Chapter 107 - Three Is A Crowd

As Lucy's eyes fluttered open this time, the first thing she noticed was that she was alone on Tom's bed. Did he leave again as he had done the first time they spent the night together? She mused without moving an inch from where she was.

How she had managed to fall asleep after they both returned to the room, she didn't know. But all she remembered was that she had first gone to the bathroom to ease herself, and as she stared into the bathroom mirror while washing her hands, she realized that he had taken off her contact lens once again. 

"How do you always manage to take off my lenses?" She had asked as she returned to the room and got on the bed, covering herself with the duvet since Tom was already lying down on his side of the bed, and he was lying on top of the duvet.

Tom shrugged, not knowing how to answer the question, "I want you to sleep comfortably, so I try," he had murmured.

Were men generally this way? Or was this caring attitude just a Tom thing? "Thank you," Lucy said, giving him a tiny smile. 

Without saying a word, Tom drew her close to himself so that they were both lying on the center of the bed as he cuddled her. This time they were not in a spoon position. She slept facing him with her head on his chest as she listened to the sound of his heartbeat.. 

"Let's talk in the morning, okay?" Tom had whispered into her hair as he rubbed her back, and she had been unable to vocally respond because her throat was clogged, but she had nodded her head, and tried to stay calm by breathing in and out until she drifted off to sleep. 

Lucy closed her eyes, not wanting to get out of the bed which still smelled very much like Tom. Not that she didn't exactly want to get out of the bed, but she just didn't know how to face him. When it came to Tom, she was confused. Their relationship was just too complicated, and now she didn't know how she was going to look him in the face once it was Monday and he had to return to being her driver. 

'Don't think too far ahead, Lu. One day at a time,' she whispered to herself as she drew in a deep breath before sitting up on the bed. She was feeling hot already because of the oversized jogger she was wearing, so she stood up from the bed and took it off, leaving just Tom's oversized T-shirt which she was wearing.

She walked into the bathroom barefooted to make sure she looked okay. Standing in front of the mirror, she combed her fingers through her long curly jet-black hair which looked sleep tousled, before washing her face with water and using his mouthwash to rinse her mouth. Once she was sure she looked alright, she stepped out of the bedroom and went in search of him. 

She stopped by the kitchen door when she heard movement in there, and her stomach fluttered when she saw him standing by the microwave with his back to her. He was wearing just an apron over his faded jeans trouser, so his back was bare save for the sling of the apron tied around his neck and waist.

Tom turned around to flash her a smile when he sensed her presence, "Good morning pretty," he said as his eyes moved from her face to her sleep-tousled hair, and then lingered there before returning to her face. 

"Good morning," she said, not knowing what to do next. This had to be the most awkward weekend of her adult life. She was just clueless. 

Tom noticed she had taken off the joggers and was dressed in just his t-shirt now. He had to admit that she looked really sexy. He tried not to make her uncomfortable by staring at her, "Let's have breakfast, and talk a bit before you go home," Tom suggested, and Lucy gave him a nod. 

"What can I do?" Lucy asked as she took a tentative step forward and joined him inside, while trying not to stare at him as he took off the apron. 

He paused when he noticed that she was looking in the opposite direction and her face had flushed a bright red, "Sorry," he said, flashing her an apologetic smile as he walked past her to pick up a shirt in the living room. 

Once he had dressed up, he returned to join her, "Let's set the table," Tom said as turned off the oven before walking to one of the kitchen drawers to take out a teacup. 

Lucy watched with longing as he filled the teacup with coffee and dropped a teaspoonful of sugar into the teacup. He stirred the coffee and took a sip from it before meeting Lucy's gaze. 

Lucy walked over to the drawer to take a teacup but he stopped her with a shake of his head, "You can't take coffee," he said as he took the cup from her and returned it to the drawer, making her look at him in confusion.

"I read somewhere that coffee and alcohol aggravate ulcers, so I don't think you should keep taking them," Tom said, making her frown. 

"I've been doing fine taking it," Lucy pointed out stubbornly.

