The veil of fate was now fully removed. This was not happenstance. Luke was the other company’s VIP host. Only the two of them had keycards to that room.
Then it occurred to her – Luke didn’t know that she was a server just like him, let alone that she was the other VIP host.
Nikki straightened herself up, knowing exactly what she was going to do next. She was going to use this as an upper hand to see him again, alone in the VIP host room. She didn’t know what fate had in store for her, let alone for the two of them, but she could just sense that they were meant to have met for some unknown reason.
Nikki wiped a tear in her eye, which had surprisingly sprung from being so hopeful that this run-in with Luke could finally mean more than just a chance encounter. With the strength summoned from having grown into a strong, independent woman with everything she’d been through the last several years, Nikki made the decision. Whether it was fate or happenstance, she was going to confront it head on. She was going to meet Luke in the VIP room.
Chapter 15
But still, there was Ryan. Nikki’s moments with Ryan had been captivating and fulfilling. As she walked to the VIP room, Nikki was too smart to just cast the good thing she had going with Ryan aside on the off chance that something such as fate actually existed. Besides, Luke was a stranger – and one with whom she’d not yet shared more than a few sentences. Nikki was intrigued, to say the least, by him. But she told herself to still be rational and to not get lost in her dreams.
As she quietly cracked open the VIP room’s door, she saw Luke on the other side of the doorway – staring at the painting on the wall.
Nikki didn’t think that Luke heard her enter the room, likely due to the escalating sounds of the rainstorm outside. The storm outside had somehow managed to grow even more intense than the last time she’d been in the room. So, she took a moment to check out the man standing in front of her.
After having become accustomed to Ryan’s strong frame, that was the first thing Nikki noticed about Luke. He wasn’t as built as Ryan. But still, there was something extremely manly about Luke, just in a different way. He had down-to-earth boyish good looks with hair that was just long enough to be brushed to the side while still looking well-kept.
But it wasn’t just his looks which had caught Nikki’s attention on their brief first date. That was saying something, too, since she remembered staring right into his piercing blue eyes. There was something just about being near him which radiated a confidence – not a “cocky” confidence, but just a confidence in Luke knowing who he was as an individual. That type of earnest, sincere confidence was not just attractive, but also magnetic. Nikki had never really described a person in such a manner before, but that was the closest way she could think of describing to herself why she was instantly drawn to Luke.
But Nikki was wrong – Luke had heard her enter the room. After what felt like minutes of her lurking by the door staring at Luke, Nikki was caught off guard by Luke’s sudden question.
“It’s magnificent, don’t you think?” Luke asked while still standing to admire the work of art on the wall.
“It is. It really is,” Nikki said as she casually walked closer to him. The fact that Luke had been appreciating a painting while he was alone in the VIP room stood out to Nikki. That was something which Ryan wasn’t able to feign on their second date – even though he had coincidentally known the painter. Nikki had tried to have Ryan get in touch with his emotions while staring at the painting in the art gallery, but to no avail. It just didn’t come naturally to Ryan. And the fact that the painting had been painted by the same artist as the one here in this VIP room with Luke was not lost on Nikki. Something about that artist’s paintings had struck her to the core, and she instantly recognized that Luke had felt the same just now.
But Nikki’s female voice in response to Luke must have caught him off guard. He jerked his head to look at her in surprise and saw Nikki standing there.
“Sorry,” he said calmly, “I thought you were my boss.”
Nikki smirked. She had known that she had the upper hand in approaching him, because he didn’t know she was the other VIP host. She wanted to use this knowledge to toy with Luke, and she also wanted to question Luke about the painting to have the type of conversation which had been lacking on her date with Ryan a couple of weeks ago.
But, no. She was going to be more direct with Luke. She’d wanted answers from him since their mysterious first date, and now was the time. At least, that’s what her heart signaled to her, as it continued to beat loudly and quickly in her chest.
“Who are you?” She asked directly, looking into Luke’s blue eyes as she walked right up to his side while he was still standing in front of the painting.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” he said calmly, not yet realizing she was the other VIP host, “am I not allowed to be in here?”
“No less than I am,” Nikki said, coyly signaling that she was the other VIP host and not really a wedding guest.
“Sorry again, ‘mam. I’ll leave then.” His benevolent tone signaled that he still hadn’t caught on to the fact that Nikki was the other VIP host.
With that, Luke took a step past Nikki toward the door. But Nikki’s desperation to learn more about the mystery man, and her determination to be forward with him, made her quickly reach out and grab his hand. As she did, she felt electricity immediately pulse through her fingertips. Finally she was able to feel his touch, and she hoped that Luke felt that same exact instant physical spark.
“Do you remember me?” Nikki asked directly. In the split moment that she waited for Luke to answer, her hopes hung in the air for a ‘yes.’ Her heart was still beating intensely in anticipation. She looked directly into Luke’s eyes, hoping that she hadn’t misinterpreted the five words he’d whispered in her ear on the dance floor.
“How could I forget you?”
Butter. Nikki’s entire being had turned into butter that had now completely melted at the slightest glimmer of sunshine. She was experienced enough to know a player when she met one. But that was not Luke. He meant it. She knew – he meant it. The wince of his eye as he looked right into her when he had said it showed the sincerity of his heart.
Nikki wanted to instantly be enveloped in his arms and feel the tenderness of his lips. But, again, she told herself to be rational. So, she asked him the questions which she hoped would heal any wound she told herself somehow existed between them since that unusual first date.
“Who am I?” She tested him.
“You’re Nikki. And I’m sorry if I hurt you by having to leave our date so abruptly.” The intensity of their direct stare into each other’s eyes was palpable. As they stood in the dimly lit room, with the sounds of the outside rainstorm filling the air, their forceful, instant connection was undeniable.
He knew. He remembered. This made Nikki inexplicably happy to know she was not just another woman to him. Nikki continued her questioning, but made sure to sound calm and inquisitive, so as not to sound like an obsessive, crazed person.
“Why did you leave so quickly?”
“I … uh …” For the first time since they started talking to each other, Luke broke eye contact and looked down. The room was darker from the rainstorm outside, but Nikki could still see a tear well up in the corner of Luke’s eye. She didn’t need an answer; she could tell it was something personal.