Page 4 of Reckless Intentions
“Are you talking about us again?” The couple themselves appeared in front of them, Richey with a bottle of Prosecco in his hand.
“Ladies, can I top you up?” he asked.
“Ooo, yes, please.” Poppy eagerly held out her glass.
“Olivia, let me get you a glass,” said Richey.
“Don’t worry, I’ll grab one myself, you two stay with Poppy and make her feel less old.” It was a feeble excuse, but Olivia needed to escape for a few moments, take a breath. Jealousy was a bitch.
As she headed towards the kitchen, Nic’s voice cut across the music.
“God, no, we’ve only moved in together. I haven’t asked her to marry me. If I did, then that’s it, my life’s over!”
Olivia’s vision swan as she heard the male laughter that followed Nic’s statement. Part of her wanted to brush it off. It was the comment a guy made with their friends when they wanted to pretend their relationship wasn’t serious.
But she and Nic had been together for years.
They had a future together, or so she thought.
There was something about the tone of his voice that unnerved her. She steeled herself and entered the room. The laughter dissipated as she walked in, replaced by an uneasy silence.
“I’m looking for a glass.” Her voice wobbled. As she glanced at Nic, the look on her face told him she’d heard every word.
Suddenly it was just the two of them in the room, as the other men melted away.
“You don’t want to be with me anymore.” It wasn’t even a question.
Nic looked at the floor. He shuffled his foot from side to side. “I didn’t say that.”
“Then tell me what you mean by ‘my life’s over if I ask her to marry me’?”
He still didn’t meet her eyes as he spoke. “I didn’t say that either and I’m not saying that I don’t want to be with you.”
“What do you want?”
“I don’t know. It feels too soon to be doing all that other stuff.”
“Too soon? You’ll be thirty in almost a year, how is that too soon?” Olivia wanted to hurl something at him, but she didn’t want to destroy Eva’s new kitchen. “Remind me how long we’ve been together? What was that? A waste of time?”
“Olivia, I don’t want you to think that.”
“Then why haven’t we slept together for three months? You’ve barely touched me, kissed me,wantedme in all that time.” She couldn’t help it, the words came tumbling out of her mouth, the dam broken. The conversation she hadn’t wanted suddenly presented itself. There wasn’t a damn thing she could do to stop it.
“It shouldn’t always be down to me. I don’t remember you making much of an effort either.”
Olivia bit her lip. She wanted to remind him of the times she had tried. When she’d made suggestions of an early night or woken before their alarm. She’d even proposed a weekend away. There had always been an excuse. “Nic, I…”
He studied her face, finally meeting her eyes. Where she had once seen love, was now empty. “Perhaps we’re not in the same place anymore.”
As he said the words, Olivia knew it was over. She knew she ought to be feeling sad or even angry. All she felt was a sense of lightness. There seemed little point in fighting now. “I think you’re right.” She screwed up her face, feeling a tear escape, and hurriedly brushed it way before Nic could see.
“Maybe we need some time apart to figure out what we want?” The hopeful expression on Nic’s face told her everything she needed to know.
“I don’t think it’s hard to know what you want though, is it, Nic?” Olivia hardened. “It certainly isn’t marriage given what you’ve been saying to your friends tonight. Perhaps we shouldn’t even be living together.”
“We possibly rushed into it.”
Rushed into it?Olivia’s mind exploded. “I’m sorry, how long were we in a relationship before deciding that we should move in? It was hardly a whirlwind romance.”
