Page 59 of Love on the Byline

Blake tied it off and put the bag in the cart. “Why do I getthe feeling you’re avoiding the question?”

“What question?”

“The one I’ve asked you repeatedly.” She followed him to apile of leafy greens.

Sighing, Ollie rolled the cart to a slow stop. “It’s not abig mystery, really. I…got into a bit of trouble and he swept in to save theday. That’s kind of the story of our friendship,” he said as he started walkingagain.

Something about the tone of his voice suggested there wasway more to the story than he was willing to share. She had to tread carefully.“Were you in a fight at one of the frat’s parties, or…something happened in thelocker room with your team?”

“No, nothing like that. When I was fourteen, Bran’s familymoved down the block from mine right before sophomore year.”

“You went to high school together? I had no idea.”

“We’ve been practically inseparable since those days,” hesaid. “I had trouble fitting in, being a quiet kid—being, well…me. I was alwayskind of a target for loud-mouthed idiots.”

Her blood went cold. “You were bullied? God, I’m so sorry.”

Ollie gave her a soft smile. “Thanks, but I’m okay. I keptmy head down, for the most part. One day, after school, I made the mistake ofturning right when I should have turned left. Ran into the very group ofloudmouths I’d avoided all year.” He inspected a bunch of carrots before layingthem in the cart.

“What happened?”

They turned down the dairy aisle and he picked through theselection of aged cheeses. “Earned myself a black eye, among other things. Iate lunch alone most days, sat in the corner and read until the bell rang.Sometimes, someone would say something or chuck a sandwich at my head but, fromthat day on, things got darker.”

“Some kids are dicks.”

“Some kids are dicks,” he agreed. He picked up a containerof olives and stuck it in the cart. “Anyway, I was minding my business whenBran sat down at my empty table. I…well. To be honest, I was fucking terrified.I was shorter then, and even more scrawny than I am now.”

“Scrawny? That’s not a word I’d use to describe you.” Lithe,tall, elegant, handsome as hell. Sexy. Blake had a lot of words to describeOliver Benjamin. Mysterious was at the top of the list.

“That’s because you’re kindhearted,” Ollie said. “You’vealways been kind to me.”

Blake realized she’d never really talked with him before,not like this. Not about him. She wondered why.

“So, Bran sits down and smiles at me, which I didn’t knowwhat to do with. I’m pretty sure I considered running away, but he only said hiand asked if I lived in the house down the street from him. We chatted throughlunch, and it sort of became our thing for a while.”

“Lunch together?”

He nodded. “We started hanging out some weekends, too.Shooting hoops, playing video games, that kind of thing.”

“I honestly hadn’t realized you were friends beforecollege.” It offered a whole new perspective on their friendship.

Ollie’s expression grew wistful. “Yeah, for a month or so.And then people started to notice. One day, I was reading under a tree, when acouple of the loudmouths came by asking where my boyfriend was.”

“Nothing like a little high school homophobia to spice upyour day.” She stopped walking when he did. They were tucked in a corner by theflower section, bright yellows and reds reflecting in the lenses of Ollie’s glasses.

“Racist, too. They said some shit about Bran. But, ofcourse, when he showed up, they were all hey, man, good match, likethey hadn’t just used the N-word to describe him.”

“Shit. Did you tell him?”

Shaking his head, he grabbed a tub of Greek yogurt and putit in the cart. “He would have wanted to fuck them up. It wasn’t worth himgetting suspended.”

They wandered over to the bakery section and grabbed a loafof marble rye, Ollie squeezing it before tossing it in with the rest of thegroceries.

“I admit, your friendship fascinates me.”

He turned to look at her, one brow raised. “Me and Bran?” Hehuffed a laugh. “It confuses the hell out of me. When we got to college, Iexpected him to fall in with a new group of friends and forget all about me.Instead, he talked me into joining the soccer team.”

“I seem to recall you two were pretty tight back then,” shesaid, remembering how he always seemed to be wherever Bran was. Or maybe it wasthe opposite. She wondered if Ollie remembered her flirting with him when theyfirst met, at the campus bookstore. Though, knowing Ollie, he might not haverealized she was flirting at the time. He certainly hadn’t blinked an eye whenshe attended one of their house parties with some of her friends. It wasn’tuntil their first class together that he’d spoken to her.

---