The Long and Winding Road 16/?
Title: The Long and Winding Road
Pairing: Luke and Reid
Other Characters: Katie
Summary: This is the story of the courtship of Luke and Reid.
Disclaimer: These are not my characters. All mistakes are mine.
Rating: PG 14
Warnings: Strong language.
As they lay in bed spooning, Luke tilted his head back and kissed Reid one last time on the lips. “I love you, Reid,” he whispered. “I’m really going to miss this,” and promptly fell asleep.
“I love you too,” Reid murmured as he too began to succumb to sleep. Suddenly his eyes flew open. Hold the phone, what did he mean when he said that he was really going to miss this? What the fuck does that even mean? Why would he miss this? Did he just dump me?? Holy shit! What did he mean?
Reid turned to Luke who was sleeping peacefully. Christ he even has a smile on his face while he’s sleeping. How can he possibly sleep when I am having a major freak out?? It seems kind of inconsiderate of him. Okay, breathe Reid, just breathe.
Okay, I need a plan. Maybe I should just wake him up and ask him what he meant. What if he did break up with me? Do I really want to wake him up so that he can do it again? I don’t think that I can take that.
Reid lay in bed tossing and turning for about an hour. Finally he couldn’t take it anymore and decided to wake Luke up.
“Luke,” Reid whispered. There was no response. “Luke,” he tried again a little bit louder this time. Luke kept sleeping. Reid shook the younger man a little, but Luke just kept sleeping.
Fuck, who just sleeps like that?
Reid lay back down and tried to fall asleep. He failed.
Shit what should I do? Clearly I am not going to fall asleep, and Luke’s not going to wake up. Oh God, I can’t take it.
Reid finally got out of bed and got dressed. He wasn’t particularly quiet about it as he was kind of hoping that Luke would wake up and beg him to stay. Luke continued to sleep, blissfully unaware of the drama that was playing out around him.
Reid, finally dressed, pulled out his wallet and removed a business card from it. He retrieved a pen from Luke’s desk and wrote two simple words on the back of his card.
He placed the card on his pillow and then walked around to the other side of the bed. With tears in his eyes he leaned over and kissed Luke’s mouth. Luke responded, but didn’t wake up.
Reid turned and slowly walked out the door.
By the time that Reid was in his car the tears were streaming down his face. He tried to wipe them away, but they kept falling. Fuck, I’m crying. I never cry. What the hell am I going to do without him? I can’t believe that it’s over. What did I do wrong? I thought that we had a perfect day yesterday. How could I have misjudged the situation so completely?
As Reid pulled up to the apartment he saw that there were lights on inside. He didn’t know whether to hope that Katie was up or not; He desperately wanted advice, but he really didn’t want to talk about the fiasco that had become his life.
He sighed heavily as he exited his car. He wiped away his tears in an effort to not look as pathetic as he felt.
He opened the door and found Katie sitting on the couch feeding Jacob. The sight made him smile despite himself.
“Hello stranger,” Katie joked before she saw how distraught Reid looked.
“Oh my God Reid, what happened?”
“I think that Luke just dumped me.”
Katie stared at Reid for a moment. “What do you mean ‘you think Luke dumped you’?”
“I don’t want to talk about it, Katie. I’m exhausted. I just want to go to bed.”
“Reid, you can’t honestly think that you’re going to be able to sleep. Come on, spill your guts, it might even make you feel better.” He looks awful. I wonder what happened, they both looked so happy when we had lunch at Al’s. I hope that I can help him fix this.
Reid sat down heavily on the couch beside Katie and Jacob.
“I don’t really know what happened. I thought that we had a great day yesterday. I know I did. I think that it was the best day of my life. Luke is just so amazing. He arranged for us to have breakfast at the farm. He had his Grandma Emma make us an enormous amount of food. It was incredible. His grandma was so warm and the food was so delicious and Luke was there with me the whole time. Oh God I sound pathetic. That must be why he dumped me.” The tears began to flow again.
Katie reached out and squeezed his hand. “Did you insult Emma? Did Luke seem angry with anything that you did?”
“No, I don’t think so. Oh God, I just don’t know.”
“Okay, calm down. What else did you do?”
“Well after breakfast, we wandered around the farmer’s market. Luke was so cute pointing out all of the different kinds of produce. It was as though he didn’t think that I would recognize fruits and vegetables,” Reid managed to smile at the memory.
“Well Reid he has seen you eat, and vegetables are not usually on your menu,” Katie lightly teased, relieved to see him crack a smile.
