Chapter 32

The next morning, Dominic slowly started to wake up and reached out beside him, but he didn't feel Lumae. He immediately sat up and wondered where she could've gone and how long that potion lasted. He then heard clattering in the kitchen and immediately sprung out of bed.

He went down the stairs sprinting and when he reached the kitchen, Lumae was kneeling on the ground, picking up a heap of pans that seemed to have fallen out of the cupboard. Lumae then looked up at him when she noticed his presence. "Oh, good morning. Not to be judgy or anything, but you really need to sort out your cupboards, everything's a mess in there."

When she finished placing back all but one pan, she stood up, placed it on the counter and walked over to Dominic, giving him a hug and a quick peck on the cheek. "I'm making breakfast, so you can go and relax for a bit. It's still early. Oh, and I'd like to make a quick stop at my apartment before we go to work. I need a new set of close."

Dominic had no words, he was completely shocked by how fast Lumae's personality changed. From a zombie-like creature to a normal person, but he was definitely happier with the normal version. He then remembered about the pills and quickly went up the stairs to retrieve them, but when he got there, they were gone.

Dominic immediately started to panic and rushed back down the stairs, yelling at Lumae as he ran down. "Lumae?!"

A muffled, "Yeah?", could be heard in the kitchen. When he practically slid into the kitchen, he immediately rushed to Lumae and grabbed hold of her shoulders.

"Have you seen the blue and red pills on my nightstand?"

Lumae instantly was relieved since she thought it was something much more serious. "Oh, yeah, I placed them in the medicine cabinet. It was just lying around, and I thought I could at least clean up the room a little bit."

Dominic sighed and walked over to the medicine cabinet in the top right cupboard of the kitchen. When he opened the cupboard, he was instantly relieved at the sight of the pills right in front of him.
"What are those pills for anyway?" Lumae was busy mixing some eggs in a bowl to make scrambled eggs.

Dominic then walked to the counter, plopped down the pills and sat down at the island. "They're heat repellents. You must drink the blue ones every morning before you go to work."

Lumae looked over at the pills, then back to Dominic. Fragments of yesterday flushed back. "H-How bad was I yesterday?"

Dominic scratched the back of his head. "Uhm. Eheh, let's not talk about that right now." He chuckled.

Lumae then plated the breakfast, they ate and got ready for the day. They both then went to Lumae's apartment, so she could get a change of clothes and take a quick shower. She then went out to Dominic, who had been waiting for quite some time. Then they went off to work.

When Lumae finally got to 'the forest', she couldn't find Jackson anywhere, so she decided to wait for him and continue her work. After about 3 hours, Lumae started wondering why he hadn't come in yet. She then headed down to Scarlett's office, and she also seemed to be missing, so she went to Dominic's office, "Hey, uhm, do you know where Scarlett is?"

Dominic looked up at her. "No, why?"

"I wanted to know if Jackson called in sick or something, but I can't seem to find either of them."

Dominic frowned, "That's odd. I'll look into it."

Lumae then nodded and left. On her way back to the elevator, she heard Jackson's voice coming from a storage room. "So then tell your boss that I'll do anything. Anything at all. I just want to protect her."

Lumae then heard Scarlett sighing. "Very well. I'll let you know what he says."

Noticing that the conversation had just ended, Lumae scrambled away from the door as soon as possible and straight to the elevator, spamming the button for the doors to open. Just before Scarlett could even reach the door to the storage room, the elevator doors opened.

Lumae then headed inside, pushed the floor button and, as if she was blessed today, the doors closed just when Scarlett and Jackson stepped outside of the storage room. Lumae could feel her heart beating through her chest in the elevator. What did Jackson mean that he'd do anything? And for whom? And wasn't Dominic Scarlett's boss?

This was all so confusing for Lumae. Once the elevator came to a stop, Lumae sprinted through the hall and into the forest. She had barely made it inside when Jackson came out of the elevator next to the one she had just come out of. When Jackson finally entered 'the forest', Lumae sat at their desk with a sheet of paper in her hands.

When she heard the door behind Jackson close, she turned around and put on her best act. "Oh, Jackson! I thought you died or something. Why were you so late?" She stood up and gave him a quick side hug.
"Oh, I just had a few things to take care of before coming to work. Don't worry."

Lumae awkwardly smiled. "Oh, okay then. Glad it's resolved."

She went back to her seat with Jackson doing the same. He then turned around, looked at the back of Lumae's head, who was now busy actually going through the paper she had in her hand, and smiled intimately.
He liked her. He REALLY liked her. She just didn't seem to know it, and now she was engaged to someone he knew he didn't stand a chance against. He had to do something to catch Lumae's attention and quickly.

The rest of the day went by uneventfully. It was just filled with work, work and much more work. Lumae and Jackson worked through almost the entire stack of papers from the previous day, doing research on different types of plants, etc. They were both completely exhausted.

When it was finally time to go home, they went down together. As they went outside, Lumae spotted Dominic, waiting at his car for her. She turned to Jackson and gave him a quick hug. "Bye Jackson, see you tomorrow." She then jogged to Dominic, with Jackson watching her every single move, as though he was losing something he dearly loves.

Lumae then sprung into Dominic's embrace and gave him a big kiss on his cheek. "What a day."

He smiled, "What a day indeed. Come now, I'm taking you shopping."

Lumae stepped back, but Dominic's hands still held on to her back. "Shopping why?"

He chuckled, "Well, you're going to need more clothes if you're going to come visit me more often."

Lumae smiled and once again gave Dominic a huge kiss, but this time straight on his lips. Jackson, on the other hand, just stood there, watching how lovey-dovey Lumae and Dominic were with each other. He then turned and walked down the sidewalk as Lumae got into Dominic's car and drove away with him. Jackson was now even more frustrated than he was yesterday, and he was not the kind of person to let it slide this easily.