I Walked Away Seven Years Too Late But Right on Time novel Chapter 29

After the Uber dropped her at the hotel, Sophie took a quick moment to freshen up in her room before deciding it was better to wait for Gavin in the lobby.

She knew exactly what Gwen had been doing back at the KTV bar—playing up the dirty implications purely to torture Luke. But even though nothing was actually happening, having a guy come straight to her hotel room late at night was definitely sending the wrong message.

To avoid leading Gavin on, she headed down to the 24-hour cafe on the second floor and shot him a text with her new location.

She ordered a glass of juice, but the second she took a sip, her stomach let out an embarrassingly loud growl.

Between the tension and the alcohol, she hadn't managed to choke down a single bite of dinner. Now, she was absolutely starving.

The kitchen was already closed for hot food, so she settled for a simple club sandwich. She had barely swallowed her second bite when Gavin came striding through the doors, dragging his suitcase behind him.

"Dinner party didn't feed you?" he asked, flashing a bright, easy smile as he sat across from her.

"I was too busy trying to hustle a contract to eat," she admitted with a sheepish laugh.

"I'll grab one too. Airplane food never does it for me."

Sitting across from each other, happily devouring their late-night sandwiches, Gavin suddenly burst out laughing again.

Sophie gave him a totally baffled look. Did this guy just radiate pure joy all the time? How was a mediocre turkey club this funny?

"Just the way you were chewing on that straw... it reminded me of that time I saw you eating a popsicle on the bleachers."

"It was right before you graduated. You were just sitting there all by yourself. I accidentally kicked my soccer ball right by you and said hi, but you just looked at me and apologized."

Sophie flushed red, covering her face with her hands. "God, was I really that oblivious?"

She honestly had no memory of him being there, but she remembered exactly why she had been sitting on those bleachers, completely zoned out.

It was the final weekend before graduation. While all her roommates had locked down apartments months in advance, she had waited until the absolute last minute to avoid paying extra rent.

The girl she was supposed to room with bailed when her boyfriend decided to move to San Francisco. Desperate, she had finally scraped together enough for a shared room, only for the landlord to text her on Friday, claiming someone else had already snagbed it.

When she furiously accused him of going back on his word, he had completely screamed at her over the phone, leaving her sitting on the bleachers in angry tears.

She had exactly one week before she was kicked out of her dorm, and she was going to be officially homeless.

And then Luke had walked past. Panicking, she had slammed her laptop shut and aggressively hung up her phone.

Ten minutes later, he had called her desk extension and ordered her to his office.

She had stood there trembling, fully expecting to be fired for slacking off. Instead, he slid a shiny key across his massive desk and said, "Move in with me."

They had only been seeing each other for two months at that point.

Honestly, she hadn't even been entirely sure if they were officially dating.

He had never once said he liked her. But he had kissed her, and held her.

She knew for an absolute fact she was terrifyingly in love with him, but she had zero idea if he felt the same.

She froze, staring at him from across the room. Unable to help herself, she crept silently over, picked up the fallen blanket, and carefully draped it over his shoulders.

His lashes were shockingly long and thick, fluttering ever so slightly with each deep breath. Stripped of his terrifying boardroom glare, his sleeping face was unbelievably soft.

Her eyes dragged over his sharp jaw, the straight slope of his nose, and the plush curve of his mouth, obsessively tracing every line. This was the man she was usually far too terrified to even look at during work hours.

But right now, while he was completely defenseless, she could stare all she wanted. A giddy, entirely smitten smile was stretching across her face when his eyes abruptly flew open.

Sophie jumped violently, looking like a teenager caught sneaking out. She turned beet red, stammering out a frantic excuse. "I... the blanket fell... I was just fixing it."

He let out a low, raspy chuckle. The corners of his mouth tilted up, genuine amusement dancing in his eyes. "Why are you so nervous?"

Utterly completely short-circuiting, the dumbest possible sentence tumbled out of her mouth. "You have a dimple."

The second she said it, she wanted to bash her head into the coffee table. Alcohol literally killed brain cells.

"Oh my god, I am so sorry..."

Desperately trying to salvage the situation, her mind completely blanked. Deciding it was safer to just stop talking entirely, she snapped her mouth shut.

He pushed himself up onto his elbows, staring intensely at her in total silence.

Sophie wanted the earth to split open and swallow her whole.