“Guillermo, why do I feel like you’re probing me?”
“Answer me, Olívia.”
“Yes, I came because I wanted to. Even though I think you were wrong to make it clear to Julien that there’s something between us, I really wanted to come. It might make me seem foolish because we’re just having fun, but I like being with you and Nina. I liked being with your family that day.”
“So why did you want to leave?”
“Besides the fact that you were barely speaking to me, the other reason was that they’re not my family. I don’t want to get used to being around them.”
Her words give me a huge sense of unease. She must have felt very alone in the past year. I don’t know what to say. It’s as if everything we’re experiencing is dammed up behind the issues we need to clarify.
“You’re welcome to stay with me and Nina.”
There’s much more I want to say, but it’s not the right time.
She went upstairs to take a shower.
It was a complicated decision.
I didn’t want her to go to the guest room, but I couldn’t make her stay with me before we talked.
Nina fell asleep about half an hour ago. It seems having Olívia here made her energy double. Even while eating, she didn’t stop for a moment, clapping, dancing when Olívia sang to her, and smiling like the happy little girl she is. While the interaction between the two touched me, it was like a lead ball spinning in my stomach.
I don’t know if I’ll tell her everything, but at least I’ll prepare the ground for the hardest part.
I’m in the kitchen with a bottle of wine on the counter when I hear her footsteps and turn to look at her.
She’s barefoot. She wears pajama shorts and a tank top. Yesterday she told me she hates sleeping in too many clothes, preferring several blankets to pajama pants, and that was the only thing that bothered her in the little room where she lived, since it was cold at night.
God, that place wouldn’t be appropriate for a storage room, and she told me that the only thing that bothered her was the heating. Whatever happens with us from now on, she’ll never sleep in a place like that again.
“Would you like a glass of wine?”
“I don’t usually drink.”
“During the week, neither do I, but I’m warming up a lasagna, so it would complement it.”
“Okay, but just one glass, or you might take advantage of me.”
I chuckle. Only she can make me relax. Olívia is like a cool breeze in my overly heated world of worries.
I forget the corkscrew and open my arms.
She doesn’t hesitate and goes up on her tiptoes to kiss me. “I want to take advantage of you, with or without wine.”
“You won’t hear me complain,” I say. I give her a playful slap on her delicious ass, and after another light kiss, I return to the task of serving dinner.
It’s that or we won’t eat today.
“You said you wanted to talk about the past. Mine or yours?”
I rest my utensils on the plate, instantly losing my appetite. “Both.”
“Can we start with yours?”
It would be fairest. “Ask whatever you want to know.”
“I don’t want to seem nosy.”