“After the farmer’s market he took me to this amazing restaurant, where we just sat and ate for a couple of hours. Katie, I can’t tell you how much I like just sitting with Luke, we don’t have to be doing anything for me to feel safe and whole with him. Oh my God, is that why he broke up with me, am I too needy?”
“Has he ever complained that you are too clingy? Has he asked you to give him space?” Katie asked.
“No, I always thought that he enjoyed spending time with me too. I had no idea that he was unhappy.”
“Well Reid, you aren’t the most sensitive guy, but I know that whenever I saw the pair of you together, he seemed just as into you as you are into him.”
“Do you really think so?”
The naked need in Reid’s voice broke Katie’s heart. “Yes, I really think so. Now tell me what else happened yesterday.”
“After lunch we went for a hike. Luke told me that he wanted to share one his favourite trails with me.”
“Did you make fun of it?” Katie asked trying to figure out where Reid had screwed up.
“No,” Reid responded horrified. “It was a beautiful trail. We hiked for a couple of hours and it felt great to be outdoors, just the two of us. I honestly had a fantastic time. I’m not big on hiking, but being with Luke just makes everything fun.” Seriously, I am a twelve year old girl. UGH!
Wow he’s really got it bad for Luke. I wonder what went wrong.
“Okay, so what happened after the hike?”
“We went back to Luke’s and it was perfect. He had arranged for the chef at the Lakeview to cater a romantic dinner for us. The food was incredible, but I would have been just as happy eating cold pizza. The fact that Luke went to so much trouble, for me, still amazes me. Why would he do that if he was just going to dump me? Why?”
“I don’t know, Reid. Did he dump you during dinner?” Katie wondered.
“No, after dinner we watched TV and then we went upstairs to bed.”
Katie noticed that Reid had what could only be described as a dreamy expression on his face as he obviously remembered the events of the evening before.
“So how exactly did he dump you?” Katie asked feeling perplexed.
“Well we were lying in bed just drifting off to sleep, when he leaned over and kissed me, said he loved me and then he said he was really going to miss this.”
“What did that mean? What was he going to miss?”
“Us, I’m guessing. That’s the only thing that makes sense.”
“Well what did he say when you asked him?”
“Nothing, he fell asleep, and I couldn’t get him to wake up.”
“What do you mean you couldn’t wake him up?”
“I swear Katie, Luke sleeps like the dead. I pushed him, said his name, I even kissed him goodbye. Nothing.”
“Well, you have to talk to him, Reid. You have to find out for sure that he was ending things with you. I’ve never had someone say they love me, dump me and immediately go to sleep. It’s just weird.”
Reid just shrugged. “Do you really think that I might be over reacting?” Reid said clinging to hope.
“Yes. You’ve been in relationships before, have you ever had one end like this before?”
Reid shifted uncomfortably on the couch.
“What is it Reid? Has something like this happened to you in the past?”
“Well I’ve never been in a relationship like this before,” Reid admitted.
“So when you said that you had been in relationships before you meant that you had had regular sex with guys before?”
“Basically, yes.”
“Oh my God, Reid how have you managed to survive without me??? Okay so how long was your longest ‘relationship’?”
“Uh, three months I think.”
“So how did that end?” Geez it’s like pulling teeth to get any information out of him.
“He leaned over in bed and told me he loved me, I said that I didn’t love him and he left,” Reid responded with a shrug.
Katie glared at him.
“What? Do you think that I should have lied to him and told him that I felt the same way when I knew that I didn’t? He was good in bed and very convenient; I thought that he felt the same way about me until he confessed his feelings.”
“Oh Reid, the poor guy, you broke his heart and you didn’t even realize what you were doing and now you’re worried that Luke has done the same thing to you,” Katie stated, fully understanding his distress. “Luckily for you, Luke isn’t like you. I’m sure that he loves you. He wouldn’t have said it to you if he didn’t feel it. Have you told him that you love him?”
“Yes,” Reid answered simply.
“Okay, then my best guess is that you are overreacting. You need to talk to Luke and straighten this out. You two have been inseparable for the last little while. I suggest that you accidentally on purpose, bump into him. You need to talk to him in person.”
Reid thought for a moment. “I know that he often has coffee at Java at 10:00 because he often brings me a latte shortly after that.”
“Okay, there’s your answer, try to meet up with him at Java tomorrow morning. Now go to bed, you look awful!”
“Thanks Katie,” he said, standing up and heading to his room. When he reached the door, he turned around to pose one last question. “Do you really think that I stand a chance with him?”
“Yes,” Katie replied firmly. “I really do. You just need to talk to him.”