The Lucky One Chapter Fifty One

The  air, sharp as a shard of ice, pricked at Sandra’s exposed skin. An unease hummed beneath her, a nameless dread that lingered even with Lou by her side. The blonde’s mere presence offered a fragile shield against the storm brewing inside Sandra; there was this sense of calmness that Lou offered in her strangest individuality and deep down, Sandra wanted to dissect how could that be. The city twinkled faintly above, the clock on a distant building likely striking one. Yet, here they sat, two figures up on the hood of Sandra’s car, swallowed by the inky silence.

An unspoken understanding hung between them, a thread woven from a skepticism of who they really were to each other. The raw honesty Sandra had confessed had left Lou speechless, the weight of Sandra’s yearning for Cate was indeed a palpable presence. Lou’s own muted response, a flicker of something in her eyes, sparked a flicker of hope in Sandra’s chest. In that quiet moment, a desperate wish echoed in the emptiness: please Lou, tell me who you really are.

“It’s 1 am.” The brunette broke the ice with a soft cackle. 

“Yeah.” Lou fished out her phone to check the time and true to Sandra’s words, it was already 1:43 AM, “I should get going. It’s late.” 

“Exactly it’s late.” 

Lou gave her a nod and a timid smile before she jumped off the hood, “Yeah.” 

“It’s late, exactly.” Sandra prompted, “You don’t have a car and you said earlier you wanted me to eat the cake.” The brunette silently got off the hood, “Well, I want you to eat it with me.”

The subtle invitation left Lou glued on her spot. She felt the burning tingle on the ends of her toes as it ran up to rush to her face and Sandra had sensed it – that shock, that tension. The brunette softly glanced at her one more time, her hair perfectly framing her face before she gave the blonde a smile.

“Will you?” Sandra asked with so much hope in her voice before she started to walk towards her apartment’s door.

Lou elicited a dulcet cackle before she buried her hands into her pants’ pockets, “Can you promise me that I will be able to come out alive from your apartment tomorrow?”

The question made the brunette laugh, “I only murder sexy people.” She countered as she pushed her door open.

Lou playfully scoffed before she followed the brunette inside, “Are you telling me I’m not sexy?”

Instead of an answer, Sandra looked at her. Her stare lingering a little longer that it should before she dropped her key on the glass table in the living room and without words, she walked away, leaving Lou standing in the living room with a big smile on her face.

—–

“Do you want a cup of coffee or a drink for your cake, Lou?”

Sandra, who had already gotten out of her clothes from work and had changed into her pajamas, yelled from the kitchen. Yet, an answer from the blonde did not flow through the misty air of her apartment for there Lou was, still standing in the centre of the living room, completely in awe of the space around her. The whole space inside was sculpted to perfection – from the marbled tops to the well-designed tiled floor. The living room space had a minimalistic aesthetic. With its dark gray walls and minimal white patents. Sandra’s pad screamed so much of a bachelor vibes which Lou didn’t expect.

“I was asking you if you want some coffee or a drink.” It pulled Lou out of her revery as Sandra suddenly appeared with two plates of cake on hand, “Are you okay?” She added, setting the plates on the living room table before she let herself fell on the couch.

“Your space…” Lou looked at her with such amazement plastered across her deep blue eyes, “I love it. I was expecting a homie-granny vibe with plants on each corner. A wall taped with polaroid photos, a colored vinyl on the side with fairy lights all over the space, but this…” The blonde sat down on the couch and looked at her, “…I love how you put your feminity without withdrawing from the masculine side of your space’s aesthetic. I love your place.”

“Thanks.” Sandra muttered, “When I got here, this was not fully-furnished. On the first week, I hired people to transform this place into that aesthetic. It’s actually Cate’s aesthetic. I wanted to incorporate that in my home so I could…” Sandra paused, a deep sigh left out her system before she continued with, “…so I could somehow feel that she is still with me. So I could pretend that I’m with her.”

“You love her?”

The question pulled a bittersweet smile across Sandra’s face and it took her a few seconds before she said, “More than anything in this world.”

Lou smiled at her. The glimmer in her eyes dissipated into a pitiful glow. She didn’t reply, instead Lou took a spoonful of the cake and ate it. With that, they fell into another orb of silence. They were supposedly two complete strangers a week ago, but there they were, letting the serenity of the moment seeped through the crevices of their skin as if they two were tangled through bones and flesh for years. The silence was comforting and the presence of each other was warm. They didn’t know how long they sat and ate silently, but when Lou glanced at the brunette beside her, Sandra already had her face leaning sideway against the couch.

“Goodness.” Lou chuckled lightly, disbelief sprawling against her face as she realized Sandra fell asleep, the fork still on her hand resting against her lap, “She’s such a baby.” She commented as she carefully took the fork and settled it against the plate on the table in front.

The moonlight, a pale gold spilling through the window, bathed Sandra in an ethereal glow. Lou, with a grin on her face, watched the brunette sleep, mesmerized. Sandra, in that moment, resembled a slumbering deity. Lou traced the outline of Sandra’s face with her gaze, utterly captivated by the sharp angles of her jaw; to Lou, her jaw was too perfect as if God really took His time sculpting her. Her lashes, dark and luxurious, fanned against her cheek like a fringe of secrets. Even the slight upturn of Sandra’s nose, a feature some might find unconventional, held an undeniable allure in the moonlight’s soft focus.

The urge to capture the image of Sandra sleeping was overwhelming. With Sandra bathed in moonlight, an ethereal beauty before her, Lou couldn’t resist. A silent click, a flash barely perceptible in the silvered dawn. Like a thief with a stolen treasure, Lou snatched her phone away, heart pounding a frantic rhythm against her ribs. Guilt gnawed at the edges of her fascination, a secret tucked away in the digital vault of her phone.

“Oh my God.” Lou muttered to herself realizing that she just took a photo of her secretly, “Shit.” She stood up from the couch as if she had sat on embers before she stood on the center of the living room, immensely confused, “What I did is not good. Should I delete it?” A hand flew to her forehead and it was then she realized, she was sweating beads, “Should I?” She looked at Sandra sleeping across before she sighed, “But she’s so goddamn pretty.”

And to make matters worse, Sandra jolted awake from her slumber and found Lou staring at her whilst standing in the living room, sweating.

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