"If you were doing so fine you wouldn't have needed me to take you to a pharmacy to pick out medicine. Don't worry, I got something you can drink. I read somewhere that cranberry juice is very good," Tom said as he picked up a glass and walked over to his refrigerator to pour her a glass of the juice.

"You seem to be reading a lot about ulcer... You know a lot of people with ulcers?" Lucy asked curiously as she took the glass of juice from him. She was just going to drink the cranberry juice here and go home to make herself a cup of coffee later. Ulcer or not, she wasn't going to deprive herself of something she loved. 

"Yes. My next-door neighbor, my boss, and now my girlfriend," Tom said with a wink making her lips twitch in amusement. 

"So you read up all of that just because of me?" She asked as she looked at him with a serious expression in her eyes as she sipped from the glass.

"I had to. I don't like to feel useless in any situation," Tom said as he dropped his cup of coffee by the counter and moved the dishes to the table. 

He had taken his time to read up on ulcer because of her? What kind of a man was he? Lucy mused, feeling oddly touched by all of his thoughtful gestures.

They both set the table without saying a word to each other, and once they sat down to eat, Lucy remembered Anita's suggestion the previous evening, and she cleared her throat, "Will you be busy later in the day?" She asked, making Tom look at her with interest, while she ate.

"I don't think so. Why?" Tom asked curiously as he picked up his fork and started to eat too. 

"I was thinking we could go see a movie together? My friend and I are going, and I want you to come with us," Lucy added, not wanting to tell Tom who the friend was, or that her friend had suggested the outing.

"Your friend?" Tom asked with a slightly raised brow, and Lucy gave him a nod as she stuck a piece of steak into her mouth. 

"Yeah, the one I visited yesterday," Lucy explained. 

Although he was of the school of thought that said 'Three is a crowd' and would have preferred to spend the day alone with her, he also wanted to meet this new friend of hers and get to know what sort of person she was, "Are you going to tell her about our relationship?" Tom asked, and Lucy shook her head immediately.

"No. We can't tell her about it."

He wanted to ask why, but chose not to. "Okay. Anything else you want to talk about?" Tom asked curiously.

Lucy cleared her throat, "Yes. You said you were going to teach me...." She let the rest of the sentence trail off since she expected him to know what she was talking about. 

Tom said nothing as he quietly ate from the plate in front of him. From the moment he woke up that morning he had been occupied with thoughts of how to help Lucy enjoy their relationship. He wanted her to desire not just being in a relationship, but being in a relationship with him. 

"Can you tell me about the person you were in love with before now?" Tom asked, wanting to confirm if Sonia's half-brother was the person she had been in love with. 

Lucy blinked at him in surprise. What did that have to do with anything? Why was he asking her that?

"I just figured I should know about your past relationship. Maybe that would help me not to overstep any boundaries," Tom said when it seemed like she wasn't going to say anything.

"There was no relationship. So maybe you should just forget about my past and focus on teaching me what I need to know," Lucy suggested with a frown.

"Did he die?" Tom ventured to ask ignoring everything she had just said since he knew that to get answers from her, he needed to be stubborn else they would get nowhere. 

Lucy scowled at him, but when Tom remained unfazed by her displeasure she sighed, "No, he didn't. Look, I don't even know if I was in love with him, okay? He liked me, and I liked him too. He asked me to be his girlfriend, but before I could do anything about it everything changed. So I don't even know if what I felt for him was love," she concluded with a shrug, not wanting to get into the details.

So the person she had been in love with wasn't Sonia's late half-brother? Tom mused. 

"I was thinking... Maybe we should make a list? Like a checklist of things couples do in a relationship and then we can tick all of them together?" Lucy suggested, wanting to change the subject since it seemed like Tom was bent on talking about her past. 

"What happens after we have ticked everything on the list?" Tom asked curiously.

"Then we can be sure we have both learned all we need to know about being in a relationship, and you can go on to confess your feelings to her," Lucy suggested with a bright smile.