Page 99 of Olivia's Only Pretending
“Maybe another time you saw them coming home from a date late at night? Got her whole dorm running outside to interrupt the potential of a goodnight kiss?” I crossed my arms, narrowing my eyes.
“Fine, fine.” He gave up, sounding exasperated. “It’s been me. The first time was a stupid idea that came to me when I heard they were getting coffee after class. I hoped it would interrupt class and mess up their plans.”
“Then it became a habit?” Victor asked.
“Yeah,” he said, embarrassed and red-faced. “It worked okay in the beginning. Now”—he looked over at where they’d stood, wistfully—“it’s too late.”
“I get being stuck as a friend when you desperately want to be more, but ringing alarms isn’t going to help,” Victor said. “It’s not about what happens with her and that guy. It’s got to be about what happens between her and you. Talk to her.”
“But, also, stop ringing the alarms.” I narrowed my eyes at him. “I know your trademark now.”
He nodded. “I hear you, Dr. Rhodes.”
I glanced over and saw Ashley looking our way with a curious gleam in her eyes and a small smile for me and Shane, unaware of the effect she had on him. Unaware that the fall fire alarm fiasco had all been an elaborate ruse inspired by her.
“Wait until Gabby hears about this,” I whispered to Victor.
“Man, I sure do love visiting you on campus.” Victor sighed wistfully, slipping an arm around my shoulder.
After we were finally let back into the building, Victor was grabbing his things from my desk, slipping his wallet and phone into his pockets, while I plopped back down in my office chair.
“How late do you think you’ll be out?” I asked. Victor and I had been talking on the phone every night this week until we nearly fell asleep, but I knew tonight he had Gabriel’s bachelor party.
“Probably pretty late. All of us took off work tomorrow or at least took a half day,” he said, as I stood up from my spot. “Maybe you could text me when you’re going to bed, and I could step away from the guys and give you a call?”
I wrapped my arms around him in a tight hug. “That sounds good.”
“You know,” he said, his voice sly in the way it got when he was about to share an idea with me. “We could go back to pretending for one night. We could pretend to run into each other …” His arms were still wrapped around me. “Maybe I’ll give you the bachelor party agenda? You happen to show up where we’re having dinner.”
It was tempting. I considered it for a minute. A little extra Victor time sounded nice. But ultimately, I knew better. I scrunched my nose and shook my head. “No. I can’t. That’s a bad girlfriend look. I can’t be the girlfriend ruining guys’ night and crashing bachelor parties.”
He pressed a goodbye kiss to my forehead as I spoke. “Plus, no one even knows I’m your girlfriend yet.”
“My girlfriend,” Victor said slowly, drawing out each syllable against his tongue.
It made my stomach flutter. “Your girlfriend.” I nodded, leaning a hip against my desk. “And a good one. The kind that makes you sub sandwiches and listens to you recite your best man toast almost every nightandover lunch.”
Victor laughed warmly as he walked toward the doorway. “Girlfriend of my fantasies.”
He stopped in the doorway, giving me a final grin—the kind that made me ache in a really good way, the kind that made myheart catch in my throat, and I felt the words,I love you, almost slip out.
I opened my mouth but hesitated. So close.
“See you later,” he said.
And then the door was closing behind him, and the wordlovewas still there on my tongue.
After he left, my heart sank. I’d almost told him, and I felt so deflated for holding it back. I grabbed my phone and texted Lucy.
Me
Isn’t it karaoke night at Chauncey’s tonight? I’m free. Wanna girls’ night??
Thirty-One
Ididn’t know how much Victor had shared with his family aboutussince we became anus.So, when I bumped into Emma and Katie and Emma’s giggly bachelorette party at Chauncey’s, I tried to choose my words carefully. I knew the family was days away from the wedding, and updates on Victor’s love life were probably low on the priority list, and it should come from him.
Not as a tipsy slip from me.
