Page 12 of Welcome to the Friendzone

Oliver was currently decorating the dinner table, his back towards Marta, while he was dancing passionately to the song. He wore black jeans, a dark blue sweater and a weird headpiece with reindeer antlers on it. She saw him sway his hips to the rhythm of the song in a way that made her think he’d be experienced moving them in other ways.

When he turned around to head to the kitchen again his eyes met Marta’s and he visibly jumped in the air while screaming “AH!”

Marta couldn’t stop herself from laughing, the situation in front of her was too funny. The shock on Oliver’s face, the too high-pitched scream and the little jump. It was hilarious.

“Sorry, I didn’t see you!”

Now that he was turned around towards her she could finally see that his sweater showed a gray tabby cat wearing sunglasses with the words “Meowy Christmas” underneath.

To be honest, it looked pretty cute.

“Nice sweater,” Marta snickered, pointing her finger at the cat in the middle of Oliver’s chest.

“Glad you’re saying that because I have one for you too!”

He ran towards the couches to grab a green and red sweater from them before proudly turning it around so that Marta could see what was on it. The sweater showed a llama wearing a Christmas beanie and scarf, and above she could read “No probllama”.

“I know it’s not really Spanish but it was the closest I could find,” he explained, a little insecure, unsure if the sweater was appropriate or not.

“I love it. Thank you.” Marta smiled honestly at him.

She’d told him about her mom being from Spain, immigrating to the States because she couldn’t find a job as a Spanish teacher at home. A High School near Washington was looking for someone and they hired her mom so even though Marta was born in the U.S. her mom always spoke Spanish to her, maintaining their culture as much as possible.

With a quick motion she pulled the sweater over her upper body and looked at Oliver with a smile still on her lips.

“How do I look?”

“Beautiful. As always,” Oliver whispered, regretting his words immediately, and Marta could see his cheeks turn pink like a radish.

“Thanks. You look good too, especially the antlers on your head. Gives you a very manly look,” she laughed.

Oliver’s eyes widened before he joined her laughter.

“Thanks for making me laugh. I needed that today,” she added, a sad glimmer behind her eyes that Oliver didn’t understand.

He didn’t want to push the topic so he simply nodded and placed his hand on her upper arm, slightly brushing over the fabric of the sweater. Marta looked at him with her honey-colored eyes and for the first time since his colleague moved into the headquarters, their gazes held. The honey of Marta’s eyes drew him in and he realized that she had an amber-colored ring right around her irises. The amber was mixed slightly into the honey making them look like an explosion had happened and the color splattered away. It was the first time Oliver had seen eyes like that. Such beautiful eyes.

Marta still maintained their eye contact, exploring the different sparkles and shimmers behind Oliver’s green-blue eyes. Curiosity seemed to be the main emotion in his eyes but Marta also saw the depth of someone who had seen a lot of tragedy in his life hiding behind the smile on his face. His eyes gave him away. Oliver became more and more interesting to her. He seemed to be a man with many layers. A former SEAL, an Agent, a Christmas lover, smiling and handsome. A deep ocean and a ray of sunshine all at the same time. It had been years since Marta had had the urge to get to know someone. To get to know everything about them. Last time she ended up marrying the person. Frank.

Suddenly she broke away from Oliver’s gaze, lowering her head and looking at the floor. She felt guilty for comparing Oliver to the love of her life. Especially on the day he’d died.

Oliver retrieved his hand from her upper arm, cleared his throat, and stepped towards the kitchen. Was it his fault that she looked so sad? Did he step over a line?

“I was just prepping the turkey for dinner. You want to help?” He asked, ignoring the sad vibes radiating from Marta.

“Turkey? Isn’t that for Thanksgiving?” Marta asked, confused.

“Yeah, but we were on a mission during Thanksgiving and I didn’t have turkey this year so I decided to do one today instead.”

He beamed at her, his mouth literally drooling from thinking about the delicious food.

“I’m actually pretty good with turkey. My… my family always said I did the best one.”

She rounded the kitchen counter to look at the large raw turkey resting on the countertop.

“Really? Go ahead then!”

Marta showed Oliver in great detail how she prepared the turkey before it went in the oven. It’d take a few hours, which left Oliver speechless. He hadn’t made turkey on his own before and he’d expected it to be done within an hour.

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