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"If you really want to show me how much of an independent woman you are, you can pay for the tacos."
"What, me?" I stared at him, wide eyes, already thinking about how quickly the thousand dollars in my bank would be depleted.
"I'm joking." He started laughing. "It's on me. Welcome to New York City."
"Well, thank you, Oliver. I do appreciate it."
"I can be a nice guy sometimes." And then he gave me a long, warm smile. I could feel my heart flittering as I stared at him. "Yeah, I guess you can. Come on, let's go," I said, quickly walking ahead of him. I wasn't sure how I felt. It was like old times the way we bantered back and forth. Yet there was another level to our conversations that had never existed before. An understanding and intensity, a chemistry that hung in the air between us. If I wasn't mistaken, Oliver was attracted to me and that provided a buzz like I'd never felt before in my life, but I wasn't going to act on it. I wasn't going to let him think that just because I'd slimmed down and was hot now, he could have a chance. He didn't want me back then, and he certainly wouldn’t be able to have me now. No matter how badly my body wanted to get to know him better.
Chapter3
Oliver
Rosalie Sloane, fuck. I was in trouble. She looked hot as hell.
I clutched the parking ticket in my hand and went to the meter to pay. Rosalie was sitting in the passenger seat of my Honda Pilot, and all I could think about was how she'd blossomed into a beautiful butterfly. Not that she'd ever been ugly. I'd never thought that, but shit, I hadn't expected her to be a fucking bombshell.
I took a couple of deep breaths and put my ticket into the machine and waited for it to tell me how much I owed. I was in fucking trouble. Rosaliewas going to be living in the apartment with me, and for the first couple of weeks, Foster wasn't even going to be there. I knew I could not make a move. No matter how hard she made me. Foster would absolutely kill me. He’d made it clear since we were kids that his sister was off-limits, and I had to respect that. He was my best friend. And more than that, he was like my brother. "Fuck," I mumbled under my breath as I pressed the buttons to pay, waiting for the machine to return my card and the parking ticket.
I hadn't seen Rosalie in so long. She'd stopped talking to me, and I'd never really been sure why, but I hadn't reached out to find out. I'd figured it was for the best. She was off-limits in my life. And as she'd grown older, it had been harder and harder not to kiss her, not to tease her, not to flirt with her, not to grab her and pull her into my arms.
She'd always been a true romantic as a teenager. Always talking about what her first kiss would be like and how her first love would sweep her off her feet,dancing under the moonlight whilelistening to Frank Sinatra. She was a true romantic who loved old movies. And I’d always felt slightly sad for her, knowing that her idea of love would never come true because there was no perfect relationship. There was no perfect man. No man was going to sweep her off her feet.
I wondered if she'd ever found that with anyone. I wondered if she had a boyfriend. I hadn't wanted to ask Foster, and he never volunteered any information about his sister. It wasn't that he didn't love her or care about her. It just wasn't a topic of conversation. Yeah, he told me when she was going home and how she was doing in school, but nothing more than surface level. Walking back to the car, I opened the door and slid into the driver's seat. I looked over at Rosalie, who was glaring at me, her brown eyes full of an emotion I hadn't seen in a long time.
"What's wrong?" I said, turning the ignition and starting the car.
"I'm..." She paused and chewed on her lower lip. I stared at her plump, pink lips. She must have put on half a bottle of lip gloss in the last five seconds because it was practically oozing off her lips. And the car smelled like strawberries. I smiled to myself. That was something she hadn't grown out of. Rosalie had loved strawberry everything. Strawberry shampoo, strawberry body wash, strawberry lip gloss, strawberry body spray. I chuckled.
"What's so funny, Oliver?" she said, glaring at me.
"You know, if you keep glaring at me, your face will stay like that, and everyone's going to think you're a grump." I stared at her pouting lips. All I wanted to do was kiss them and see if they tasted like strawberries as well.
"I'm not glaring at you. I'm just..." she sputtered, her eyes narrowing.
"You're just what? Why are you pissed off at me?" I looked in the rearview mirror and made my way out of the parking lot. "We haven't seen each other in years, and you have a little attitude."
"I don't have an attitude. You didn't even know who I was."
"Yeah. So you've changed a little bit." I licked my lips and smiled to myself.
"I haven't changed that much, Oliver. I just can't believe you went up to another girl and assumed she was me."
"Is that why you're so upset?" I raised an eyebrow, turning to look at her as I made my way onto the freeway.
"I'm not upset. I'm just..."
"I'm sorry. I didn't know. You'd blossomed into a beautiful butterfly in the months I hadn't seen you."
"You know it's been more than months," she said, and my lips twitched at the indignant tone in her voice. I wanted to grab her neck and pull her toward me and kiss her. But I knew that would be the biggest mistake I could ever make. We'd barely seen each other for thirty minutes. There was no way I could do anything untoward. For all I knew, she'd call her brother and then her dad right away and get me in hot shit. And I didn't need that right now. I didn't need that ever.
“Uh-huh, whatever you say, Rosalie. Can we start afresh? It’s going to be a long couple of months if you’re going to be mad at me the entire time.” I looked over at her and noticed her staring at my face, wearing an inscrutable expression. I wasn’t sure what she was thinking, and I didn’t like that. I could normally read Rosalie like a book.
"So are we going to go and get those tacos or what?" she said, finally looking away andrubbing her stomach. "I'm hungry."
"I thought there was something else you wanted to say to me."
"No," she said in a long-drawn-out tone. I shook my head and decided not to pursue it.
