I stared at my perfect pumpkin. “I haven’t had the inspiration yet.”
He laughed, picking me up and pulling me into his lap. “The inspiration, huh?”
“Yes,” I said, nodding like this was a very grave and serious matter. “It can’t be just any design. It has to be perfect.”
Oliver placed a kiss to my neck. “What ideas have you come up with so far?”
Scrunching my nose, I flipped through the list of ideas I’d compiled in my phone. “Snowball—of course. An emmy—because we’re manifesting. The Hollywood sign, because, you know. Or…” I shrugged. “I guess a normal jack-o-lantern maybe. I don’t know. It sounded more fun in my head than it did when I actually got it home.”
He laughed. “You just don’t want to dig all the pumpkin guts out, do you?”
I batted my eyelashes at him. “Forget the pumpkin. I have a better idea.”
“What’s that?”
Brushing my lips over his ear, I whispered, “Take me to bed, Oliver.”
“With pleasure, Hollywood.”
I tried to remind myself that this was just fun. Adistraction.Just a physical connection and nothing more. Sometimes he made it hard to remember that.
But I was leaving soon, and none of that was going to change.
CHAPTER 8
Oliver
It was our last night together. And somehow, knowing this was the end made it even harder. I didn’t want to say goodbye.
For the last two weeks, I spent every moment I could with Tessa. After work each day, I’d drive back to Matthew and Noelle’s house and we’d cook dinner together. Some nights we’d watch a movie, laughing and eating popcorn, her favorite snack. We’d take Snowball out on her daily walk, the white fluffy samoyed always happy to be outside. It was constantly drizzling—welcome to Portland in October—but we didn’t let that stop us.
And then we’d go to bed, and I’d strip her bare, sliding inside of her and fucking her until we both fell asleep, exhausted. It felt so damnrightfalling asleep with her in my arms. Seeing her first thing every morning when I woke up. Making her breakfast and kissing her goodbye each morning.
What would it be like if this what life was like, every day? It was a level of domestic bliss I couldn’t even imagine, but this had come pretty close.
And yet tomorrow, it would all end.
For our last night, after eating dinner, we’d picked a movie towatch, but I was hardly paying attention, my entire being too intent on Tessa to care what was happening on the screen.
“What’s your favorite thing you’ve acted in?” I asked, tracing a finger over her shoulder blade in slow circles.
She rolled over on the couch, turning to look at me. “Hmm. I don’t know, honestly. It’s hard to pick.”
“There has to be one,” I insisted.
Tessa bit her lip. “Honestly, I think the first movie I ever starred in? It was a small, budget indie film, but every time I look back on it I just feel like that was when I was like,wow. I’m really doing this.”
I’d watched it more than once, and I loved seeing her in it. “That one was great.”
“You watched it?”
I shrugged, trying to play it cool. “Sure. I’ve watched everything you’ve been in, Hollywood.”
Her voice dropped to a whisper. “You have?”
Brushing my thumb over her cheek, I nodded. “Yeah. I have.”
I leaned in, kissing her softly. Maybe I couldn’t tell her how I felt, but at least we had this.
