Luca’s POV
“Because I am always so damn busy, it’s so hard and stressful having to work every damn day, only to unlock your phone and get flooded with thousands of messages and notifications all at once, from different apps.” I informed him with the scowl still intact on my face and watched as the perplexed facial expression on his face started to melt away in the next second.
“Oh.” James murmured after a few seconds and I shrugged my shoulders while still staring at him. He finally threw one of his hands up and started to speak again. “Well, notwithstanding that,” He breathed out but I ignored him and started to make my way deeper into the house, fully aware that he had fallen into steps behind me after a fleeting moment.
We passed the sitting room and I peaked my head into it, and not finding anyone in it. I continued to make my way deeper into the house and stopped at the entrance of the kitchen and peaked my head into it through the door.
Sarah and Matilda were currently the only occupants of the kitchen at the moment and I watched as Matilda was currently pressing a folded cloth against Sarah’s head, while Sarah was standing with her back against the counter beside the washing sink, looking paler than usual.
Once they noticed my presence, they both jolted apart like they had been doing something extremely bad before I had gotten noticed. I stepped into the kitchen and stared pointedly at Sarah who although was still looking pale, her eyes had gotten more sharpness in it, and she had started to make her way towards me as soon as she had been able to regain some kind of composure.
“Good evening, Luca.” She said in a quiet voice as she stood before me, staring up at me into my face. My eyes narrowed as I stared at her pointedly, silently reminding that I had seen what had been going on between herself and Matilda, and that there was no use for her to bother hiding it anymore, because it was pretty obvious now.
She was sick, and hiding it.
I had no idea if she had already informed Sofia about the whole sickness thing because it was pretty obvious that Matilda was in on the details of the sickness… come to think of it, they seem to have gotten really closer to Sofia that I had ever expected, when I had taken off the veil off her face and come face to face with a face so stunningly flawless, it made a certain spot in my heart aches, each time I think about it.
It made me start to think that she was the kind of person to not want to assciosate herself with people like the house help, cook, body guards and the rest – because it seemed like she’d be the one to feel way above people, and the likes… but then, after spending a night with her, the very next morning, I had started to have a whole different view of her.
By the looks of things as the days went by, and from the little things I had been able to pick out, and how Sarah and Matilda both refer to her by her name, on her own request, and how they all seemed to have gotten really closer, I was sure Sarah would have already let Sofia in on the whole secrecy of her sickness.
“Hi Sarah.” I breathed out and dragged my eyes over her eyes and noticed how puffy the lids of her eyes looked– I mean, her eyelids were puffy on a normal day, but that was expected since she wasn’t a young woman anymore… but right now, it looked really puffy, like she had been crying or something.
“How are you?” I continued and watched as a tiny shade of shade or color flooded ever lightly over the top of her cheeks, and how she glanced down away from me before she whispered out her reply to me. “Fine, I am fine.”
“Of course.” I replied to her and liked the way she looked guilty and couldn’t for the life of hers, hold my gaze anymore.
I leaned down until I was a little bit closer to her height before I started to say to her in a low voice. “This isn’t over between us, you’ve got some explaining to do.”
She nodded her head at me before taking a step backwards and placing her hands against her cheeks, and then pressing it against her chest and I watched as she dragged in a deep breath before puffing it out of her parted lips really slowly. I was tempted to step closer to her and ask if she was ok and if her chest was hurting, but decided against it because I had a feeling she wouldn’t reply to me the way she would if we were alone.
I watched as she stared at the side of my body and the way her face lit up with a grin as she began to wave, and I didn’t need to turn around to know that the person she was waving and smiling at, was no other person than James.
“Sarah!” I heard my best friend’s voice gush out from the back of my body and before I could turn around to stare at him, he was walking past me and at the same time, Sarah was walking past me and I turned around just in time to see both of them meet themselves at the part leaning towards the entrance of the kitchen – and James swept her up into her arms in the very next second.
“You’re so beautiful, Sarah.” James gushed as he twirled her around a couple of times before settling her down on the floor and holding the sides of her shoulders.
“James, I’ve missed your handsome smile so much.” She breathed out as well as I snored as my eyes settled on the new shade of blush that had appeared on her cheeks immediately James had complimented her.
“I know you did, Sarah.” James being the sly fox that he was, breathed out in reply and Sarah placed her hands over her cheeks to cool down the burning color staining her cheeks, and I had a feeling it was also because she wanted to stop herself from grinning up at him really widely.
“You’re as bashful as I remembered.” Sarah finally replied to James and I watched as he slid his hands up to cup her cheeks, staring into her eyes and examining her face.
“Are you alright, Sarah?” He asked after a few seconds, like I knew he would– because he was my best friend and I knew he was super observant as fuck. I watched as Sarah started to shake her head at him with a smile still plastered on her face.
James was still staring pointedly at her face, trying to figure out if he’d be able to tell what was wrong with her – and she lifted her hand and wrapped it around his wrist, using her grips on his wrists to start to tug his hands off her face.
“I am fine, child. There’s no need to be worried about me, nothing’s wrong with m…” She had started to say to James as she tugged his hands off her cheeks and was starting to grip his hands in her, before he hands brushed over his knuckles and I watched as she slowly trailed off before dragging her eyes off his face to lower them until they were focused on his hands.
I watched as she started to raise his hands up until his hands were clenched between hers, in their middle. She stared down at his bruised up knuckles and the amounts it scratches, cuts, swells and whatnot before she started to say in a small voice.
“Oh, child…” She breathed out slowly before staring up at him before continuing, “Your knuckles are a mess.”
I watched as James coughed out an awkward chuckle before shrugging his shoulders and having no choice but to stand there and be having his hands cradled by Sarah even though I knew without a doubt, that coming from someone who wasn’t used to being shown this kind of emotional concern, it’s going to be making them overwhelmed and they might start acting awkward, which was what James had unconsciously started to do even without even realizing it.
“Yeah, I guess.” He breathed out in reply to her and I watched as Sarah finally brushed her thumbs over his knuckles for a fleeting second before finally letting go of his wrists and taking a step backwards.
“I’ll take care of it for you in a few minutes, you go get comfortable.” She said to him and I watched as she turned around and it seemed like she was almost startled to see me still standing in the same position which she had left me standing in, minutes ago. James stared at me from over her head and our eyes locked and held for a few seconds before I dragged my eyes away from his, breaking the eye contact and forcing us eyes to focus on Sarah’s face once again.