by V. T. Do
I gave him a small smile and relaxed a little on the bed. “Okay. Birthday dinner, then we’ll go out to celebrate on Saturday. And I promise, I’ll be fine. You don’t have to worry about me here.”
He ruffled my hair affectionately. “I know you will be.”
Then he stood up and pack the rest of his things. I walked him out to the front door and watched as he drove away to the airport. I stayed where I was until I couldn’t see him anymore, then I walked back inside and got ready for school.
4
Olivia
The following three days passed by in a blur.
I couldn’t remember what I had done for most of it, except gone to school. I remember a brief visit from our next-door neighbors, Jacob and Mary Jenkins, who brought over some homemade cookies for me.
I had known the Jenkinses since Max bought this house and I went over to visit him for the first time. They were an older couple in their mid-sixties. Mr. Jenkins was a jokester, who could always make me laugh, and Mrs. Jenkins was sweet and kind, and she was, possibly, the best cook in the world.
They had been Max’s neighbor for as long as I could remember. They moved here a year before he had, and I remembered Mrs. Jenkins used to bake cookies whenever she knew I was coming by. Her chocolate chip cookies were my favorite.
I had come to think of them as my surrogate grandparents, and knowing they were close by, with Max gone, had eased some of my worries.
At night, as promised, Max would FaceTime me and tell me about all that he’d done, and he would listen to me talk. I was sure most of the things I told him weren’t all that interesting, but he listened to every word I said, as if I were the world’s best storyteller.
It was the highlight of my day. But the calls weren’t long. Mostly because, even on screen, I could see how tired he was. Nevertheless, I went to sleep with a smile on my face.
On Friday, the day of Max’s birthday, the first thing I did when I woke up was send him a text wishing him a happy birthday. Max replied almost instantly, which meant he’d been up a while, despite how early it was.
Lizzie found me by my locker that day, and in her hands was a medium-sized gift box, wrapped in bright green wrapping paper with purple ribbons. It looked much better than the present I had wrapped for Max.
She had put a lot of thought into it.
“Can you give this to him when you see him tonight?” she asked.
I smiled and nodded, taking her present and carefully placing it on the top shelf of my locker. I knew Lizzie wanted to come to dinner to celebrate Max’s birthday, but he didn’t say anything about inviting her, and it didn’t seem right since she was my friend and not his. Selfishly, I was glad she wasn’t coming.
For tonight, I wanted him all to myself. Four days apart was long enough. I knew I was a codependent ward to the only adult I had left in my life, but Max didn’t seem to mind that I needed him beyond what was healthy.
“Hey, don’t look now, but Lorenzo Vitelli is staring at you,” Lizzie whispered, throwing conspicuous looks somewhere to my left. I wished she’d stop doing that. Lizzie wasn’t the most subtle person I knew. And if she kept looking, soon Lorenzo would know we were talking about him.
I tugged at her arms and forced her attention back to me. “Stop it. You’re making it so obvious.”
She shot me a sly grin. “Come on. It’s not like he’s being subtle about it either. I think he likes you.”
My cheeks heated, and I looked away. Lorenzo was in the same grade as us, but he may as well be from a different planet. Athletic, popular, and incredibly good-looking, I had a crush on him since my freshman year. But he never noticed me. I had thought he didn’t even know my name, but last week he had greeted me with a small smile and a “Hey, Olivia,” right before he walked off to baseball practice.
There had never been any reason for him to notice me. His dad owned various chain restaurants through the country. One of them, Lo Scoglio, had been one of mine and Max’s favorite places to go since I was a kid, but because of the outrageous prices, I only ever went with Max. That was where we were going tonight.
“I don’t think he likes me,” I said quietly. And I wasn’t saying that because I wanted Lizzie to argue with me. I wasn’t his type. Unlike me, Lorenzo didn’t have a problem dating around. He had had at least five different girlfriends that I knew of. And they were the complete opposite of me, with long blonde hair and pouty lips. They were all incredibly beautiful and, more importantly, filthy rich. I almost thought he was dating specifically for status. Or for his dad’s approval.
