Marley looksat me, analyzing the expression on my face and the way my hands are tented together. “Is it working?”
“I think so.” Reagan nods her head slowly.
“You have been around Oliver a lot the last two days. More than you were around the other guys before they raced.”
“After the fiasco with Cyrus, I’ve been commandeered to make sure Oliver stays out of trouble. It’s business.”
Reagan’s nods turn tothe shakes. She lifts the chocolate chip cookie from the container. “Just business doesn’t earn you this cookie.”
My mouth salivates as she slowly raises the cookie to her lips, her mouth opening about take a bite.
“Okay wait!”
She smiles and puts the cookie back in the box dusting the crumbs off her fingers.
“I don’t know what’s going on between us. This morning I tried to quit so I couldgo home and be done with him.”
Reagan leans forward in her seat, the container of chocolate too close to the edge of her knees for my comfort. “You did?”
“Yesterday we shared this great day together, but this morning I went to wake him up and there was a girl in his room!”
Reagan and Marley gasp. It’s perfectly timed…and a bit eerie. These two hang out too often.
“He promised me nothing happenedand I don’t know when he would have met a girl for anything to happen, but the point is there was a girl in there…with him…together and her shirt was half unbuttoned.” I suck in a deep breath to replenish from my long run-on sentence. With everything spilling out of me, I can’t stop. “He told me I wasn’tallowedto quit my job because he’s had a crush on me the entire time we’ve been here andnow that he has my attention he plans to use it. And then he made me eat breakfast.”
“Wow,” Reagan says passing over the cookie.
Wow? That’s it? She forces me to bare my soul for a chocolate chip cookie and all I get is a “wow.”
“So what will you do about it?” Marley asks.
I finish chewing the cookie because I wasted no time after she handed to me before I shoved half of it in my mouth. Forgetsavoring the flavor, I needed the damn cookie. I shrug, wiping a crumb for my lips.
“What am I going to do about Oliver?” As much as I hate to admit it, for an athlete he’s a really nice guy. Would it be so bad if I let myself get to know him better?
Well my heart may not actually say it, but the way it picks up whenever I think about him, I’m taking it as a yes. I haven’t dated anyone forover six months and the last guy was some crazy dude I found through Tinder after my best friend made me download the app. It was a bad choice and a bad first date. Maybe deciding to have feelings for one of the athletes I work for is it my best choice. I’ve made worse. Probably. And when love is involved, can you pick and choose who it’s going to be or when it’s going to happen?
Not that I’msaying love is involved. Let’s be reasonable here, it’s been like two days. At the most it’s an infatuation. A desire to learn more.
And not that I’d ever admit this to Oliver, but I definitely spotted him on the first day. A bunch of athletes entered the hotel together after having used a shuttle from the airport. They were walking in the lobby laughing with each other and pushing one anotherback and forth making jokes about who would get into trouble this time. As the new member of the group — it being his first Winter Games — they were hazing Oliver by making him carry all of their carry-on luggage. He had two bags strung around his neck from the long loops normally used to carry them over a shoulder. And then another bag hung from each shoulder with another dangling from his elbows.He walked in this crazy unnatural state. His arms were bent so not to drop anything, the big thick gym bags issued by the US committee jostling and hitting each other back and forth, causing him to sway. It was hilarious and through it all Oliver laughed. Some athletes would throw a fit and refuse to do it, but he seemed to understand it was all in fun.
It was also the first time I noticed howgreat his smile is. Especially when he laughs. Or the way the sunlight hit his hair causing it to look a shade or two lighter.
What can I say, it was my first official day working with athletes. Before then I’d only had a bunch of training courses in New York. I didn’t realize what jerks they are. That particular knowledge came about four minutes later when they started making demands and becomingreal assholes.
“Well, when you decide, make sure and let us know. Plus, if you have doubts Marley and I are great at helping make decisions,” Reagan says closing the top of the container and placing it on the coffee table beside her.
Marley gives her a what the fuck look. “You’re horrible at decisions.”
“What are you talking about? I make little pro and con lists.”
“You moved to Texas. Yourjob is in Colorado working for your brother.”
Reagan rolls her eyes. “There were extenuating circumstances.”
“Yeah, the fact you wanted away from Knox rather than telling him how you felt.”
My eyes widen, a little worried the two women are going to get into an argument the way each of them scowls at the other. Reagan’s mouth opens like she has a snazzy comeback, but then she laughs tuggingone shoulder in the air. “Yeah that wasn’t very smart. But hey it worked out in the end.”
