Page 17 of Welcome to the Friendzone

“That’s a super cute idea, Oliver,” Marta smiled at him.

Did she just use the wordcutein the same sentence asOliver? Wow. This man really did something to her.

“Ah, it’s nothing.”

He waved his hand, giving her the widest smile as a reaction to her compliment.

“In that case, I’ll bake cookies with you tomorrow but you have to give the pizza a serious chance.”

“Deal!” Oliver exclaimed before placing a slice of each pizza on their plates.

He grabbed both of them before stepping toward the dinner table but Marta shook her head and pointed to the more comfortable couches instead. Pizza and couches sounded like the perfect combination on this very emotional and draining day.

Oliver grabbed the mushroom pizza first and gave Marta the side-eye before taking a bite with a loud huff. The woman watched him curiously, seeing his eyes widen as soon as the different tastes unfolded within his mouth.

“Wow,” he commented, turning his head and shooting Marta a shocked glare.

“You didn’t expect that, huh?” The woman laughed, taking a big bite of her own slice.

“No. Wow, it’s brilliant. The saltiness of the bacon combined with the taste of the mushrooms. Great choice, Marta.”

He bumped his shoulder into Marta’s, as the Deputy Director grinned from ear to ear at his compliment.

After Marta was done with her second slice, her position changed drastically. Her shoulders hung low and Oliver could feel her taking deep breaths before she eventually cleared her throat.

“I still owe you an explanation,” she started, her voice shaking a little as if she were about to cry again.

Oliver quickly placed his plate on the coffee table, turned his upper body towards her saying,

“You don’t owe me anything.”

“Oh, I do. You made me laugh and feel good today. On a day when all I wanted to do was curl into a ball underneath my blankets and cry myself to sleep. You really made my day today, Oliver and the least I can do is make you understand why I reacted the way I did when I heard that song.”

She gave him a weak smile, tears glistering in her eyes again.

Oliver didn’t know how to respond. Thankfully he didn’t have to say anything because Marta changed her position on the couch a little so that she faced him, her legs crossed underneath her. Her shoulders were still hanging low as if the weight of the world were on top of them.

“Exactly a year ago my life was turned upside down. Literally.”

A heavy sigh escaped Marta’s mouth and the tears welled up on her eyeline until there were too many and a few spilled over and slid down her cheeks.

“I was a very active undercover Agent in the drug trafficking task force, Jakob was too. We blew up a lot of mafia groups that were dealing drugs by going undercover, gathering evidence, and then arresting them as soon as we had enough proof. For years I slipped in and out of different personas, infiltrating the underground world of Washington. And I was really good at my job. So good that I might have become a little reckless. I confused some of the background information for my last two undercover jobs. The mafia I was currently infiltrating became suspicious and they started to do some research and contacted other organizations. What I didn't know back then was that they found out that I was the mole.”

“Oh shit,” Oliver whispered, having a gut feeling about where Marta’s story was heading.

“Yeah. Turned out the CIA didn’t hide my personal information as well as they’d promised. They found us, me and my husband.”

She needed to take a break, the tears were now streaming out of her eyes, forming small rivers across her skin.

She felt Oliver shift a little and he reached out his arm to touch and comfort her but, as she was facing him, he didn’t know where to touch her so he placed his palm on her forearm that lay loosely in her lap.

“It was Christmas Eve and I wanted to bake some cookies for the next day. Yeah, funny, right? Same thing as you wanted to do with me today. Anyway, I returned home and heard a commotion from inside the house. When I entered and looked around for Frank I found him in our bedroom lying in a puddle of his own blood. He’d been shot.”

The way her voice broke at the end of the sentence was enough for Oliver to scoot even closer to her, wrap his arms around her upper body, and pull her into a hug. Marta was startled by the unexpected movement but managed to wrap her arms around Oliver.

His scent reminded her of early morning walks in the forest. When the world started to come back to life after a long and dark night. Dew still on the leaves of the trees, the heavy scent of wood very present as the flowerheads were still closed because of the lack of sunshine over the night.

Marta took some deep breaths, each one calming her more until she was able to continue her story. Oliver held her close, trying to give her enough comfort so that she wouldn’t break apart.

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