Knowing that should have killed my crush on him a long time ago. I knew better. And I wasn’t blind to the kind of boy Lorenzo was. Yet, my stupid heart stuttered every time he turned those green eyes on me, even in the most casual way. He had such deep green eyes, despite his Italian heritage. There was no getting over this crush. He would have to do something pretty bad for me not to feel this way about him anymore. My stupid teenage brain was to blame. When I liked someone, I tended to like them pretty hard. Lorenzo wasn’t the exception to that rule.
And now Lizzie was saying he was staring at me?
Impossible.
“Oh, I think he does. Did you know it’s been a month since he broke up with his girlfriend? What was her name? Sandy? Sandra?”
“Sydney,” I muttered. Lizzie shot me a knowing a look. “I’m not stalking him, if that’s what you think. They’re both in my US History class.” The fact that I also knew he drove a silver Mazda didn’t count as stalking, either. The car garnered just as much attention at the boy.
Her smile softened. “I know. But I’m telling you he’s been staring at you a lot for a while now. I really do think he likes you.”
Had he been staring at me?
I craned my neck back a little, glancing in the general direction Lizzie was just looking, and sure enough, Lorenzo was standing there, in the middle of his group of friends, who were all being obnoxiously loud.
Lorenzo was the only one in the group not laughing. He was just standing there, staring directly at me.
I quickly looked away when our eyes met, and Lizzie’s grin widened when she saw my reaction. Slowly, I looked back. Lorenzo was still staring at me. And I didn’t know what that look in his eyes meant, but it made my heart beat frantically against my chest.
He winked. I looked away, shutting my locker door a little louder than I meant to and, grabbing Lizzie’s hand, walked quickly out of there. She let out a small laugh when we were out of sight and I leaned against the wall, letting out a sigh.
“Told you,” she gloated.
I got off the bus brimming with excitement. Today had been a very interesting day. First, that small interaction with Lorenzo, and now, Max was home. Or, he would be home soon. His flight wouldn’t land for another half hour, and it would take him just as long to grab his suitcase and drive home.
I couldn’t wait. I had so much to tell him, though I wouldn’t say anything about Lorenzo. I would probably die of embarrassment talking to Max about boys.
Not only was Max super protective of me, but I didn’t want to talk about anything remotely resembling sex with him. As far as he knew, I never even kissed a boy.
I shook away the thought and quickly walked home. Mr. Jenkins was watering his lawn when I came by, and I waved at him. He extracted a promise out of me that Max and I would come over and visit him and his wife soon, and then I went to my house.
I opened the front door, kicked off my shoes and threw my backpack against the wall by the stairwell. I hummed my way into the kitchen and almost missed the man sitting by the kitchen island, sipping coffee.
I startled and looked at him—at this strange, huge, and intimidating man—let out a blood-curdling scream and ran to my room.
The man swore and stood up, following me.
“Shit, shit, shit,” I mumbled, trying to get my legs to move as fast as they would go. I could hear the man behind me, but thankfully, he was still too far
away to catch up. I slammed my door shut and locked it, just as there was a hard thud coming from the outside.
I wasn’t stupid. I knew my flimsy door couldn’t hold him off for long and I needed a way to get out of here.
“Open up,” the man shouted, pounding on the door. I shook my head, even if he couldn’t see me. My hands shook when I pulled out my phone from my pocket, but who was I supposed to call? Max was probably still on the plane. His phone would be off.
Tears spilled out because I didn’t have anyone else to call, and it was only a matter of time before the man outside broke down my door. What would he do to me? Hundreds of scenarios ran through my head, one after another, and none of them were good.
The cops!
I could call the cops. Their response rate was minutes. The man couldn’t do that much damage to me within minutes, could he?
