Secretly Mine

"Lucas! I'm so sorry. I made you wait for so long!" I said, running out of the building.

Lucas shook his head and smiled, "What are you talking about? I just got here!"

His words made me smile, but I knew he was only saying that to make me feel better. He was a very punctual person, and I doubted that today would be different.

I quickly got into his car, trying to move as quickly as possible since I felt guilty that he had to wait for me for so long.

"There's no rush," he smiled. "Truly, you didn't make me wait long."

Before I could answer, he continued, "I have something to show you today. I can't wait to see your reaction."

I glanced over at him, noticing the dark circles under his eyes. But despite his tired-looking appearance, his spirits seemed very high, and he was even more cheerful than usual.

"I am very excited to see what it is!" I said with a big smile.

-

We quickly arrived at his house, and with practiced steps, I walked up to the guest room. This time, however, I felt slightly off about being here.

Is it because I talked to Christian today? But why would that make me feel guilty about being around Lucas?

My thoughts spiraled to the way sparks flew through my body when Lucas adjusted the straps of my dress.

Everything seemed like a mess right now, especially my emotions, which I seem to have less and less of a grip over.

I pushed back my thoughts once again and got changed into my casual clothing before walking down to the painting room.

The room was set up for painting as usual, and I spotted the huge portrait in the corner of the room. It was covered, so I didn't see if there was any new progress made, so I just sat down in front of my painting.

So far, there were only a few rough sketches of the beach scene I had tried to envision before.

"I need to fix this. That's definitely not what I had in mind," I mumbled as I picked up the strange gum-like eraser and began to modify the paintings.

By the time Lucas showed up, I was almost finished sketching the entire scene out.

"I'm sorry. Someone called from the company and I needed to explain a few things," he said as he walked into the painting room.

I smiled at him, "No worries at all. I've just been working on finalizing the sketch."

Lucas looked over my shoulder and onto the canvas in front of me. His eyes lit up, and he gave me an approving nod. "It looks very good! I'm glad that you got your inspiration back. You looked like you were really struggling last time."

My cheeks flushed at his reminder.

If only you knew why I couldn't focus.

I nodded, "Yes. I seem to be back in the swing of things."

"Perfect, then I'll set up the paints while you finish with the sketches. It looks like you're close to finishing."

I nodded and lifted my pencil, drawing a cute family of crabs in the corner of the painting. They were all coming out of the ocean, following the father crab as they explored the beach.

My lips couldn't help but curve up into a smile as I saw the scene unfold in front of me.

"That's adorable," Lucas said as he placed a bunch of paints and brushes down beside me. "You haven't even started painting yet, and your scene already looks so alive."

-

The next hour was dedicated to us painting our beach scenes. Lucas occasionally gave me a few tips on how to paint, especially when it came to the ocean water.

His beach scene was also coming along very well. He had only just started applying the first layer of paint, and it was already breathtaking. His scene was a lot more serene, filled with sand dunes and a single crane that was looking off into the ocean.

Compared to his painting, mine felt a little childish, but Lucas insisted that it held its own kind of charm.

"It's been a little over an hour now. How do you feel? Would you like to continue painting or would you like to swap over to modeling?" he asked just as I placed my brush down to rest my hand.

I glanced over at the large painting in the corner as excitement bubbled up inside of me.

"Let's swap! I'm very excited to see the progress on the portrait!" I replied.

Lucas's face lit up at my reply, and he nodded. "Awesome. I, too, am excited to see it finished."

Just as I was about to walk out of the room to get changed back into my office attire, Lucas stopped me.

"Umm, I have a small favor to ask of you. In the closet in the guest room, there's a dress I bought for you. Would you be okay with wearing it?" he asked nervously.

"A dress?" I asked, surprised.

He nodded, "It's similar to the one you wore yesterday. I want to paint a few details today, and it would really help if you wore it..."

"Oh! Sure, I'll go get changed now," I nodded and walked out of the room.

On my way down to the guest bedroom, I felt my heart race. I don't know why, but for some reason, the thought of changing into a dress that Lucas bought for me felt strange.

This isn't the first time someone bought me a dress. Why am I so nervous?

Just today, Christian gifted me an entire closet full of them.

Maybe it's because of our ambiguous relationship?

I started to question what our relationship even was. We were friends, but it felt like there was something different at times.

-

When I arrived in the guest room, I walked over to the closet and found a while dress, similar to the one I wore last time, hanging inside. The material was slightly different, but it felt nice.

When I changed into it, I realized that there was a small issue. The bra I wore today was black and lacy. It was a balconette style that could not be worn with the white silk dress that Lucas prepared.

I did my best to adjust the straps to try and hide it, but no matter what I did, the black bra poked out.

"There really is no way to make this work," I sighed. "I'll just have to wear the dress bra-less."