Page 94 of Olivia's Only Pretending
Me
It’s always been a problem for us
Iwoke up before my alarm, restless and excited like when I was a kid on my birthday or the morning before I left for summer camp. I pulled the covers up under my chin, grinning to myself in the dim morning light.Was last night real?I touched my lips. Victor had kissed them so assuredly, so confidently, as if he’d meant to be kissing them all along. Last night, as the night stretched on and the campus quieted, we walked hand in hand toward the parking lot. We couldn’t shake the smiles from our faces. Victor kept his arm around me, and my arm snaked around his waist. No doubt, we looked like a couple.We were a couple.
But when we got to our cars, we didn’t want to go.
Is it really that late?I’d asked, wrapping my arms around his waist, looking up at him from my chin on his chest.
He’d pushed me against my car door, kissing me breathless under the moonlight. He’d hoisted me up, my legs around his waist, whispering against my ear,Think the security guards are gonna bust us?
I blushed at the memory this morning, palms over my warm cheeks. Victor had always made my pulse race, but this new side of him made me blush, made my stomach flutter.
My phone vibrated on my nightstand. I leaned across the bed, sliding open my phone.
Victor
check your doorstep
I jumped out of bed. I only had on an oversized T-shirt, so I quickly stumbled into a pair of baggy white sweatpants.What’s Victor left for me this time?
I skipped down the stairs with bare feet, throwing open the door to find Victor standing on my faded doormat with a large to-go coffee cup in his hand, with the wordchaiwritten in Sharpie. A sleepy grin tugged at the corner of his mouth.
“Morning delivery,” he said, stepping inside and giving my forehead a tender kiss. Now the coffee came with a kiss.I could get used to this.
My hair was a slept-on, tangled mess. And my face was still puffy from sleep. “I’m a mess this morning,” I said.
“You’re adorable,” he corrected me.
He headed into my kitchen. I spotted a cap folded into his back pocket. “How’s things? I know it’s only been a week, but it feels like we haven’t talked in a year. Give me the update.” We’d been too distracted with things like kissing last night to play catch-up.
He wiggled his brows, reaching into his other jeans pocket for his wallet. He whipped out a business card, dropping it on my kitchen island. I peered down, reading the name printed in bold font.
HERNANDEZ WOODWORKING
VICTOR HERNANDEZ
Woodworking & carpentry
“I’m so proud I could burst.” I grabbed the shirt over his chest.
He grinned down at me. “I had to do something to get my mind off you. I went all in on the paperwork and legal stuff I’d been dragging my feet on.”
“Are you calling me a distraction?”
“Oh, no doubt.” He reached behind him, grabbing the cap I’d spied earlier from his back pocket. “I wanted to show you this, too.”
He set the navy green cap with the nameHERNANDEZ WOODWORKINGstitched across the front and his name on the back. I could already see a row of these hats hanging in a future shop downtown with matching shirts. I could already see the beautiful things Victor would build and ship around the country, and this was just the first step. I was so proud of him for taking that first step.
I stole the cap from his hands and tugged it over my messy bed head.
His eyes twinkled with pride. No longer downcast eyes while talking about this passion of his—he was proudly stitching it on acap. He reached around me, unbuttoning the back and snapping it tighter around my head so it fit like a glove.
“I’m definitely keeping this.”
He cupped his hands around the back of my head. “My name’s sewn on the back,” he said, running his finger over where the nameVictorwas stitched.
“That doesn’t mean you’re getting it back,” I said, grabbing the bill, grinning up at him.
