Page 24 of Roman & Olivia
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Olivia
Weird.
Everything was just so… weird.
Yesterday had been so nice—spending time with Roman like they used to. There had been no pretense, no need to worry about what she would do the next time she interacted with Mason. If she were honest with herself, she didn’t need to worry about that anymore.
Mason still came around her desk more often than he used to. Their interactions had become—for lack of a better word—normal.
There was still flirting happening, more from Mason than herself, but that was expected. Roman had insisted that she pull back a little to keep Mason wanting more, to keep him guessing.
Olivia felt more confident in her dealings with her crush, and her friendship with Roman was…
Well, her friendship was heading back to normal.
So why did she feel like something was off?
“Ms. Whitten? Are you alright?”
She jumped and glanced up at the mayor. His brows were creased with worry, and it took everything in her power not to blush over being caught staring at her clipboard. Her boss stood at the window of his office, where it overlooked the town square. He’d been saying something.
Oh, no! She was supposed to be taking notes.
Olivia nodded. “I’m sorry, sir. I was distracted. It won’t happen again.”
He pressed his thin lips together, then gave her a curt nod. “The library will be moving locations soon. The distance isn’t great enough for us to spend taxpayer dollars on movers.”
“Isn’t it down the street a bit?”
He nodded, his back to her as he focused on something outside. “The head librarian thought it might be a fun community project to have folks from town show up to move the books in a train.”
The idea had been tossed around, and it had actually been one she’d brought up months ago. She simply hadn’t thought they’d use it. “What do you need me to do?” she asked.
“Get on our socials. Help with flyers. Let’s get the town to show up for our little library and show them how much we care.”
She nodded. “Of course. Is there anything else you need from me?”
He shook his head. “That will be all, thank you.”
Olivia hurried out of his office only to collide with none other than her boss’s son. “Mason,” she said breathlessly. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t see you there.”
Mason smirked at her, his dark eyes flashing with amusement as he steadied her with hands to her upper arms. “Careful there. We wouldn’t want your boyfriend to get suspicious of us.”
She met his gaze. “Us?” Nothing had happened. They were friendly. Maybe a little too flirtatious, but Roman was in on that little tidbit. Roman had only insisted that she didn’t allow Mason to drag her down from where her morals were. If he asked her to break up with Roman, that was acceptable. If he wanted her to cheat? Then he didn’t deserve her.
Olivia couldn’t agree more.
Swallowing past the lump in her throat, she smiled. Then she tilted her head and remembered everything Roman had told her about staying calm and collected. Easy but worth the chase. “And what exactly does that mean?” she asked.
Mason inched closer to her, and his voice lowered. “This electric feeling between us. You can feel it, can’t you?”
She froze for a moment, then let out a soft laugh and pulled away. “Careful, Mason. You keep saying things like that and I’m going to start to wonder if you have feelings for me.”
He seemed to find himself then, dropping his hands to his sides. His grin shifted from sultry to something more easygoing. “I was thinking about that trip we took on your boyfriend’s ranch. The ride. I thought it might be fun to do something like that again… only longer.”
“Longer? Like… a whole day sort of thing?”
