Page 80 of Lumi
“Yes, but yer brother is goin’ to see this, so I won’t tell.”
“What are you on about?”
We watched on the screen how Damian whispered in my ear, but his words were inaudible.
“Ohh… That’s okay. Atlas won’t care.” In the video, I repeated what Damian had just whispered to me, “Damian didn’t know that I normally sleep naked, but there you have it”
Jolene stopped the recording. “Did you see it?”
“No.” Damian and I said at the same time, and I added, “What were we supposed to see?”
Jolene played the clip again and paused where Damian leaned in and whispered in my ear.
“What is it?” Damian stared at the screen.
“Look at Lumi’s face.” Jolene enlarged the picture and played it again in slow motion. “See how her face softens, and there’s a little smile.”
“That doesn’t mean anything. I just like Damian’s cologne.”
“Look at you getting defensive again. For someone who just told Damian two minutes earlier in that video that you wanted to rip the handcuffs off and have your privacy back, you sure looked like you enjoyed his closeness when he leaned into you.”
I could feel Damian’s eyes on me when I spoke.
“We’ve been friends for a long time.”
“Yes, but from what I’m seeing, there’s more than friendship between you.”
I frowned at Atlas, wondering how much he’d told Jolene.
“Your silence tells me you’re uncomfortable discussing your feelings, but if this experiment is to make a difference, you need to be honest with each other,” Jolene insisted.
“There’s a bit of history between us,” I admitted in a soft tone. “I used to have a teenage crush on Damian.”
It was like Jolene saw right through me when she tilted her head waiting for me to elaborate, but I couldn’t bare my soul. I was a coward when it came to love.
“There’s always been a special bond between us. We love each other,” Damian told Jolene.
“Can you expand on what you mean by love? What kind of love are we talking about?”
“Ehm… Damian’s eyes darted around the room, and several times he glanced at Atlas. “A respectful kind.”
Atlas was the only one in my family who knew that Damian had been my first lover. He watched Damian sweat but didn’t say anything.
“By respectful, do you mean a platonic kind of love?” Jolene asked, and at that moment, I knew Atlas hadn’t told her any of my secrets.
Damian looked to me, his eyes silently asking for help.
“As I said, I had a huge crush on Damian, but with almost ten years between us, he thought I was too young.”
“Aye, and once Lumi grew old enough for me to see her as a woman, she’d moved on from her interest in me, so I was friend-zoned, and that’s fine. I’ve always felt that Lumi is special and that she deserves someone spectacular. That’s why I haven’t always agreed with some of the lads that she has dated.”
“Define spectacular,” Jolene challenged Damian.
He scratched his head. “She deserves to be with someone who can make her laugh. Lumi works too much and plays too little. He needs to be kind to her but at the same time keep her in line or she’ll be too bossy for her own good. I don’t know. It’s just that I’ve always felt there was a divine power that made me be in the right place at the right time to save Lumi’s life. The world needs Lumi, and seein’ her with a loser devalues her, if that makes sense.” Damian turned to me. “Ye deserve someone exceptional. Someone who will appreciate how lucky he is to have ye. You know, someone like Atlas.”
I jerked my head back. “Atlas is my brother, Damian. That makes no sense.”
“Obviously, I didn’t mean Atlas himself, but someone like him.” Damien threw a nod in Atlas’ direction. “That’s why I didn’t like to see ye flirt with Logan. He’s like me. We’ve seen too much shite in the world, and we’re battle-scarred. You need someone who is wicked smart, speaks five languages, can recite poetry, and is gentle with you, like Atlas but without his traumatic past, of course.”
