Page 7 of Olivia's Only Pretending
“Victor, what’s holding you back from starting your business?” I leaned forward from the other end of the couch, my hair brushing across my shoulders.
“Starting a business is a lot of paperwork?—”
“You can handle paperwork. I’ll help you with that. But is that really what’s stopping you from taking the leap?”
He swallowed, eyes still downcast. “I don’t want to try and flop. Be the only Hernandez flop of the family.”
“The only Hernandez flop?” A lump formed in my throat. The late summer sun dipped below the horizon outside the glass doors, casting a warm glow. Elm trees swayed in my backyard.
“Have you noticed that everyone in my family does these great things, makes these great lives my parents are so proud of, and then …” He took a long inhale.
I tapped his foot with mine across the couch. He pulled his eyes up to mine.
“Then there’s me.”
“Then there’s you—the one who can build the most beautiful things with his own two hands.” I reached toward him, grabbing his hands in mine and shaking them. “Who the city department would be lost without. Who makes everyone laugh. Who shows up for your family and friends every single time. The one everyone can rely on. No one else can say that.”
His hands stayed in mine, hanging between us. There was a small smile under his five o’clock shadow, those dark eyes searching mine. “Everything I do feels small in comparison to my siblings.”
“Then dream bigger.” I let go of his hands, but the warmth from his stayed like smoke from a fire. “But nothing about you doesn’t measure up. I don’t think you understand how significant you are.”
“I’m significant to you?” His voice was rough.
I could nearly feel it against my skin. He grabbed my bare foot in his hand. My heart quickened. We didn’t touch like that.
“Of course,” I whispered.
The way he looked at me shifted the energy in the room, like we were standing on the edge of a big expanse. I needed to step back to safer grounds.
“You’ve become one of my best friends.”
“You’re my best friend, too.” He pulled me toward him by my feet, making me squeal.
I was laughing and out of breath, with my face inches from his. His hands were still wrapped around my ankles.
Gulping for air, I said, “Start the business, if you want to. Don’t think about what your siblings are doing, or what you think you should or shouldn’t do, or if it could fail. Only think about what you want.”
“I do want it,” he confessed, releasing my ankles.
I pulled my legs close to my chest, back to safety, my heartbeat returning to normal. “Then I say go for it.”
Now we were pulling into the campus parking lot. “Just don’t mention the business plans to anyone yet. I’m waiting to tell my folks,” he said.
“Okay, but I know they’ll be proud.” He didn’t see how his mom beamed when he entered the room, or the hearty way his dad laughed at his jokes. How his siblings’ eyes shot straight to him at the dinner table, hanging on his every word.
But since he’d let me into his world, I saw.
I hung on his every word, too. I beamed at his smile. It was just the Victor effect.
I slid out of the truck and onto the pavement of the parking lot, stopping to say bye to Victor. But then he cut the engine and climbed out of the truck, too.He was supposed to drop me off and go on to work.
“What are you doing?” I asked from the passenger side.
“Getting out of my truck?” He cocked his head, as if I’d asked a ridiculous question. He slammed the driver’s side door behind him.
The air was cool. I tugged my sweater close around me. “Why? You don’t work here?”
“’Cause I’m curious about this place.” He wiggled his brows. “I want to see Liv’s world.”
