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“You don’t believe me about the teasing or the fact that I’m not used to sleeping with a beautiful woman in the same room?”
Olivia waited a few seconds before answering. “Both.”
The wires sparked as soon as Christian clipped them together, and the van started, the engine coughing.
Christian gave her one more lingering look before turning the steering wheel and driving down the road. Olivia wanted him to say something else; she wanted to hear that word,beautiful, again, but he stayed silent, and so did she.
***
The whole airport incident was slipping further back in her mind with each hour Olivia spent with Christian. During the drive, he was lighthearted and carefree, joking and laughing in a way that she couldn’t help laughing along. But there was also this far-off look he’d get when the conversation lulled and he drove in silence, his gaze fixed on the road ahead. During those times, Olivia found herself staring at him, the cracked window blowing his scent in her direction. She wondered what was going through his head.
He turned to her at one point while she stared and their eyes met. Too late to look away, she smiled at him. He smiled back. Her stomach tightened with that tingly feeling again.
“Wanna hear a joke?”
“Sure,” she answered almost too eagerly.
He smiled. “Okay, here it goes.”
“I’m listening.”
“Why did the Romanian stop reading?”
She was smiling already.
“Why?”
“They wanted to give the Bucharest. Ha!”
It was a terrible joke, and yet, Olivia burst out laughing.
“Get it?” he asked.
“I got it. Yeah, because the capital is Bucharest and it sounds like . . .” She laughed again. “Oh man, that was bad.”
Christian chuckled. “Don’t say that. It’s one of my best.” He turned to look at her. “Hey, I wanted to ask your permission to stop by the store first and then at my house? I have to get some things for my family. They rely on me and I didn’t make it home last night.”
“Yeah, sure that’s fine. I already texted Elena about the whole incident.”
Olivia sat in the van while he made the quick stop at the store—a small brick building with vegetable baskets in front of it. He came out with two bags and a grateful smile on his face. Looking at the bags of food that had to be for his family, Olivia couldn’t help wondering what his life was like at home with his mother and four sisters.
“Thanks,” he said when he climbed back into the van and started it. By now, the loud, sputtering engine seemed almost normal to Olivia.
“It’s fine. Really.”
He nodded and adjusted the bags on the back seat. Olivia saw the green and purple of vegetables, a block of cheese, some milk, and meat.
When they arrived at his place, Olivia immediately recognized it as a farmhouse.
“It’ll take only a minute,” Christian said and stepped out of the car. He reached for the bags in the back and grabbed them. An onion bulb rolled out, and Olivia caught it, following him out of the van.
“Here,” she said and offered him the onion. He was about to open the bag to let it drop in when a woman came out from the house. She walked slowly, almost like she was limping. She was incredibly pretty, and there was a glow in her eyes when she saw Christian. Onion still in hand, Olivia watched as Christian went over to the woman and hugged her tight. A little girl squeezed out from between the hug as if emerging from a secret door and jumped on Christian. The woman looked slightly older than him, but not much.
“He has a wife?” she muttered to herself in disbelief. Of course he does. She could totally imagine a gorgeous young man like him being snatched up by a beautiful older woman.
The little girl’s playful voice mixed with Christian’s as he spoke to them in Romanian, all the while not glancing once in Olivia’s direction.
Olivia’s eyes moved away from them and fixed on the onion in her hand. She felt scandalized. He’d never mentioned a wife. He’d been so willing to pretend that they were married. To sleep in the same room. And all thatbeautiful womannonsense! She felt like an idiot.
