Page 13 of Olivia's Only Pretending
Victor cleared his throat. “He left already,” he said, gesturing toward the door.
Oh yeah, Ryan.
“Oh, good. We scared him away,” I said, trying to keep my voice steady and ignoring how my hands were trembling. Even my stomach was trembling.
“Was that what was just happening? Were we scaring Ryan away?” Victor ran a hand through his hair. “Not that I’m complaining,at all. I’m just curious about what you’re thinking.”
“I don’t know what I was thinking.” I glanced toward the doorway, realizing it was wide open. So much for the rumors blowing over.
Sonny, an older lady who was the secretary for our history department, was right in sight line of my office. I squinted at her for a better look. Her lips were pursed, and she was actively looking away. I rushed over to close my door, and she turned her head toward me for a moment, trying to suppress an obvious grin.She’d seen.
I closed my door and rested my head against it with my eyes closed. I had a student coming in eight minutes. “Victor,” I groaned.
He chuckled. “I’m liking these new sounds I’ve been eliciting from you the last few minutes.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Victor Hernandez. The office is going to think?—”
“That we just made out, and now you’ve hurried over to slam the door shut?”
“This isn’t a joke. We need to figure this out.” My heart was racing. Victor showed up on campus and turned my world upside down.Of course.He was like ivy growing wild in every area of my life I gave him access to.
“Figure what out?” He propped himself halfway onto my desk. Normally, that’d bother me, but on him, it gave me an ache of affection. I liked seeing him comfy in my safe places. “Annoying ex thinks you’ve moved on?—”
“I have moved on.”
“Annoying ex thinks you have ahot younger boyfriend. Your department thinks maybe you’re having a fling of some kind. I don’t think it’s that bad.” He shrugged. “Nothing to figure out. Let it fizzle. Later, if anyone asks, tell them we decided we were better as friends.” He cleared his throat. “Which we are. Right?”
“Right.” Victor’s perspective brought my heart rate down. I took a deep breath, resting my head against the door.
“Problem solved.”
“Now, I only have to deal with Ryan being at all the Fall Seminar activities I was looking forward to. We have the faculty dinner this weekend.” I stepped away from the door.
“Sorry, Liv.” Victor walked over to me, meeting me in the middle of the office.
He reached for my arms, and my skin flushed, remembering how his hands felt on me only moments ago, like an engine that had just been running and was still hot.
“I’ll be fine. I’m a big girl.”
He gave my forearms a gentle squeeze. “How about I come with you?”
“Oh,” I said, taken aback by his offer. As the eldest daughter, I was used to facing problems by myself. I’d grown up taking scary steps first, so my sisters had footsteps to follow in. I’d checked under my own bed for monsters along with theirs.
Asking for help was not an instinct for me. It was an after-I’d-already-figured-it-out thought. I was our family’s pioneer. The captain. Always on the front lines.
“Everyone thinks we’re together anyway. I can be your distraction,” Victor said. “Might make it more tolerable?”
I chewed on my lip. “My distraction?” Victorwasskilled at distracting me.
“More than that, though. I can help you navigate everything, be by your side, so you’re not dealing with Ryan and office gossip alone. Like a copilot.”
“You want to be my copilot?” My chest tugged.
“Anytime. I help you fix up that old house. I help you deal with annoying exes. I buy you good coffee,” he said, grinning down at me and warming me all the way down to my toes.
“Okay.” I nodded. Just the idea of having him there dialed back my anxiety. “I think that sounds like a good plan.”
“So, that’s the plan? We let everyone keep thinking we’re dating?” His voice dropped, low and warm.
