Secret Room (4)

"You had enough desserts for today," Luke took away the tablet from me.

The table had two teacups filled with rose water while the teacup for Kristie was empty. I struggled to maintain my neutral expression as spending time with Luke was starting to get depressing. I only ate a few slices of cake for dessert today and he wasn't letting me eat more. Cake was all I had to comfort me while dragging the time out. I began to cry inside my heart, watching him set limits in how much cake I could order per day.

I sipped on some tea while awkward silence loomed inside the room. When my marble started to vibrate, my eyes slightly widened from getting a call from Jules. I swiped on the screen to accept the call, making it turn into a video to show Luke was with me. Jules had to be extremely careful to not reveal anything. It was such bad timing as Jules' stiffened from noticing Luke sitting in front of me.

"Were you able to find your doll?" Jules spoke in code.

"Kristie rolled off the bed at night and I wasn't able to notice," I was telling him Charles was still looking for it.

"Are you close to finishing your tea?" He was asking about our progress.

"The teacup is still very full," I sadly smiled.

"It would be very nice if you could join us this weekend," I knew Luke would let him visit us.

"I'm going to come Friday evening," Jules would be joining us tomorrow.

"Thanks, I really needed one more person here," I ended the call.

It was likely Jules already knew Charles was trying his best inside the office. And there was no other reason I would willingly spend more time with Luke other than stalling for more time. I tried to cover my face with my teacup as Luke began to study me. He was probably wondering why Jules had called in the first place. We weren't supposed to be close to each other like Charles. I secretly made my marble go into silent mode as I pretended to brush my hair off my dress.

"We can play some card games next," I pulled a package out of my inventory.

Thankfully, Charles had passed me some cards before I left the office. It was a last resort, knowing it may get confiscated later. Charles was really sacrificing a lot since he barely had anything in his inventory that Luke and Alex didn't know about. He knew how hard it would be to distract Luke for a long period of time. After finishing the tea, I began to place some cards onto the table.

"Where did you get those cards from?" Luke knew everything I possessed.

"I borrowed them from Charles. We play some games together after we finish watching some documentaries," I flawlessly lied.

"It wasn't stolen," I added when he started to get suspicious.

My face slumped as he immediately confiscated them after one game I introduced. It was a game based on chance, guessing on what card would come out next. I wondered what was bad about playing with cards, we weren't betting on anything like others normally did. I didn't want to play matching games since I knew he would win in a matter of seconds. His reflexes were fast, allowing him to quickly go through the cards.

There was twenty minutes remaining on the clock when I checked my marble. Luke was right, an hour was enough time to do everything with him. It was time to bring out all the paper-based games he would definitely win. I pulled out a notebook and pen and started to write some lines to play the word guessing game.

"You try to guess the word based on how many letters it has from counting the number of lines. Each time you get it wrong, a part of a body gets drawn in a line of a stick," I began to teach him.

However, the stickman game turned into a disaster. Instead of enjoying the game, I received more lectures from Luke whenever I made some mistakes on the spelling. I abandoned the game after ten minutes since it was turning into another study session. Until another idea rushed into my mind.

"The floor is lava and you have to move to another selected area in the mansion as a safe zone. Without using any mana and not touching the ground," I recalled one of my favourite games.

"The first mission is to get to the other room beside this one," my eyes twinkled.

I lightly jumped onto a piece of furniture before throwing some pillows on the ground to travel. I didn't know how Luke would do this without using any objects but continued to move. I would instantly pick up the pillows to keep using them. Dropping my pillow on the floor, I found Luke was already sitting on the couch inside the room next door. I looked down at the floor to discover some sheets of paper. It was easier than using the pillows.

"The hour is over," he checked his watch.

"I don't mind if I spend one additional hour with you every day," he surprisingly offered.

I brightly smiled, nodding my head to accept his offer. Although I didn't want to spend more time with him, Jules and Charles needed all the help they could get. I silently cried inside my heart as I watched him leave the room.