Page 68 of Olivia's Only Pretending
The air went still.My wedding.I tried to imagine asking Victor to build an arch for my wedding to another man. The idea made me sick.
I tried to imagine him at my wedding just as a guest. Him sitting in the pew, that familiar smile on his face as I stood hand in hand with someone else. My heart collapsed in my chest.
Everything between us had grown so gray, muddled, and murky.
“Whatever you need, Liv,” Victor said, sliding his hands into his pockets.
“For you, too, you know?” I gave his shoulder a gentle shove. Because apparently, I couldn’t keep my hands off this man.
“I know,” he said, eyes twinkling. “You’re my biggest fan.”
I wanted to ask him about his job with city management. I wanted to ask about the hectic Hernandez wedding planning. I wanted to hear if he’d watched the latest episode of our favorite show and hear all his controversial opinions.
But the sun was disappearing from the sky far too quickly.
My stomach growled loudly.
Victor glanced at me with a knowing smirk. “You’re hungry, Liv,” he said. “You should head home.”
I wanted to ask him to come over and order a pizza with me. Put on one of our shows. Fall back into our usual rhythm. But our rhythm was lost in that muddled gray.
I was sure pizza and late-night chats were not within our new boundaries.
“I’m okay,” I lied.
“Nah, you should go eat some food. I should go pick up Watson’s prescriptions, anyway. Thanks again for being such a good fake fiancée and dog mom today. You rushed him straight to care, didn’t hesitate at all. I really appreciate it.”
“I love him.”
“He loves you, too,” he said, sliding into his driver’s seat.
I slowly dragged my feet over to my own car, the weight of unspoken things weighing heavily on me. Victor didn’t start his own engine until after I’d started mine and pulled out of the parking space, waiting for me like he always did.
I was confused about a lot when it came to Victor Hernandez, but a couple of things were achingly clear. How much I hated saying goodbye to him. And if I got him alone anytime soon, I’d probably kiss him again.
Twenty
Victor
*sends photo of Watson sitting with his head cocked to the side*
the patient is healing well—he’s walking fine, no limp at all anymore
the patient also says thank you
Iarrived home the next day after a whirlwind of meetings and classes, kicking off my shoes and grabbing a bottle of my favorite red wine blend. A warm bubble bath was in my near future.
I heard the click of a key in my front door. There were only three people with keys to my place: Victor, Mom, and Lucy.
Victor had his tux fitting tonight. Mom had her date.
Oh yeah. My tired heart sank.Mom had her date. There goes my bubble bath.
The door swung open, and in walked Lucy and Gracie, giggling and wearing head-to-toe black. I squinted at Lucy’s leather pants.
“I hadn’t heard from either of you today. I hoped that meant yesterday’s idea to crash Mom’s date was a big joke.” I pointed at them with the bottle of wine in my hand.
“Not crash her date—check onher date,” Lucy clarified.
