The Sickened Luna's Last Chance novel Chapter 59

Chapter 58

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Chapter 58

Ella

The tears slipped out before I could stop them.

I didn’t expect to be so upset over a stupid dress. But this was supposed to be my first date ever -even if it was fake.

Dammit, I was twenty-two years old and had never experienced a normal date before. The fact that I’d finally worked up the courage to plan something only to have it ruined by Gabriel’s ” accident”, which definitely wasn’t even an accident at all, made it a hundred times worse.

What did I do in a past life that prevented me from even having this one thing? This one small, stupid, normal experience that most people had by the time they were sixteen?

Goddess, how I yearned for a real relationship. A man who would hold my hand in a dark theater because he wanted to, not because people were watching. A man who would want to be alone with me instead of insisting on bringing his Beta along as a buffer.

Not whatever this was. This mockery of a marriage where my own husband couldn’t stand to be alone with me for two hours.

The ruined dress was just the icing on the cake of my humiliation.

Suddenly, the bathroom door creaked open. I turned, expecting to see some random woman, but instead found Alexander standing awkwardly in the doorway.

“What are you doing in here?” I sniffled, quickly wiping at my eyes. “This is the women’s bathroom.”

He hesitated, glancing around to make sure we were alone, then stepped fully inside and let the door close behind him. “I wanted to make sure you were okay.”

I let out a humorless laugh and turned away, continuing to dab at the greasy butter stains on the front of my dress. “I’m fine. Just trying to salvage one thing about tonight.”

To my surprise, Alexander approached me and took the wet paper towels from my hands. “ You’re making it worse,” he said. “Here, let me.’

Before I could protest, he dampened a fresh paper towel and began gently dabbing at the stains on my dress. His touch was careful, methodical, and strangely… tender.

My breath caught, ears reddening to the brink of giving away my shock. I quickly looked away. “Why are you helping me?”

“It’s an expensive dress. “It would be a shame to ruin it.”

“Right,” I murmured, inwardly chiding my ridiculous, fluttering stomach as his fingers brushed against the fabric over my hip. “Wouldnt want to waste money.”

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Alexander worked silently for a few moments, carefully dabbing at the stains with the damp paper towel. Despite knowing fully well that he was only doing this to save money, I couldn’t help the way my skin heated beneath the thin silk When his fingers brushed against my waist, I swallowed hard.

He must have heard my gulp, because his hands suddenly stilled. Slowly, he looked up, and our eyes met in the mirror.

Just as it had in the theater, the space between us seemed to shrink. He held my gaze and didn’t let go for what felt like an eternity.

For a moment, just a moment, I wondered if he might kiss me. If he might turn me around and press his lips to mine. If I might be able to run my fingers through his red hair and feel him pull me close by my waist.

Did he want a repeat of the kiss at the press conference after all?

I recalled the moment in the theater, just before Gabriel spilled popcorn all over me, when I’d accidentally grabbed Alexander’s hand. He hadn’t pulled away. Instead, he had looked at me with something in his eyes that I had never seen before. Something very close to the way he was looking at me now.

Maybe I wasn’t a fool after all.

Maybe he did care for me and just didn’t want to admit it for some ridiculous reason or

another.

But then he cleared his throat and stepped back, breaking whatever spell had momentarily fallen over us.

“That’s the best I can do,” he said, tossing the paper towel into the trash. “The stains will need proper treatment when we get home.”

I nodded, unable to bring myself to speak. My skin still tingled where his fingers had been, but I ignored it.

“We should go,” Alexander continued, already moving toward the door. “Gabriel’s waiting.”

At the mention of Gabriel, my brief fantasy shattered. Right. Gabriel. The man who had deliberately ruined my dress and my first-ever “date”. The man Alexander insisted on bringing despite my protests.

We exited the bathroom together, drawing a few curious glances from people in the lobby. Gabriel was waiting near the concession stand, arms folded across his chest, looking bored and impatient rather than contrite.

“Finally,” he muttered as we approached. “Can we go now? Or does the princess need more time to fuss over her dress?”

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Something inside of me snapped then. After years of taking Gabriel’s snide comments and dirty looks, after years of biting my tongue and playing the perfect, compliant Luna, I was done.

“Excuse me?” I barked. “What did you just call me?”

Gabriel’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. He clearly hadn’t expected me to challenge him, as if the one time I had used my Luna Voice on him had just been a fluke. “Well, it’s a bit dramatic to cut the movie short over a butter stain, don’t you think?”

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