Luke went back to Faith’s feeling furious. How dare Noah do that to him again… He opened the door and slammed it. Faith was in the living room with the baby

“Where’s Aaron?”

“Well, hello to you too”

“Hi, where is he?”

“He’s playing outside, with Tom. How was Noah?”

“Still an idiot”

Tom chose that moment to sit down next to Faith

“Who’s an idiot?”

“Where’s Aaron?”

“Watching TV. Who’s an idiot?”

“Noah… shit, he’s doing it again”

“What”

“Pushing me away, damn it”

“Maybe he just doesn’t… well… don’t kill me, but… he might not love you anymore, Luke, it’s been 10 years and…”

“No way, I know him, Faith, better than anyone”

“Come on, you know what I mean, Luke. 10 years is a lot of time, do you really think that you still love him? After all this time?”

“Let me ask you a question, Faith. How many of my boyfriends have you met over the years?”

“Mmmmh… 2”

Tom smiled at Faith

“I have met 3”

“What? 3? I’ve met only 2: Noah and that other guy, what was his name, Tom? Remember? The one that came to Oakdale with Luke when Aaron had the accident?”

“That was Matt”

“That’s right, Matt”

Luke just stood there looking from one to the other

“I met another one when he was living in Chicago. His name was… can’t really remember, someone he met at a conference, I think… can’t remember his name”

“Luke! You never told me you had a boyfriend in Chicago!”

Tom was still trying to remember that name

“It was a short thing, Faith, it didn’t last very long, believe me”

“Ah, Peter… that was the name, Peter”

“Thank you, Tom, I bet you don’t remember the names of your girlfriends as well as the names of my boyfriends”

Faith looked at Tom

“Girlfriends? As in a lot?”

“No, honey, only you.”

Luke couldn’t stop himself from smiling. Tom and Faith were the perfect couple, almost as good as Noah and him… he sat down on the sofa

“He is all I ever wanted… I left Matt because he wasn’t Noah… he is the only one I want…“

“Oh, Luke…”

“I want him, I really do, you know… and I want to be Aaron’s dad with Noah and… shit… he keeps pushing me away”

“Are you going to keep trying?”

“There’s something that kills me every time I remember what happened 10 years ago…”

“What is it?”

“He never said that he didn’t love me… never. On the contrary, he kept telling me that he loved me but he needed some space. And I didn’t give it to him. I never really thought about Noah for a second, I had that absolute panic of losing him and I tried to hold on to him… “

“And you think that he still loves you?”

“No… I think that I do love him. I have never stopped loving him. I am going to try and get him back. And this time he is going to have to look at me and tell me that he doesn’t love me. This time I know what I will be missing, and it’s going to cost him if he wants to get rid of me… Cos I am not going anywhere…”

Chapter 13