My fingers shook, trying to unlock my phone. The pounding was still outside my door and I rushed to the window, opening it wide and knocking off the insect screen. I would jump before I let him get his hands on me.
I climbed on the windowsill, my hand moving back to my phone. But then the screen changed to an incoming call from Max and I let out a small cry of relief. I picked up and cried into the phone.
“Olivia?” Max asked, his voice on the verge of panic. “Are you okay?”
“Max, there’s someone in the house. He’s right outside my door. I don’t know what to do.”
“Shit, are you serious?” His voice was definitely panicked now.
“What do I do?” I asked again.
“Have you called the police?”
“No,” I cried.
“Okay, sweetheart. I want you to listen to me, okay?” I nodded, even though he couldn’t see me. “You’re going to hang up the phone and go hide in your closet.” I let out a small whimper. “It’s okay. I’ll call you back once I call the cops, I promise. I will be home soon. I won’t let anything happen to you. Now, go do as I say.”
“Okay,” I said, my voice breaking.
“Go, Olive. Go hide.”
Max hung up after that, and I climbed back into the room and headed to my closet, hiding under a pile of clothes.
The pounding on my door had stopped sometime during my phone call with Max, though I wasn’t going to risk coming out of my room. He wasn’t gone. I knew he wasn’t.
Everything was silent save for my erratic breathing, and I tried not to make any noise, no matter what. It would be okay. It had to be. Max said he wouldn’t let anything happen to me, and I believed him.
It felt like forever as I sat there, waiting for Max to call me back, though I knew it had only been a few minutes. When my phone rang again, I quickly answered. “Max?”
“Ah, Olivia. It’s okay. You can come out of your room.”
“But the man…”
“I’m sorry, sweetheart. I didn’t know my brother was back from his trip to New York. He came over to celebrate my birthday with me.”
“Your brother?” I asked, shocked, but I shouldn’t have been. I knew Max had a little brother. Though from what I saw, there was nothing little about the man. And I had never met him before. At least, I didn’t think I had. He was four years younger than Max, which meant he was five years younger than my mom. I doubt he was close to my mom when they were little.
“Yes, my brother Mason. He’s downstairs in the kitchen now. I’ll be home soon, sweetheart. But you don’t have to be scared of him. He looks a little scary, but underneath all that hard exterior is a big softy, I promise.”
“Okay.” There was nothing soft about the man I saw, even though I only caught a glimpse of him before I ran off. “You’ll really be home soon?”
There was a smile in voice when he said, “Yes. I got everything done ahead of schedule, so I caught an earlier flight. I just landed and am heading to my car right now. If we’re lucky, I won’t run into any traffic. I’ll be home soon, and we’ll go out for dinner. How about it?”
I wiped away the tears that had fallen and let out a stuttering breath. “That’s sound nice. I’ll see you soon.”
I hung up and got out of the closet. My window was still open, and the insect screen was probably somewhere on the lawn. And my hands were shaking, even though I knew I was relatively safe.
I walked over to my window and looked out, but the insect screen wasn’t lying on the ground like I thought. Instead, they were in Mr. Jenkins’s hands, and he had a frown on his face.
“Are you alright, little darling? I don’t know what happened, but this just popped out and landed on your front lawn.”
It wasn’t popped out without reason, but I wasn’t going to tell him that. “I’m alright, Mr. Jenkins. Thank you.”
“Do you want me to come in and fix this for you?”
“Oh, you don’t have to do that. Max will fix it once he gets home.”
“Okay. When is our boy coming home?”
I smiled. I liked that the Jenkinses looked at Max like their son. Even if Max was the farthest thing from a boy. “Soon. His plane just landed.”
“Good, good. Tell him to come by soon. I’ll just leave this by your front door.”
“I will. Thank you.”
I quickly closed the window and walked to my vanity to brush my long brown hair, trying to make myself look presentable. My eyes were rimmed red, and the brown irises of my eyes looked bigger than usual. I didn’t wear any makeup today, and being scared half to death didn’t help my fair complexion one bit. I looked too pale.
