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“Oh yeah speaking of... How’s Lula? Are you guys still...?”
Shit. He should have expected it.
The ferry was sailing forward in the soft wind of Paris night.
“No.”
Instinctively, Jack hung his head lower, his voice quieter and lower, not wanting to show any distress but failing. The end of his syllables coming out slack and bit quivering, but not because of the wind.
“She uh...She moved to Paris.”
And haven’t heard from her since.
Jack felt a lump forming in the middle of his throat, bringing a searing feeling to his nose, his eyes, and a slight burning sensation at the tip of his ears. Both his hands held hard onto the side of the ferry, trying to keep some composure.
How ridiculous. After years apart, he still can’t remain an unaffected sight when Lula is mentioned.
And Daniel was not helping, of course.
“Oh no! She dumped the great J. Wilder? My god.”
A sense of rage rose in Jack as he took in the feigned show of sorrow demonstrated in front of him, his knuckles whitened as the force which he held onto the ferry’s side increased. And Daniel was still ranting on, determined, it seemed, to make him feel even worse.
“I’m sorry my apologies. Shouldn’t you be on some cruise ship somewhere humiliating yourself?”
And fuck it, how’s he gonna stand this? Can he be any more disrespectful? Jack stood up, facing Daniel directly, his slightly disheveled features filled with fury. He felt as if he went back to all those years ago trying to tell Daniel to treat him like an adult, with respect,
“Humiliating myself? I make five figures per cruise, plus perks.”
Yeah switch the topic off of Lula.
Daniel somehow laughed an infuriatingly high pitched laugh, “hahaha ‘plus perks!’ he said ‘plus perks’, and I thought Merritt drinking himself to death in Mexico was depressing, ooh!”
And none of the things that happened after can be called extremely delighting, at least for Jack.
*
“Bonsoir.”
Gods if he keep on smiling like this Jack was sure his cheeks would’ve split in two. But he didn’t care, for all he cared about right now was that Lula had reappeared in his life again. Yes, he knew it was her, even when she was disguised as a crazy drunk old woman. The same quiet fire in her eyes, the voice he was once so gloriously familiar with. He knew he’s not mistaken.
It felt as if a losing part of his inside was growing out again and his heart filled with a warm sense of security. Still smiling and not taking his eyes off her, as though worried she might fade away the next second, Jack watched as Lula May struggled to peel off the rubber disguise on her face, ripping some of them apart in the middle of the unruly actions.
“This is pretty disgusting, even for you.”
Even for you.
He couldn’t help it.
And finally she threw the messily tangled wig to the other side of the room, exhaling one long exhausted breath after running her fingers through her hair, and looked back at him with piercing eyes.
“I think I might’ve overdid it on the wine.” was what she said.
Of course she was a bit drunk, or else what can explain the quickening heartbeat inside her chest as she stared at her ex who’s sitting ever so good looking in front of her. Jack looked older, of course, the faintest wrinkles were now etched into the edges of his eyes, which she just realized were staring at her all the while, and she wasn’t surprised.
But how come he appeared even more charming now? Is it just because of how he's cuffed? But his shoulders were broader, the muscles’ edges clearly visible under the thin shirt he was wearing. The smile on his face was so tender that it almost undid her on the spot. What is he thinking about right now? Lula wanted to wonder. But she had work to do, and Lula did not hesitate a second before she walked over to the desk and pulled out the key.
“Hi Lula.”
He must look like a stupid grinning teenager right now but he couldn’t have cared less. Was it his imagination? But Lula seemed less energetic and somewhat more tired than he used to remember her. He remembered with some guilt of how he imagined her as miserable as himself was after their breakup, wanting desperately to deceive himself that he was not the only one greatly impacted by it, that he was not the only one struggling to get over with it, that she regretted it too.
That she missed him too.
Because he missed her. So much.
But Jack never genuinely wished her to be miserable about him, no. Jack knew, perhaps more than any other person of how strong Lula is, he knew she would move on and be brilliant, with or without him, although the latter possibility that happened did broke his heart. And now he felt a crack in his newly complete heart as he took in Lula's tired form. However, she was still as beautiful and breathtaking as he had remembered, her hair was shorter, straighter, and she had a bang now, which really suited her. She's not wearing red lipstick of course, but fuck why was she still able to make his heart skip a beat when she bent down on the desk and reached towards his cuffed wrists.
So he told her.
"You look great, by the way."
He couldn't remember the last time they were this close to each other, so close that he can see so clearly how she looked at him with a hard-to-read expression before working on his handcuffs. But he payed no attention to those. Instead he kept his eyes locked on Lula, still drinking in her sight.
Lula was trying to find the keyhole of the handcuffs, her hands brushing against the larger and calloused hands of Jack.
“I thought I’d never see you again.”
Are they getting to topic so quickly? She wasn’t ready to answer, but she didn’t need to because Jack continued on.
“How did you find us?”
She was not gonna tell him how Henley contacted her of course, at least not yet or else she knew he would start questioning, instead she said,
“A little birdie told me. Imagine my surprise! You guys all went back together without me?”
Yeah she did felt genuinely shocked and disappointed for a moment when she first knew a few hours ago. And she didn’t hide her expression when she said it.
“What? No it’s not like that, you don’t understand…”
He talked faster now and Lula noticed him adverting his gaze off her for a fraction for the first time, the tips of his ears slightly red. Oh Jack.
“Oh yeah, no?”
She stuck the key inside the keyhole, turning it and the handcuff fell apart with a heavy clunk, freeing Jack’s wrists as she rose.
“You’re free, dick.”
Jack couldn’t suppress a soft chuckle.
God how he had missed this.
And he followed her out of the cell.