Chapter 314 - Too Late

[This chapter is dedicated to Rae_Mair. Welcome to our story. Thank you for picking this book out of thousands of other stories out there.] 

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Jess walked slowly between the aisle of seemingly endless things a pet could have in the pet shop. Luke was closely following behind but he was not looking at what the store was selling, instead, he's watching Jess, who appeared to be calm and collected. She would cocked her hide to the side every time she would pick up something on her list to buy. 

"Which one should I get?" She was holding two dog collars in orange and green. 

"The orange one." 

She nodded and put the orange dog collar in her basket. She eyed the green collar in her hand before putting it back on the rack. She stepped forward to search for some dog food but she stepped backward and hit Luke. She grabbed the green dog collar and put it too in her basket. 

When she saw the questioning look on Luke's face, "I think Lucille would like something extra if she wanted to change Macao's collar," she said before walking again in search of dog food. 

When she finally ticked all the boxes of Lucille's to buy. She headed to the cashier counter and paid for everything. She was paying it with her own money because Lucille won't be getting her allowance from her father at the end of the month. 

"Why didn't Lucille come with you to buy this stuff?" He asked when he got the paper bag from Jess. The cans of dog food were heavy and Luke carried them together with the other things she bought. 

"She has study sessions with her friends. She has a big exam coming up." She answered robotically. That's how she's been acting since she hung up the phone with Noah.

Luke nodded and kept to himself the joke he was thinking with how she was acting like a stepmom to Lucille already. The young miss was already called her Aunt Jessie and she has been running errands for Lucille. 

But with what just happened, he refrained from making a joke. He was worried about how Jess seemed to be collected after what happened. He knew that despite her calm appearance, her brain was churning with tons of things. 

"Can you wait here?" 

Luke looked around before looking over his shoulder and asked. "Why?" 

"The car is near here. The dog food is heavy. I can get the car and just pick you up here." 

"Don't treat me like some lame uncle. I can carry all of these for little Lucille." He said with a sneer but at the back of his mind, he doesn't want to leave Jess on her own. He was actually thinking about what excuse he could use to invite himself to her apartment without raising any suspicion on Jess's side. Because if not, Jess would just think that he's pitying her and that's something that she won't be happy about. 

"Okay, then…" She agreed hastily. 

She crossed the street and Luke followed. They walked until they reached Jess's car, parked along the street, next to a meter parking stand. Jess put some more coins while Luke opened the trunk of Jess's SUV to put what they bought. When he closed the trunk, Jess was already sitting behind the driver's seat. He quickly walked around to the passenger side and got in. 

"I'm coming home with you. I want to see Lucille's dog." 

"The dog is staying at Noah's apartment." She answered without taking her eyes off the road. She drove slowly as they were still in the downtown area.

Luke was still thinking about how to reply to what Jess said when he noticed that Jess was driving back to the restaurant where they saw Noah, dining with a girl. 

"It would be faster to get to the main street if we took the street back there." He said in a neutral tone. If he wasn't worrying about Jess, he would tell some jokes about it but Jess has a somber expression on her face. 

"We aren't going home yet…" 

"Where are we going?" He asked as he chanted on his head. 'Please, not in the restaurant.' 

"In the restaurant where Noah was." 

'Well, shit.' He cursed inwardly while smiling brightly. "What for? Noah was working…" 

"I mulled over what I saw and what he said while choosing between kibble and wet dog food and I realized I won't be having a good sleep tonight if I don't get my answer." 

"But, you can always ask Noah at home...Like duh? You're neighbors and basically living at each other's houses." He rolled his eyes as he could no longer stop himself from giving side comments. 

"Yes. But I know myself. It would be difficult for me to ask questions especially when I already lost the momentum." 

"And what are you planning to do? Storm inside the restaurant and create a scandal?" He lifted his eyebrow, mockingly at Jess.

Jess didn't reply like usual to his taunting. "I will go inside the restaurant, yes—but I won't create a scandal. That would be so cheap!" She clicked her tongue at Luke. 

But Luke didn't feel better when they pulled to the curb, right outside the restaurant and he saw that Noah and his lunch companion were still in the restaurant, enjoying their dessert. Luke cursed Noah inside his head. Why didn't he hurry with his meal and leave? 

Jess slid herself out from behind the wheel. She didn't wait for Luke to get out of the passenger seat and walked straight to the restaurant.

Luke hurried out and dashed to the restaurant door where the doorman bowed down and opened the door for Jess. He caught up with Jess when she was already a table away from Noah's table. He quickly grabbed her elbow and whispered with clenched teeth. "Slow down, will you?" 

"Shut up and let me be." She answered clear enough for him to hear. 

Luke prayed and apologized to Noah in his head. He was still praying that Jess wouldn't break Noah's shoulder when they reached the table where Noah was. 

"Hello, Noah…" She greeted him with her eyes on the girl, sitting across from Noah, shoving some chocolate cake on her mouth. 

Noah paled when he looked up and met Jess's deadly serious expression. 

Luke, who was standing behind Jess, thought to himself, 'Too late.'