Page 54 of Roman & Olivia
They didn’t spend as much time in town together. She’d told him that Mason wasn’t thrilled about her spending time with him at all. Apparently, there had been a fight—one that made Roman madder than he wanted to admit to anyone.
Who knew that Mason had a jealous streak?
Roman also would never confess to how much joy he got from realizing he could get under Mason’s skin simply by being within touching distance of his best friend. Thankfully, the guy didn’t have a death wish. If he’d thought for a second he coulddemand that they no longer spend time together, he would have had more to contend with than simply losing out on the best girl he would ever be able to have.
Olivia had called him during her lunch break and insisted she needed a movie night like they used to have. A twinge of longing had come with her request. The movie nights they used to have occasionally ended with them falling asleep on the couch while sharing a blanket.
He didn’t think that Mason would approve of such a thing, and there was little chance Olivia would allow that to happen. Whether he liked it or not, their friendship had been altered.
Just be grateful Olivia is strong enough to put Mason in his place if needed.
That’s what he kept telling himself, even as a niggling feeling of doubt started to creep into his mind. Olivia would never allow a boyfriend to tell her she couldn’t stay friends with him. They’d promised that they’d stay close since they were children. Nothing was going to change that.
Definitely not Mason.
Roman ran his errands, picking up some supplies that Mateo needed before heading out to get their junk food for the movie. When he stepped out of the shop, a familiar figure caught his attention. Mason was standing with another woman. She was smiling up at him, and she reached up to wipe something from his cheek.
Mason smiled back.
Roman frowned at the interaction. Was something off with the way they were behaving?
No, not really.
Besides that brief touch, they weren’t doing anything to make him believe that Mason was being unfaithful. Then again, he didn’t know the true extent of Olivia’s relationship with Mason. What if they weren’t exclusive yet?
It wasn’t any of his business who Mason chose to visit in town. And if Olivia was worried about anything, she would have said something.
Roman turned in the opposite direction of where Mason stood with that woman and strode toward his truck. He was overthinking things because he still hadn’t managed to get the idea of dating Olivia out of his head. It wasn’t fair to either of them, and tonight, he was going to focus on fixing that.
The second Romanopened the door to let Olivia in, she bombarded him with questions.
“Okay, tell me.”
“Tell you… what, exactly?”
She rolled her eyes. “I know we didn’t have the best double date, but I know you. That girl was gorgeous. And I’ve been busy. So now you get to tell me everything.”
Roman rubbed the back of his neck as he peered down at Olivia’s hopeful expression. She couldn’t be talking about Melody, could she? He hadn’t seen that woman since that disaster of a date, and it wasn’t just because she was one of his sister Camilla’s friends from college. Aside from the fact that Camilla would rip his head off for even attempting to date the woman, he wasn’t interested.
“So?” Olivia said excitedly. “Is she the one? Are you two going to go steady?”
“Go steady?” Roman asked dryly. “What time period are you from?”
She laughed as she moved past him, a spring in her step. “Okay, okay. I get it. You don’t want to talk about it. Don’t want to jinx it, right?” She winked at him as she entered theentertainment room. “It’s fine. You’ll tell me eventually. You always do.”
Roman shook his head with a chuckle. If she only knew.
He would have told her that he had feelings for her if it wouldn’t destroy his world to do so.
Olivia plopped down onto the couch and gathered one of the throw blankets over her lap.
“What about you?” Roman hedged, moving closer to her and taking the seat on the other side of the couch. A slight frown formed between Olivia’s brows, but it was quickly smoothed away when her eyes met his.
“What about me?”
“You and Mason,” he clarified. “It’s been a few weeks. How are things going? Still in the honeymoon stage?” He’d half-expected her to brush him off and tell him that they were still feeling things out. But he couldn’t have been more wrong.
Her eyes brightened, and her cheeks flushed a deep hue. She only got that way when she was really happy.
