Title: The Long and Winding Road
Pairing: Luke and Reid
Summary: This is the story of the courtship of Reid and Luke.
Other Character's: The proprietor of the restaurant named Joe.
Disclaimer: These are not my characters all belong to ATWT and its parent company(ies). All mistakes are mine.
A/N I have never been to Chicago and so I have made up a restaurant. No similarity to any real restaurant is intended.
A/N #2 This is the second to last chapter. I hope that you enjoy it!
Rating: PG
The helicopter was waiting for them on the roof of the Grimaldi shipping building. "Have you ever been in a helicopter before?" he asked.
"No," Reid replied shaking his head and praying that Luke didn't see how nervous he was.
"You're in for a treat," Luke said and squeezed Reid's hand tightly.
Reid felt the tension escape from his body, as he allowed Luke's warmth to fill him up.
He simply nodded before following Luke on board. He was pleasantly surprised to find that the helicopter was bigger than he had anticipated. The windows added to the illusion of space and any residual fear faded away quickly.
"Are you okay?" Luke asked, gently.
"Yeah," Reid smiled. "It's not as confining as I had feared."
"Good," Luke beamed at him, still holding his hand. "Chicago is an amazing city, and the view from the air is absolutely incredible."
"Yeah, it is," Reid agreed, staring at Luke.
Luke blushed a pretty pink colour.
Luke had been correct. The view was incredible and Reid thoroughly enjoyed the brief flight. He was surprised when the helicopter landed on the roof of an office building in downtown Chicago, he had expected to land at an airport.
"Why are we landing here?" he inquired.
"Grandmother owns this building, so we always land here when we fly to the city," Luke replied with a slight shrug.
"Of course she does," Reid replied, rolling his eyes.
"I have a car waiting for us downstairs, so let's go," Luke insisted after thanking the pilot.
"Of course you do," Reid muttered to himself.
At 5:45 the limo pulled up in front of Joe's Authentic Pizza, which appeared to be closed.
"Is this the restaurant?" Reid asked.
"Yes," Luke beamed at him.
"Uh, I think it might be closed. Don't worry there are tons of restaurants in Chicago, I'm sure that we can find a great one."
"Let's give it a shot," Luke suggested.
"Um… okay," Reid hesitated, but followed Luke up to the front door.
Just as they reached the landing the doors flew open and a man appeared smiling affectionately at Luke.
"Luciano," he greeted, hugging Luke and kissing him on both cheeks. "It's been too long."
"It's great to see you Joe," Luke smiled at the owner. "This is Reid Oliver."
"Reid," he responded, reaching out to hug the doctor.
"Dr. Oliver," Reid mumbled as he managed to avoid the hug.
Luke chuckled for a second before rescuing him. "Perhaps you could show us to our table," Luke suggested.
"Certainly Luciano, right this way," he replied as he directed them to a large table.
"So, when you said that you made reservations, what exactly did you mean?"
"I reserved the restaurant," Luke replied casually.
"The entire place, you didn't think that one table would be enough for us?"
"I just wanted to have a quiet dinner with you, and this place is always packed," Luke explained.
"Uh huh, and you couldn't find a quieter restaurant?"
"Well, I probably could've, that's true, but this place has exceptional pizza, and I know how much you like pizza."
Reid leaned over and kissed Luke. "You're crazy, you do know that right?"
"Yeah," Luke blushed, "but you love me anyway."
"Yes, I do," Reid responded seriously.
"So shall we look at the menus?"
"Sure," Reid answered perusing the offerings. "What's good here?"
"It's all good!" Luke answered. "I'm going to have the Mista salad to start followed by the Margherita pizza."
Just then the owner returned with a small platter of Antipasti. It contained fresh melon wrapped in prosciutto, plump black olives, Genoa salami, marinated boccaccini, marinated mushrooms and some pan-fried calamari.
"Just a small sampler of some of my favourite Italian foods that I prepared for you, please enjoy!" John offered. "I know that you don't drink alcohol, Luciano so I have brought you a pitcher of Pellegrino with lemon slices. Would you care for anything else?"
Luke looked at Reid who shook his head.
"This all looks wonderful, thank you," Luke replied.
"Wow, this is fantastic," Reid raved around a mouth full of food.
Luke smiled.
"So how did you find this place? You've clearly been here before."
"My Dad always takes me here when we come to Chicago," Luke shrugged.
