I, however, was slowly stepping back toward freedom.
“That’s it? That’s all you’re gonna say to me?”
The last day I’d smiled up at him, he had managed to stomp on my heart with a simple text message, not even knowing he was stomping on it. The last time he had tugged my hair as a goodbye had been the last time I’d ever heard from him.
Sure, he had texted and called Dylan for the following few weeks, but after that I don’t think even Dylan heard from him again. One year later, we had watched his first movie as a family in the same living room where he had spent countless hours with us.
“I’m too shocked, I don’t know what to say really,” I blurted before I could say something stupid.
“I am too, but, god, look at you, little one.” Another slow perusal of my body. “I didn’t even recognize you when I first walked into the room. What are the odds?”
“Right?” I chuckled nervously. “What are the damn odds…”
“You have to tell me everything.”
“Everything? What do you mean?”
“Dylan? Is he here in LA. too? How about your mom and dad? Is everyone okay?”
“Yes. They are all fine. Mom and Dad still live in San Francisco. Same house, actually. Dylan is in D.C. He is a teacher, and married to the sweetest girl. Can you believe that?”
I kept walking backwards.
Small steps, Olive. You’re so close to freedom.
“Actually, I can.” His smile got even bigger as he sat on the edge of the office desk. “He wanted to be a teacher ever since middle school or something like that, and family was always important to him. No wonder he couldn’t wait to start his own.”
Finally reaching the door, I rested my back against it and waited for the perfect moment to escape.
“God, Olive, you can’t even imagine how much I missed you guys.”
“When you stopped calling, they missed you too.”
He arched an eyebrow. “So, you didn’t miss me?”
You hurt me, you big, sexy meanie, I wanted to say.
“Um, sure. Of course.”
His dimple disappeared and he straightened. When he started walking toward me, I had nowhere to run.
“What’s wrong with you, little Olive?” Reaching out, he tugged a strand of my hair, a gesture so old that it tugged at something in my heart. “I’m not your friend any more?”
He had remembered. The hair-tugging thing he had started doing every single time he saw me was like a warm ‘hello’ from him. I used to love it, thinking he couldn’t keep his hands off of me. I had been in love with him. You could call it a crush, but for me, it was pure love. He’d been my one and only wish on every single one of my birthdays.
“I would’ve thought you’d be happy to see me, too, Olive. If not happy, hell, maybe a little excited. My ego is taking a real beating.”
“Sorry,” I said, wincing a little. “It’s been a…a weird day, to say the least.”
“Still not admitting that she missed me,” he muttered almost to himself. His eyes seemed to be taking in every inch of my face, yet I chose to focus on a spot over his shoulder. His face wasn’t strange to me, as mine was to him. And I remembered that tender look all too well. Hell, it was just one of the things that made me swoon for him.
“You’re a writer,” he commented, as if the thought had just occurred to him.
“Looks like it.”
He hit me with that dimple again. “Tonight I’ll be reading your words.”
Panicking, I said, “Oh, you really don’t have to. It’s not even that good. It’s my first book and these people are plain crazy.” His smile got bigger and bigger. “I might even be getting punked right now. I’m being serious, you wouldn’t even like it, Jason. And what kind of a movie star are you that you have enough time to read a book?”
There was sex in that book! Pounding. Fucking. Sucking. Orgasming.
Oh, dear god. There were words like cock and pussy!
He chuckled. “Now you’ve intrigued me even more. I’ll have to read it as soon as I get home. Plus”—he lifted a finger when I opened my mouth to object again—“I just said I’m in to the studio execs who are interested in turning your book into a feature film. I think I should know what I’m signing up for, don’t you think?”
“Why did you even say that if you have no idea what it’s about?”
“My agent dragged me here, saying it was a good choice for me. I’m guessing he knows about your book and I trust him.”
“Fine. You go do that. I have to go.” Taking a step to my right, I opened the door. “It was so good to see you. Goodbye now.”
His eyes lit up. “There’s the little Olive I know.”
Before I could pull my hand away, he grabbed it as if he was getting ready to walk a kid across the road.
Why did my heart flutter so much every time he touched me even though it was obvious that he still saw me as his best friend’s little sister, the kiddo?
“What are you doing?” I asked as I was being pulled toward freedom.
“I’ll drop you off wherever you want to go.”
“You don’t even know where I live. What if it’s an hour away? I’m seriously starting to doubt your movie star status.”
Again, that chuckle. “It’ll be fun. I promise to entertain you the entire hour, little one.”
“It’s not an hour. Seriously, I can get there in like no time.”
“Then you won’t suffer too much in my presence.”
“Were you always this stubborn when you were little?” I asked, starting to get a little annoyed about being pulled around like a doll.
“Oh, sweetheart,” he said softly, looking over his shoulder, the annoying dimple winking at me. “You were always the little one, not me.”
Chapter Seven Jason
After pushing a reluctant Olive into my car, I rounded it and got in as she was mumbling something about killing someone.
Amused, I asked, “Are we going on a killing spree?”
I still couldn’t believe my eyes, that she was actually there.
Frowning, she looked at me, her hand jerkily pulling on the seatbelt. “What?”
“Easy there killer.” I smiled and leaned over her to take care of her little dilemma.
My nose was almost touching her cheek. Mmm. She smelled like apples, fresh and sweet.
I felt her stiffen.
My little Olive.
Securing her, I leaned back and my eyes zeroed in on her parted lips. “There you go.”
“Thank you,” she mumbled, looking anywhere but me. I looked away, too.
“So, you were muttering about killing someone?”
“Lucy. My friend.”
“What did she do to deserve such a gruesome death?”
Starting the car, I discreetly glanced at her.
The little girl who had always given me the biggest smiles was long gone. While it looked like she hadn’t changed at all, I knew everything had changed. It looked like I wasn’t the receiver of any smiles any more.
“I can’t be that bad of company, can I?” I asked before she could reply about her friend.
She gave me a small smile. Not one of her beautiful ones that used to light up her eyes and flush her cheeks, but still a sincere one nonetheless.
“No, you are not that bad. You can drop me off at USC, I’ll find my friends.”
“You go there?”
“Yes.”
“Come on, Olive. Don’t be like that. Tell me more about what you’ve been up to. I still can’t believe we found each other here out of all the other places in LA.”
“A coffee shop or something like that would’ve been more like it, wouldn’it?”
“Exactly. A studio exec’s office? No way in hell.”
She chuckled. “It is a little weird, isn’t it?”