This was as good as I would look, I guessed. Letting out a sigh, I walked out of my bedroom and took the stairs. I couldn’t hear any movement from downstairs, but I knew Mason was still here. And now that I knew who he was, I was kind of embarrassed about my reaction to him earlier.
5
Olivia
I slowly made my way downstairs as quietly as possible. I even stepped over the spot that usually creaked on the stairs. I didn’t want Mason to see me before I saw him. I had enough surprises for one day, and if I could take a good look at him before our interaction, I would feel more at ease.
I shook my head and almost let out a laugh. As if I would feel at ease with him now.
As I expected, Mason was in the kitchen, drinking coffee and looking at something on his phone. I could only see his back from my vantage point, but even still, my earlier assessment of him was correct. He was huge.
He was bigger than Max, and that said something considering Max had always been the biggest man I knew. Not anymore.
Mason had short dark hair; a few shades darker than Max’s from what I could tell. He was wearing a black suit, and though I always thought the suits Max wore to work made him look tame, there was nothing tame about Mason. His shoulders were broad, too—a fact his expensive suit couldn’t hide.
I stepped further into the kitchen and, sensing that someone was behind him, Mason turned and met my eyes.
My breath caught and my heart stuttered.
Blood rushed to my face, and I couldn’t think of anything but the devastatingly striking man before my eyes.
He was easily the most beautiful man I had ever laid eyes on. He had the same blue eyes as Max, only they looked depthless in this light, making him look inhuman. His eyes were his most distinguishing feature, but that didn’t take away from anything else about him physically. There was his elegant nose, strong jawline, and full lips. His features were perfectly symmetrical, his eyebrows thick enough to not be feminine, yet thin enough not to be bushy. He was somewhere between perfect and god-like.
I had a whimsical thought then, that he couldn’t simply be made, but designed. Every single feature carefully crafted to create the perfect specimen.
Then he stood up and my eyes widened, but I wasn’t scared. I was just surprised about the size of him. Though Mason must have thought the former, because he took a small step back, trying not to crowd my space.
Mason was tall. Maybe even taller than Max, but it was hard to tell. He
looked hard everywhere. I had never felt so tiny, so soft, than I did then.
“You must be Olivia,” Mason said, his voice smooth and deep. He held out his hand to me. I shivered. His voice shouldn’t have affected this much.
“Yes,” I said, quietly. And when I noticed his still-outstretch hand, I grabbed it with both of mine, feeling like the biggest dork.
He obviously wanted to shake hands, and here I was, holding them between mine. Without thinking, I shook his hand and had to stop myself from cringing. His lips twitched a little from the corner. We didn’t say anything for a while. I realized too late that Mason was probably waiting for me to release him.
I dropped his hand as if it’d burned me. His eyes glimmered in amusement. He was definitely laughing at me.
“It’s nice to meet you,” I said.
“You as well.”
“So, you’re Max’s brother,” I said, stating the obvious. God, how awkward.
“And you’re his ward.”
I nodded and shot a small smile at him. He looked back to the coffee counter. “Would you like to have coffee with me while we wait for the birthday boy to arrive?”
And increase the chance that I might do something embarrassing, like spill coffee on myself, or worse, him? “Sure,” I said.
Mason grabbed a mug from the cabinet and poured some coffee into it. He seemed at eased with where everything was, and I realized it was because he came here often. Perhaps even more than me, before I started living here. He even had a house key. That was obviously how he got in.
He handed me the mug and walked to the living room, motioning with his head for me to follow.
We sat down on the sofa and, when he took a corner seat, I sat on the cushion next to him, so close we were almost touching. I realized too late that I should have sat down on the other side of the couch when he shot me funny look.
I looked down at my coffee and pretended not to notice, though I could feel my cheeks heating. Awkward had become the perfect description of me, Olivia Williams.