"Really?" Reid answered in surprise. "Holden seems more like a Pizza Hut kind of guy."
"Not Holden," Luke replied, quietly. "Damian."
"Ah," Reid nodded. "Bad dad, that makes more sense."
"Have you decided which pizza you are going to order?" Luke inquired not wanting to talk about any of his family members tonight.
"I think that I'm going to have the red pizza with the mushrooms and sausage. Have you ever tried that one?"
"Yes, it's delicious!" Luke enthused.
Just then John returned with two salads and some focaccia bread with balsamic vinegar and olive oil for dipping.
"How is everything so far?" Joe inquired.
"The food is amazing as usual," Luke replied warmly.
"Delicious," Reid echoed his mouth full of the fresh bread.
Joe beamed at the two men. "Please enjoy your salads."
The two men ate in silence for a few minutes. The only sounds that could be heard were the occasional moans of pleasure that Reid emitted.
"The food here is amazing Luke, and we haven't even gotten to the main course."
Luke just grinned back at him.
Joe returned to take away their cleaned plates and take their respective pizza orders.
Once they were alone again, Reid reached out for Luke's hand.
"So, what can you tell me about Simon?" Reid asked casually.
"Simon Frasier?" Luke asked, curiously.
"Yeah," Reid nodded, "Katie's ex."
"Oh," Luke nodded. "I don't really know very much about him. He's kind of old…"
"He's my age," Reid replied through gritted teeth.
"Really?" Luke answered. "Huh, I would've thought that he was older,"
"Uh huh," Reid snorted. "Is he a good guy? Did he treat Katie well? Why did they break up?"
"Whoa ," Luke laughed. "I really don't know much about the guy. I know that Katie loved him; I think that they were happy together, but I know that Simon is a little bit shady. He was always scamming someone. In fact, I think the reason that he first married Katie was to avoid deportation. He had a thing for my mom, for awhile, but I don't think that she returned his feelings. Anyway, after awhile, he realized that he really did love Katie and then they had a real wedding. Some of Simon's enemies came after him, and he left Katie in order to protect her. Katie later fell for Mike, and Simon tried to break them up. I don't know, it's kind of a mess," Luke finished with a shrug.
"A messy relationship in Oakdale, who knew?" Reid commented sarcastically.
"Reid," Luke scolded. "I do know that my Uncle Jack brought Simon back to town after my Uncle Brad died, they were together briefly and Katie seemed pretty happy, I'm not sure why it didn't last. Maybe she just wasn't ready." Luke sighed. "Why do you want to know about Simon anyway?"
"He was naked at Katie's place when I stopped by this afternoon. From the looks of things those two are back together. You know that I care about Katie and I want to make sure that she's okay."
"You saw Simon naked?" Luke exclaimed, his eyes bugging out. "Why didn't you lead with that?"
"I dunno," Reid shrugged. "He's not that hot, and besides didn't you say that he was kind of old?"
"Yeah… but he was always fit, as I recall."
"He's definitely fit," Reid said with a small smile.
Luke frowned.
"Is he hotter than me?" Luke asked quietly.
"Don't be an idiot, Luke! No one is hotter than you," Reid stated emphatically.
Luke reached over and kissed Reid lovingly.
Joe cleared his throat and then placed their pizza's on the table.
"Thanks Joe," Luke smiled.
"Buon Appetito!"
"Oh my God, this is incredible, Luke!"
"I thought that you'd like it."
"Like it, I'd marry it if I had the chance," Reid exclaimed.
Luke chuckled. "I thought that you didn't believe in marriage," he teased.
"I don't, but you never know what the future holds," he shrugged.
"Hmmm," Luke replied.
After the pizza had been eaten they were both full and happy, Reid once again reached out for Luke's hand.
"So I've been thinking," Reid began staring down at the table. "It's been great staying at the Lakeview with you, and I know that we can't stay there forever, and it seems that Simon might be moving in with Katie. I mean I don't know that for sure, but they seemed pretty cozy, and with their history and the fact that they live in Oakdale, well a reconciliation seems inevitable…"
"Reid," he looked up briefly. "You're babbling."
"I know," Reid answered looking incredible vulnerable. "I don't know what else to do."
"Just spit it out, whatever it is, you're starting to freak me out."
"I want us to live together," Reid said staring into Luke's big brown eyes.
"Huh," Luke responded.