119 Luke and Keren

"Hey, Luke! Did you have a good night's sleep?"

As Luke saw the three of them enter, he looked outside and noticed the woman who was standing outside.

Their eyes met for a second, before she looked away and pretended as if she hadn't been watching him.

"I'm good. Who is she?"

Without pointing at her outright, Luke used his head to gesture at the window.

After hearing his question, Liz hesitated instead of answering.

As she finally answered, his eyebrow rose in response.

"She is Mr. Will's sister. I met her when I was in Europe, and she surprised me at the house today. She said she would come along, and I felt it would be rude to stop her."

Hearing the CEO mentioned, Luke's face took on a sullen expression.

However, he controlled his emotions and smiled at the trio, not wanting too hurt Liz's feelings.

After all of them talked for a little while about a few trivial things, the nurses came to take him to his surgery.

Before he left, Liz squeezed his hand and said, "You better be fine."

"10 reporters couldn't take me down. What can surgery do? I'll be fine, Liz."

As he left these words, he was wheeled out of the room.

Outside, of course, was Keren, who had been observing all this while.

When Luke exited the room, their eyes met once again, but seeing the scorn in his eyes, Keren frowned.

After he left, Derek started asking for the pudding that he had loved the day before. So, Liz asked Mary to take him to the cafeteria, while she walked to Keren.

The surgery would take at least an hour, so there was nothing for them to do but wait.

"He hates Will because of what happened between you two before, doesn't he?"

Seeing the way Keren accurately guessed Luke's possible reason for hating Will, Liz sighed and said, "I don't know if I should call it hate. But after that incident, he was the one who picked me up and saw the state I was left in. He also acted strangely during the dinner that Mr. Will attended, and even this act of getting into a fight is something he wouldn't have normally done. I don't know. He's changed. And…I don't know why."

As Keren listened to Liz, an expression of deep thought came on her face.

Finally, when Liz was done, she said, "Interesting. And by default, I guess he hates me too. I'm sorry if I forced myself into his visit, Liz, but I wanted to see him and see how you two are. I'm just…really protective of my brother. He cannot handle being broken again. Anyway, I want to get to know him. Can I talk to him after you guys do after the surgery?"

As Keren laid out her reason for coming, Liz smiled.

This was what she loved about this woman- although she was astute and cunning, she was honest with Liz. And Liz appreciated that.

It was actually sweet to see a sister who cared about her brother so much. And, anyone would suspect that there might be something romantic involved when they saw everything that Luke was doing for Liz. But, she knew that there was nothing of the sort between them.

Wait…was there?

Could that be the reason for his change?

As this realization came to Liz, she froze and thought back to all of their recent interactions.

However, she wasn't prepared to accept this.

In fact, she didn't want to.

All she saw was a protective childhood friend who cared for her like family because of everything they had been through.

They were closer than siblings, and this was a bond they cherished deeply.

So, she had no intention whatsoever of ruining it in any way.

Hence, Liz shelved the possibility in her mind, not wanting to think about it anymore.

Meanwhile, Keren was waiting for Liz to answer while watching the tumultuous thoughts going on in her head through her eyes.

As clarity finally returned to them, she wondered what Liz had been thinking.

"Y-yes, that's fine."

However, before Keren could ask, Liz just gave this answer and left to the cafeteria.

An hour and a half later.

The surgery had gone smoothly, and the family of three had already talked to Luke and assured him that they were right there.

After they left to the cafeteria once again on the pretense of having lunch, Keren walked into the room.

Now that she looked at him from up close, she noticed that he had the kind of concealed handsomeness that the fashion industry hunted for when they set up TV shows.

Besides, he also had a rugged quality to him, as if he had been through a lot.

Yet, when he turned to Keren and realized who she was, scorn came over his face again.

"What are you doing here?", he asked, quite rudely.

Of course, Keren wasn't fazed.

"Oh, nothing. You see, my brother fell for this girl who has a childhood friend that she is VERY close to. So close, that my brother felt threatened enough to spend millions of dollars to move forward an event that was supposed to take place next week, all so that he could cancel the picnic that you two were going to have."

This made Luke's eyes widen, as he gawked with shock and said, "That bas-"

"Stop it right there. I just came here to ask you for something. After you are out, I will be taking you out for dinner because I need to speak to you about something. Believe me, you will appreciate me for making this gesture, and the only reason I'm even doing so is that Liz likes you so much. Mr. Lucas Gerrymander, don't even think about skipping, or I'll make a scene outside your diner. Bye."

As Keren said these words in a stern tone and left the room, Luke couldn't help but keep staring.

Vaguely, in the back of his mind, he couldn't help but realize one thing.

This Keren was definitely similar to Liz, at least in the area of being someone who wouldn't take no for an answer.