“Here you go, have a nice weekend.”
“That’s it?” she asked. She sounded kind of hurt.
“Yes.”
I thought she’d leave then, most people would have. But Olivia wasn’t most people.
“You feel this too right?” she asked. “This attraction I’m feeling can’t possibly be one-sided. Not with the way you responded to that kiss.”
I hated her for calling it out, even while some part of me wanted to make her feel better.
Sighing deeply, I met her eyes. “I do feel it, but what’s going to happen here, Livi? I’m in a position of power over you while you’re working here, and my professional reputation is everything to me.”
She opened her mouth, and I held up my hand. “Even if we could explore this crazy attraction between us, it will never work. I’m no Cinderella and you’re no Prince Charming. Us being together isn’t realistic. We live in the real world, where differences matter. Besides, how do I know you’re not getting off from slumming it with me or something?”
I regretted my cruel words as soon as they were out of my mouth, she’d done nothing to deserve that. She wasn’t my ex, that was Savannah’s game.
Olivia’s eyes flashed with anger, and I had to grip the arm of my chair to keep myself from throwing myself across the desk to kiss her again.
“I’m not slumming,” she said slowly, her voice colder than I’d ever heard it. “I can’t even decide which one of us that insults more. I’m going to go home now, but I want to be very clear about my intentions here, Sam.”
“Your intentions?” I parroted.
“If I thought you didn’t want me as much as I wanted you, if I thought you weren’t feeling this crazy pull between us, I’d step back. But now that I know you feel it too, I’m going to do my best to get you to give us a chance.”
“This is a worksite,” I said, suddenly angry. “Unlike you, I don’t have some enormous trust fund and rich family to fall back on. If I lose my job, I’m going to be living in my truck. You don’t fit in my world, and I don’t fit in yours, so hear me when I tell you, I need you to back off. We can be coworkers, maybe even friends, but nothing is going to happen here.”
“What if this was meant to be?” she asked softly. “What if we’re soulmates?”
I felt those words settle deep inside me. Soulmates. Somehow that felt right. But it didn’t change anything else about this situation.
“We’re not soulmates.”
She gave me a look that clearly indicated that she thought I was lying, or maybe just delusional.
“I’m going to back off then. For now at least,” she said. “But can’t we at least be friends?”
“Yeah sure, friends,” I said, turning back to my computer.
“Great, I’d love to have a new friend. See you Monday,friend.”
There was something in her voice, something that felt like a promise, or maybe a threat. Whatever it was, I had a feeling I wasn’t going to like it. Or maybe I’d like it too much, and that would be the problem.
Unable to focus on work anymore, I packed up my stuff and headed home. The comfortable one bedroom apartment that had been my sanctuary for so many years felt empty though, even my cat not enough to comfort me. I tossed and turned in my bed all night, endlessly replaying that kiss and the conversation after, until I finally fell into an exhausted sleep.
It didn’t help though. I woke up Saturday morning with slickness between my thighs and Olivia’s name on my lips. Staring up at the ceiling I had one thought repeating in my head over and over:How am I going to resist her for the next four weeks?
Olivia
“Whatever happened to your hands Olivia? You look like a washerwoman or something.”
I sent an apologetic look to the staff person serving us dinner, then turned to my mother.
“I’m doing demolition work on an old house Mother, remember?”
“How could I forget?” she sniffed. “Imagine, assigning a Laurent to domanual labor!All because of a little misunderstanding.”
“It wasn’t a misunderstanding Mother, I took a tire iron to Matt’s Maserati, completely tearing up the body and shattering his windows. Then I threw it at him and sent it sailing through the front window of his house, remember?”
