Page 115 of Fly with Me

“Maybe your Lindsay cloaking device finally kicked on.”

“If fucking only.” Olive focused on the double doors to the hallway that led to the ICU elevators. “She’s not going to legitimately try to fuck things up for me, right?”

He shrugged.

“Right?”

Derek frowned. “Like do what? Key your car? Make a slam book? This isn’t high school. What could she do?”

“I don’t know. She just seems really angry.”

“Given how Stella handled it the last time Lindsay tried to butt in, I can’t imagine her trying that again. People here were talking about her little scene at the bar.”

“I think she heard me and Stella talking outside after.”

Derek shrugged. “She’ll get bored and move on. Don’t let her get in your head. It’s what she wants. More attention. You and Stella are still just friends, right?”

Olive affected the most innocent of angelic expressions. She led him into an unoccupied patient room. She grimaced. “Right, so about that.”

“Olivia…”

“We slept together. Surprise.” Olive did that same small jazz hands motion she had weeks earlier as Derek palmed his face.

Chapter 41

“I don’t want to get up,” Stella said in an adorable faux whine, rolling over and wrapping herself around Olive.

Olive pressed her lips to Stella’s. “I don’t want to either.”

Gus had taken over half the bed. Stella was more of a pushover and a lot more vulnerable to Gus’s whimpering. Stella had spent half her nights the last two weeks in Olive’s apartment when she was in town. The others Stella slept at home, since some days her dad’s caregivers came later than others. Stella and Olive had been up late last night because Stella insisted they go out after dinner to buy a small Christmas tree for the corner of Olive’s apartment living room. They decorated it together, and Stella spent hours making sure the ornaments were distributed evenly.

“So, bed all day then?” Stella said with a pointed snuggle. They had some variation of this conversation multiple times on every morning they had spent together that neither of them had to go to work. For someone as type A and driven as Stella, she sure seemed content to spend a lot of hours lazing in bed. Olive had zero complaints, given the various ways Stella had been channeling her eagerness.

Gus rolled over, collapsing the makeshift tent over their heads and disrupting the moment. He was obsessed with Stella. She seemed likewise enamored of the oversized fur creature. He nudged his head under her hand.

“Real subtle, Gus,” Olive said as she stretched.

“He’s such a good boy.” Stella scratched behind his floppy ears.

“He sure is.”

“Oh, my dog walker wanted to verify that you could still come tomorrow… No pressure if—”

Stella kissed her. “Absolutely. I’ll drop the big guy off later and leave the key with your neighbor again?”

“Oh. Yeah. Right.” Olive stifled a frown. Stella had been clear that anytime she used Olive’s spare key it was just borrowing it. “Neighbor would be good. She works from home, so she’s usually around. Good plan.”

Just stop talking, Olive.

After a few more minutes cuddling, Olive couldn’t ignore her bladder anymore. They had drunk a lot of Christmas cheer last night. Olive rolled out of bed, hating the coldness of the room assaulting her bare skin. She grabbed a throw blanket that was half draped on the end of the bed and wrapped it around herself like a cloak. “It’s so cold.”

“Agree. Come back.” Stella patted the place beside her on the bed.

Evidence of Stella was everywhere. Her lotions and travel-sized toiletries all lined up. Neatly, of course. Despite Stella’s fastidiousness about order and cleanliness, she didn’t seem to mind Olive’s relative chaos. They functioned together perfectly. Shouldn’t this be harder?

They bickered and bantered about stupid things, but it wasn’t like having Lindsay around. Olive wasn’t always worried about ruining everything by screwing up. She’d stopped worrying about being too needy because it all felt… easy. The only time she worried at all was when she remembered that the reason everything was easy was because it wasn’t a real relationship. Despite all the shit happening with her brother, she felt happy.

Olive opened her nightstand drawer and then smirked at Stella. “How about we shower together instead.”

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