reflection of the waves in them and he wore shorts that exposed his muscled calves, and defined legs.

He had a cross chain between his lips that fell loosely around his neck, and asides a scar across his eyes, his face was the smoothest he'd seen.

There was something overly sexy about men that knew how to take care of their skin-

-and Luke seemed to be one of them. Besides the scar was one of his most essential features. He didn't exactly seem like gym freak or maybe it was genetical luck but he was just the right amount of everything she'd seen.

Yet, as these things went through both their minds, all he could say was- "Wow" Alyssa took the phone from his quivering hands to let him drool elsewhere.

And it was she now, who had the last laugh because who could blame her? Who could blame both of them?

"Is he-"

"He is" Armani interrupted, looking ahead to the roads and Alyssa just heaved yet another breath.

He wanted to so badly ask what this meant for her and Tom, but he wasn't going to ruin the moment.

As he caught her looking out of the windows, there was a huge smile across her face which he'd never seen.

What he didn't know, was the past few days, Alyssa had spent most of it talking to Luke.

Luke: You're beautiful.

Alyssa: You too. Luke: Me too?

She remembered how she'd talked to him nonstop throughout the entire day, and how loudly she'd laughed during that meeting.

Or how shed almost spilled her coffee one time she sent a risky text. How she'd stay away under the covers now that she had the room to herself.

And the million selfies she'd sent to him each time he'd asked for. He never got tired of the compliments, she didn't either.

He was a businessman in Beverly, she'd come to learn. Some sort of CEO of a local tech company, it could only explain how he got that much free time on his hands.

Alyssa: Yes, you too.

He was married once, but got divorced months later for some reason. Alyssa didn't even want to know.

Luke: You? Are you seeing someone?

It was only okay to assume at least she won't be married since she said she just twenty four.

But Luke Sanders decided to give her the benefit of the doubt, but fingers crossed that she wasn't even seeing anyone.

It was nothing to much as they both didn't even have any intentions-

-at least to Alyssa's knowledge. He was just fun, and sexy and knew how to keep a conversation. It was that much of a standard, it was why she found her falling for this new guy.

And why she had said what she said. Alyssa: I'm single.

No one at all.

Now he told her how he didn't believe someone as hot as she was didn't have anyone, but he didn't push.

It was one thing she liked about him. He wasn't too forward, but he was calm to a fault. At least she thought he was.

Luke: So what are you into?

Alyssa didn't know much of a talking stage because truth be told, she was never in one.

She'd only known one man her entire life and that was Tom. She was far to young to even remember what exactly had happened before they were ever a thing.

It was why she struggled with this question because she didn't even do much to spice up her marriage.

The truth was she didn't have to.

Alyssa: Foreplay. Oral?

Luke: Come on. Those are basic. Have you ever tried BDSM?

She remembered how her jaw dropped, it was the same time she'd almost spilled that coffee as she went on the internet as fast as she could.

She'd watched fifty shades of grey more than enough to have an idea of it, but she didn't know much.

Alyssa: Not really.

Luke: Are you down for it?

Alyssa: Only if you show me. It was what she remembered the moment she was in Armani's car, staring out of the windows.

How, and why really, she had sent that.

Luke: I want to see you now.

Alyssa: 3 attachments.

Luke: Where do you live?

Alyssa: I stay not far from Beverly. The suburbs actually. Yonsdale.

Now, she knew more than to tell a random stranger online her address but that's the thing, she wasn't thinking, not with her brain at least.

Plus, she could see each time how far apart they were from each other. Yet she still asked him that same question. It was how she knew where he was-

Luke: Beverly.

But i plan on moving soon. Alyssa: Anything?

Luke: Actually just want to take some time off, you know. Settle down.

Alyssa: Oh.

Luke: With you.

It was stupid but Alyssa had already begun to romanticize a life with Luke Sanders. He wasn't exactly a family man, he struck as quite the opposite actually but it was just typical Ms Baker.

Alyssa: I want to see you.

Luke: I'm taking a shower.

Alyssa: I want to see you rn. She pushed a lump down her throat as she hit the send button and it took only a minute before her phone chimed right in her hands.

Luke. 1 attachment.

She gasped, letting her toes curl underneath the sheets. He was almost naked, his arms spread to each wall beside him as the towel around his waist hung for dear life.

He had devilish smirk across his lips while his moist hair fell across his face. It was a naturally dark tone, alongside the hair on his chest and across his lower torso.

Alyssa: Take it off.

Luke: You're going to have to beg me.

Alyssa: Please.

She was in bed, all her head in the messages she was sending. She was down bad, and in that moment she'd like to think she'd forsaken all manner of responsibilities-

-this was the person she was in high school. And Luke dangerously brought that side of her out again, the side that didn't have Elle, that wasn't entirely dedicated to Tom.

The side that still wanted to experiment with drugs, and girls.

And actually live.

She didn't know why she settled down but it just happened so fast. And Tom was so perfect, she didn't think anyone else would love her or even do so much as love at her the way he did.

Like nothing else mattered in the whole world but each day, she'd watched that dim.

She'd watched his eyes lose that spark each time he stared. And her mother always said that about her dad, that it's how you know they no longer love you.

It's how you know when exactly to give up without letting anything hold you back. Now of course, mama Alyssa didn't give up her baby because she was so in love with her.

And eventually when her husband overdosed, it was the same Alyssa that brought her out of the depths of depression and show her life was worth living.

With or without the people you love. It was how she got so independent, and why she didn't have that much friends asides Armani. But it was not as if she had any regrets. But it was all about to change in the next second.

Luke: Do you want this, baby?

Her face ran out of color as she gripped the sheets that she was moist beneath. It was the first time she'd truly felt anything in the past two years.

Alyssa: I want you more than anything right now.

"Alyssa" That croaked voice drifted her from her thoughts as the car came to a halt. She was met with Armani's eyes in the mirror as she struggled to grapple where exactly she was.

"You're going to be late, go" He yelled, intentionally to throw her off and she opened the door with her bags in her hands. Her sinful red heels brushed against the side of the pavement as she looked around the tall office complex-

-then to Armani as he drove away, and then to her phone where the lingering text was.

Except now, she was filled the guilt from the last night and after then, she realized she had already gone too far to even turn back.

Luke: Hey baby.

Luke: I had fun last night. Did you?

To be continued...

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