Page 43 of Cabin Fever

FOURTEEN

Carter

"I'M SWEATING," OLIVIAsaid with a groan.

"It's probably your body rejecting all those vegetables you ate," I said, remembering how my body had felt earlier.

"A salad is good for you. It isn't my fault that your body rejects anything remotely healthy. How can some leafy greens and a few chopped carrots and celery cause a grown man to spend an hour in the bathroom? I had to open the back and front door to air the place out."

I couldn't help the smug smile and rumble of laughter. It became my goal over the past few days to gross Olivia out as much as possible. Maybe that made me childish, but it's not like I had much of a childhood. I'm sure in some places my father would have been arrested for child labor. But he taught me a strong work ethic and the ability to survive on almost nothing if it came to it.

"Man cannot live on salad alone."

I was learning that Olivia couldn't just pick up one thing when she's out running an errand. When she went to pick up some coffee beans from the Fire and Ice diner today, she came home with a heap of vegetables. It got worse when she made a salad with dinner and expected me to eat the stuff. I did my best to force the salad down my throat but I'm a firm believer that if you can't cook a piece of food, it's not worth eating.

I'm the evil villain to the raw food movement.

I heard the sheets shift and turned my head to see Olivia sit up.

"Then how do you explain vegans, Truck Butt?"

"Do I have to? Why don't we wait until we run into one? They usually explain it before they're even asked."

I stared up from my mattress that was on the bedroom floor as Olivia's soft lips formed anO. Maybe that was why I taunted her so much—her expressions were the stuff of fantasies. Did she realize I savored watching her lips move, picturing my dick sliding in between them?

"Not all vegans are bad. I once had a friend who was vegan. She was always nice."

I sat up, turning toward her. "Youhada friend. Had. When was the last time you talked to her?"

Olivia's brow scrunched as she licked her bottom lip. See, total fantasy material.

"It has been a long time. I would say three years ago."

"And when did she turn vegan?"

"Three years ago . . ."

I lifted my finger that wasn't surrounded by a cast up in the air. "My point exactly."

Since the hole in the roof wasn't completely fixed, I was sleeping on a mattress on the floor of the bedroom while Olivia slept in the bed. The past several nights hadn't been the most restful.

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