98 GIFTED ARIEL’S POV lor, with his eyed still fixed it me, smirked, and began to traipse in my rection. 1 looked around, left and to the right, wondering if i was actually the one he was coming to meet. And when I glanced at him once more, I noticed how he couldn’t take his eyes off me. Okay, creepy. And finally, he got nigh to me, looking into my eyes, and reminding me how tall he was. This was actually a perfect opportunity to kneel his balls, or maybe grab his throat and choke him. Worst- I could even give him a leg sweep, then thrust his dirty ass to the road, and let the vehicles crush his bones. Smart moves, malevolent thinking. Yeah, got to face reality, none of that was going to come to pass. “You look more beautiful from afar than when someone’s actually close to you.” Luke smirked, his hands still in his pockets. I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath. “I have no time for this right now.” “Oh really? But you had the time to be rude to me on the phone,” he brought that up. I didn’t hesitate to glare at him. “Sir, what the hell did you do?” “To Daniel?” He raised an eyebrow. “To Daniel of course!” I snapped. “Like, the guy was really angry. I was glad we weren’t close, I’m pretty sure he would have ripped my head off.” “Why didn’t he get close to you then?” Luke shook his head. “Even in his anger, he was still a weakling.” “Why do you have to be so mean to everyone?” I aksed Luke, giving him a riling face. He chuckled. “Why do you have to ask silly questions all the time?” “How is this silly?” I frowned. “Look, I didn’t walk up to you to waste my time, talking about nonsense.” “Oh really?” I raised an eyebrow, looking at him. “Why did you come here then?” “I only came to tell you not to mess with me. Don’t you dare raise your voice at me next time.” “You haven’t still told me the shit you did to Daniel.” You don’t have to know about that.” Luke turned his face away. “Uhmm, I think I deserve to know, cause all my projects with The Oranos have officially been cancelled.” “That is none of my business.” “Oh, it is,” I spoke immediately. “This disgusting action of yours looks like it’s going to start affecting my business, and it needs to stop.” “I’m sorry, say what now?” “You heard me, this has got to stop, okay?” I crossed my arms. “You didn’t even know what happened between the both of us. That man just came to you, and started telling you shit, and you believed him. You don’t even know if he’s the bad guy here.” “Well, Sir. You’re the one who’s refusing to tell me about your encounter with Daniel.” “Because you don’t need to know.” “Why won’t you tell me?” “Because..” Luke trailed off immediately. His angry tone softened, and a deep sigh was what escaped his lips. “Look, Ariel. I don’t have to tell you this. But you just need to know that I saved your life. “You saved my life?” I made a confused face. “How exactly?” “I told you already; you don’t need to know.” “How am I going to be grateful and appreciate what you did, if you don’t tell me about it?” “I don’t need your appreciation, or whatever.” “Seriously? You really need to….” “Ariel!” Luke mentioned my name harshly. He suspired, his eyes narrowing downwards. I looked into his eyes, and I could see there was a little bit of truth to what he was saying. “You just need to be happy that you’re safe, okay?” He added, contemplating me, and I couldn’t take my eyes away from his. But then this little girl’s ice cream fell on my my foot, messing my heel. Well, kind of. “I’m so sorry,” the little girl apologized. Her voice was cute just like her face. And staring at her corpulent cheeks, I couldn’t help but giggle. She wanted to clean my foot, but I quickly stopped her. “Don’t worry, it’s okay,” I said, hunkering down, smiling at her. “I can see your ice cream just got ruined.” She nodded. “Yes, and I have no money to buy another one. I bought that ice cream with the little money my mother gave to me. Now it’s all gone, and I didn’t even get a taste of it.” She wanted to cry, but I fixed my hand or her soft cheek, still beaming at her. “There’s no need to cry now, okay?” My smile widened. “Don’t worry about your ice cream. I’ll get you a new one.” She cleaned the little tears in her eyes. “You will?” “Yes, we will,” Luke chimed in. I turned around to look at him. Was he being genuinely nice? Or was he just doing this, so people would acknowledge his deed? I couldn’t tell anyway. Luke squatted as well, smiling at the little girl, and he gently took a hold of her hand. I was just staring at him. “What is your name?” He grinned at her. “Abigail,” she answered softly, while I cleaned the ice cream off my foot. It wasn’t that much of a big deal. “Abigail. What a beautiful name you got there.” Luke gently drew her cheek. He looked around. “And where is this mother of yours?” “She’s working,” Abigail replied, her innocent tone. “Working?” Luke stated. She nodded. “Sorry to ask, but what kind of work?” “Why do you want to know?” I quizzed him without hesitation. “I wasn’t talking to you,” Luke retorted. Yeah, what a great comeback. “So tell me.” He turned back to Abigail. “What’s her job?” “Well, she works at this place where they handle trash. I don’t really know. But we barely have food to eat everyday.” Luke smiled at me after that, and I rolled my eyes. I couldn’t grasp that expression.” ‘Don’t worry, Abigail. I’ll take good care of you from now on, okay?” Luke stood up, with his hands fixed on Abigail’s shoulders. “I’m going to make sure you live the happy life that you deserve.” “Really?” Her cheeks widened with joy. Luke nodded, the delightful smile still lingering on his face. “Now, why don’t we go get you that ice cream?” He raised both of his eyebrows, and Abigal nodded promptly. “The ice cream stand is that way.” She led the way, with her finger pointing in the direction. I couldn’t help but laugh. It was great to see her happy, although this was the first time I crossed paths with her. I stood up as well, observing Luke, as he was just smiling at the little girl. “That was nice of you.” He glanced at me. “Excuse me?” I looked at him for a moment, and then I spoke,” Yeah, I actually like how you handled the situation. And your words were amazing. All were quite great, I’ll say. “Yeah, it was.” Luke gave me a fragile smile, and walked towards Abigail. He cleaved to her back, and the both of them were laughing with each other, as Luke was pointing at different places all around the area. I couldn’t get what they were actually saying, what he was telling her, but the moment was indeed at lovely one. Abigail turned around, looking at me. She quickly ran to me, and held my hand. ” Come on, let’s go.” I beamed at her, and then my phone started ringing. Unknown ID, but I answered it anyway. “I can see that joy on your face right now. Keep on smiling, lady,” the caller said.