Diplomacy

“I probably sound like a whiny girl, but I at least expected him to WANT to spend some of his time with me. I feel like such an… an ornament!”
    “Listen, why don’t you tag along with me? I can take you to the charity work I do and you can see if you’d like to do something like that too. Then I’ll throw a little hint in Jack’s direction about you feeling a bit neglected by Lucas. He’ll probably mention it to Lucas and as a side benefit, it might make him feel guilty enough to take me on a vacation.
    How does that sound?”
    Lucy’s face lit up and Maria nodded gracefully, happy with the way this was turning out.

    88 | Z a h r a O w e n s

Chapter Twelve
    LUCAS woke up alone. What he really wanted was to sleep a little more, since neither he nor Jack had wanted to spend their last night together asleep, but suddenly the uneasy feeling crept up on him that maybe Jack had already left. He jumped out of bed and grabbed his watch off the nightstand. Quarter to eleven. They had agreed to leave around twelve so Jack should still be here. He grabbed the sheet off the bed and wrapped it around himself, then dashed out on to the terrace. No Jack.
    Bathroom?
    Lucas stopped in his tracks at the door of the bathroom as he caught sight of Jack standing in front of the large mirror. The man was wearing only boxers and leaning forward, shaving carefully.
    “You look like one of those Greek statues,” Jack remarked, eyeing Lucas.
    Discarding the sheet, Lucas moved to wrap his arms around Jack.
    He put his chin on Jack’s shoulder and looked at their reflections in the mirror. “I wish we could just stay here. Never go back to the real world.” Jack put his hands over Lucas’s and leaned into the touch. “You know we can’t, Luke.”
    “I know.” Lucas sighed, squeezing Jack tight. “Just don’t want to let go right now.”
    Jack lifted his arm and twisted around so he could cup Lucas’s head and kiss him passionately. “We’ll be all right, Luke,” he promised unwisely. “We’ll find a way to make it work.” D i p l o m a c y | 89

    As they got their things together to leave the hotel room, Lucas felt the tension mounting. They hadn’t really talked about the future and even though he was sure this felt good to Jack, too, he was also pretty sure the American wasn’t going to leave his wife for him. Was he a fool to think they could actually have a future together? Could he be content to be just a lover, the man on the side? Even though they had only spent two nights together, Lucas knew this wasn’t just a fling for him; he knew that what he felt for Jack was not like anything he had felt for his previous boyfriends.
    This was love, at least for him.
    Jack had gone down to check out already and as Lucas scanned the room one more time before he left, his eye fell on some condoms that were left on the nightstand. He quickly walked back in and stuffed them in the pocket of his jacket, next to his wallet.

    THEY drove back to Brussels together almost in silence, both realizing they had some choices to make, but both afraid to discuss them.
    Jack dropped Lucas off at his apartment in the European District and drove on to his house in Tervuren. He sat in the driveway for more than an hour, going over the events of the weekend, before he felt he could enter the house.

    “LUCAS?”
    Lucas heard Lucy call him from the hallway while he was making tea in the small kitchen. “I’m here!” he called back, taking a deep breath.
    The weekend was definitely over. He heard Lucy drop her bags and then the staccato sound of her fashionable heels on the old wooden floors.
    “I can’t believe you’re actually home!” she squeaked.
    He tried not to tense up as she threw her arms around him and kissed him on his cheek. Yup, she was definitely back.
    “Hey, Lucy girl,” Lucas smiled at her, trying to look happy she was back. “How was Amsterdam? You want a cup of tea?” She shook her head. “Amsterdam was amazing! All the old buildings and the canals and all those quaint little cafés. It’s so different from Brussels too; it’s hard to imagine it’s only three hours away by train.
    The train was nice as well, very luxurious.” 90 | Z a h r a O w e n s

    He let her rave on about how amazing everything had been and how Maria had shown her so many things, like the Van Gogh Museum and the Rijksmuseum. Lucas felt his mind drift off, thinking about how wonderful his weekend had been and how he could never