Chapter 342 - Back In The Lab

[This chapter is dedicated to darcy_Goodson. Thank you for all the support. I'll be forever grateful.]

"You should have called me." He insisted for the nth time over her shoulder. 

Jess angrily turned around and faced Luke. "You're pissing me off. How do you expect me to call you in such a situation? I can't think of anything…" She rolled her eyes and returned her attention back to work. "Ellise men hovered around me, I don't need you there." 

"Hmmp! You're just saying that because Noah was with you," he murmured under his breath, stomping his feet as he left her alone in her workstation. 

"You know that's not true." She said not lifting her gaze away from her computer monitor. She knew that Luke was just annoying her. But if he thinks, she will ask him about him and Oliver who worked with him during the time that she can't come to the lab because Noah insisted for her to stay with him—Luke could wait but it won't happen. She has no energy to listen to his woes over his affair with Oliver. He can take care of himself. 

"Are there people watching you now?" 

Jess got startled and grabbed the folder on her table and hit Luke. "Aren't you going to stop? The answer is yes. Noah was being obnoxious about it. Stop reminding me that there are people watching my every move." 

"That's exactly what I want." He said in a straight face that drove Jess mad. 

"Y-you!!" 

Luke laughed when Jess's nose flared in anger and her cheeks flushed in annoyance. He was worried about her, but he knew that he can't do anything for her that her over-protective boyfriend and best friend haven't done for her yet. The two already did everything and more for her. He felt left out and useless. Thus, he decided to just annoy her so that she won't forget that he was still around. She has a friend with her even though he didn't really do much for her. 

Noah called him before he landed, asking him not to let Jess work for a few days in the lab, telling him what happened because he was clueless. He felt hurt that it was Noah who let him know about what happened to Jess because Jess was with that Stefan, having coffee. He curled his lips, clicking his tongue with the thought that Jess chose to have coffee with other people than with him. 

The only thing that pacified him was the fact that Noah called him. It made him feel that he was needed and important. He's being irrational but he can't help it. Jess was just too damn independent and good at bottling her feelings up. 

"Can you stay with me in the next two weeks or so?" 

He was still sulking when he heard Jess's question. "Stay in your house?" He asked, surprised. 

"Yes." 

"I'll think about it." He replied, smirking deep inside, rejoicing that Jess was inviting him over. It's been a while since he slept at her house. 

"If you don't want to…just let me know so I could ask Ellise to send one of her men." 

"Hah! As if Noah will let you," he scoffed. He was expecting Jess to reply but she didn't. She has her eyes glued on her computer monitor, her hands frozen on top of her keyboard. His brows knitted quizzically. 

"Are you okay?" He approached her slowly. Jess didn't move even when he already sat down on the edge of her working table. "Earth to Little Miss Jessie," he flicked his fingers in front of her face. 

"Luke…Noah is still lying to me." She whispered. Her eyes were staring at her reflection on her computer monitor.  "What should I do?" 

Luke straightened and pulled a stool next to her. "What does he lie about?" He was expecting Jess to mull over the incident at the park. He didn't expect Jess to share Noah's lies. It was very unusual for her to share personal matters out of the blue and at work. Jess is very professional when it comes to working. 

"Little things…seemed to be unimportant but it doesn't feel good that he kept on lying." She exhaled a frustrated sigh. "He said before that he didn't mean those lies, it's just that he didn't think of them as something that I should know…" 

Luke arched his brows. He doesn't like the sound of it but he didn't speak his mind. Jess doesn't need his opinion. She just needed someone to listen to her. 

"Also," she turned to look at him. "Do you still talk to Lucille?" 

Luke knitted his brows. "Yes, she does." He pulled his phone and opened the chatting App that he uses with Lucille and opened their chat to show Jess. "She sent me a photo of her dogs playing with her great-grandfather's dogs this morning." He handed his phone to Jess. "Why?" He asked, watching the pain cross her eyes, scrolling his chat exchange with Lucille. 

"Ever since Lucille flew to Berlin, I didn't receive a single message from her." She told him as she handed his phone back to him. "I wanted to ask Noah but he happened to tell me that Lucille wasn't that busy. She has a lot of free time to send me a message if she wanted to…" her chin trembled with the hurt she was trying to keep to herself. "She read my messages and she sent you messages. I don't understand why." 

"Do you want me to call her now?" He was also surprised to hear about Lucille not talking to Jess since in their conversation. He didn't get any hint that Lucille was avoiding Jess at all. 

"I think I should not." She said with a smile but the pain was in her eyes. "There must be a reason why and I don't want to ask Lucille about it in chat messages. I hope to talk to her in person." 

"Hmm," he nodded absentmindedly. He tried to think if there were changes in the way Lucille talked to him but couldn't remember any single moment that indicated that Lucille changed. 

"If I do overtime this week, I can have three or four days of free time next week.. I'm going to use those days to fly to Berlin and meet Lucille."