‘Well, I’m decided,’ he said with a single nod.
‘I’m sure you are!’ she laughed.
‘We don’t have to have sex at all.Ever. I just enjoy your company and I’d like to spend the night with you.’ Oscar stretched out his hand tentatively, as if she were a wild animal and he was daring to get close. She softened a little and moved her cheek to meet his fingertips. His hand brushed along her jawline and he stroked her skin with his thumb, careful not to ruin her freshly applied make-up. ‘This isn’t about sex, Olive.’
She closed her eyes, enjoying the warmth of his smooth hands. Even with her eyes closed she could picture his face exactly, every perfectly chiselled line and even the exact shade of blue that shone in his eyes. ‘Haven’t you got hundreds of other women to choose from?’ She sighed.
‘No.’ He shook his head, trying to push from his mind the thought of all the texts on his phone fromvarious women. ‘Even if I did, doesn’t it count for something that I chooseyou?’
Her eyes snapped open. ‘Am I supposed to feel lucky?’ She pulled away, but only a little so that his hand was still touching her face.
‘Olive.’ He sighed and took her hands in his. ‘I have no hidden agenda here. No secrets. I’m not trying to add you to a list of women I’ve managed to “conquer”. I justwant to spend my time with you. I’d love to have sex with you because I like you, but that’s not my aim here. My aim is simply getting to know you better. If you don’t want that, then just… tell me. But wouldn’t it be amazing if you wanted to spend your time with me too?’
Oscar’s bright eyes and his smooth lips had already won Olive over. She knew he was kind, she knew he was well-intentionedand she knew that he liked her. Yet she could feel the demons in her head digging away at pre-existing craters in her self-worth, created by past romantic tragedies and men she’d trusted not to hurt her, but who’d hurt her anyway. When she pushed those demons away, they’d only come back again with bigger pickaxes and greater vengeance.
‘Okay,’ she breathed.
‘Okay?’ Oscar squeezedher hands. His palms had started to sweat so he deftly swept a hand through his hair.
‘Okay!’ she laughed. ‘I will come back with you tonight,’ she said, turning to the mirror. ‘But that doesn’t mean I’m going to sleep with you, though. You know that, right?’ Olive rearranged her dressing table into a slightly neater mess.
‘Of course! Okay. Um… okay!’ Oscar hopped up off the floorand wriggled his shoulders to reposition his rucksack.
‘Everything all right?’ She raised an eyebrow at him through the mirror.
‘Yeah, just… well, I didn’t really expect you to say yes and now I’m just trying to remember what state my flat’s in.’
When Olive had finished putting on her make-up (which she took more time on now that she had a reason to make a little more effort),she got changed and was thankful that she’d worn one of her nicer dresses to work. Oscar had waited patiently in his own dressing room across the hall, making a plan in his head for what embarrassing things in his flat he’d have to quickly hide away when they arrived. Oscar suddenly realised he hadn’t thought this far ahead. This wasn’t like the few one night stands he’d had in the past becausehe knew Olive and although he didn’t know her all that well, he already cared about her far too much for it to be a one-time occurrence.Maybe this isn’t a good idea, he thought, suddenly starting to second guess himself.Is bringing her back to my flat serious? No. Maybe? Do I want serious? No, I don’t want serious. But I do want her. Why is this so complicated?
As they sat next to eachother on the Tube later, Oscar rubbed his eyes, trying to stop over-thinking the evening in front of them.
‘You seem quiet,’ Olive said. Her arms were folded, and she used her concealed fingers to stroke Oscar’s arm, just in case any of his avid fans happened to be on the train watching them.
‘I’m fine!’ he said, taking her hidden hand and kissing the back of it. Then they heardgiggling. Oscar’s head whipped round to see two teenage girls sitting at the other end of the half empty carriage, watching very conspicuously. Oscar gently returned Olive’s hand to her own lap and gave the girls a smile and a nod, which prompted even more giggling.
‘Oh no,’ Oscar muttered through still-smiling lips.
‘What?’ she whispered back.
‘I think they’re about to comeover.’ Oscar took out his phone and started randomly opening and closing apps in order to look busy. Olive glanced over at the girls through her hair and they seemed to be deep in frantic conversation. One of them was rooting through her handbag and decanting the contents of it onto the empty seat beside her.
‘How can you tell?’
Olive was aware of the difference in fame between herselfand Oscar and the types of fans they encountered. Olive could do a show, say hello to a few respectful and often shy fans at stage door and then happily and anonymously get on the Tube home without anyone noticing her again. She’d even sat opposite people reading the programme of the show she’d just performed in who still didn’t know who she was. However, she had seen the piles of letters thathad poured in through stage door with Oscar’s name scrawled wildly on the front, often in pink or purple with the ‘i’ in ‘Bright’ dotted with a heart. His face had reached the TV screens of everyone in the country and even if they didn’t know his real name, they were more than happy to call him by his character name. Olive wasn’t adept in recognising he’d been spotted, but Oscar was a dab handat seeing the signs.
‘I just have a hunch. Stop looking. If they think we’re busy it may put them off.’
Olive averted her gaze to look over his shoulder at his phone. She noticed he’d opened his message inbox which he quickly closed again when she paid an interest, and her brain went into overdrive wondering if he had something to hide.
‘Don’t you want them to come over?’she asked, fighting the urge to sneak a glance at the young girls again.
‘If they come over, they come over. It’ll be fine. It’s just the build-up to it that I hate – makes me anxious like you wouldn’t believe.’ Olive had already noticed that he had shrunk in on himself and his shoulders were no longer brushing against hers because they were up near his ears.
‘Anything I can do?’she asked, squeezing her hands between her knees and feeling her own pulse quicken.
‘You got an invisibility cloak in that rucksack of yours?’ Oscar asked, hunching himself further over his phone, frantically scrolling through his Twitter feed and replying to every other tweet with various emojis.
‘Why? Did you leave yours at the theatre?’ She bumped his shoulder, just as a timidvoice interrupted them.
