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The tone she used, as if I were a child she needed to chastise, ground into my nerves and before I could stop myself, I cut her off.
“Thank you for warning me, I understand that it comes from a good place, but I’m not looking for anything with Oliver aside from friendship.”
She relaxed a bit, and then I hit her with the second part. “Even if I had been though, Oliver isn’t the kind of man I would be worried about. I’ve dated those types before–cheaters and abusers–and he isn’t one of them. He may flirt, but that’s hardly the end of the world.”
Thankfully the periods of dating said cheaters and abusers hadn’t been long. Once I’d realized their true colors, I’d run as far and fast as I could. From experience, I could say that Oliver wasn’t the type. If he was, he wouldn’t have stepped between Doug and I, or be so protective when he thought someone was bothering me at work.
He was too…himfor that.
Emily deflated, visibly knocked off course by my defense of Oliver as she shook her head. “If you insist, just don’t get hurt…”
I bit back a sigh. What exactly had Oliver done to earn this?
Putting it to the side to ask him later, I nodded to Emily more to make her stop talking than anything else. “I’ll be careful; now I need to get back to work.”
I was gone before she could get another word in, and thankfully the rest of the shift passed without any other attempted interventions. I could feel her eyes on me as I worked but as long as she dropped it, she could stare all she wanted.
Just as I hung up my waitress apron and grabbed my bag, two familiar faces waved from the front of the restaurant, pulling me up short.
“Hey, Jen!” Sara called, a wide smile curling her lips as she waved enthusiastically. Oliver waved with equal amounts of enthusiasm, and all heads in the place were turned toward them. Ignoring the heat burning across my cheeks at the display, I smiled and waved back.
Once I stood in front of them, I spoke. “I’m surprised you guys are still here.” I thought I’d seen them leave earlier, but apparently not.
Sara shrugged. “I wanted to talk to you more, but I didn’t want to interrupt your work.” Then a sly glint came to her eyes. “I also wanted to ask more about that whole scene with you defending my brother.”
The heat came back with a vengeance and Oliver sighed, shaking his head. “Sara, she was just being nice. I don’t have enough friends for you to be scaring them off.”
As the two dropped into another round of bickering, what he said snagged my attention. Oliver was, from what I’d seen, the kind of person who pulled people into him. He was bright, happy, and protective.
So why didn’t he have a lot of friends?
Remembering Emily’s reaction earlier, a niggling suspicion began to hatch. Something had happened, and whatever it was? It’d given him a bad reputation.
But no matter how hard I tried to imagine Oliver doing something to warrant that kind of reaction, I couldn’t.
Shaking all of it to the side, I made a note to ask him at some point. Now wasn’t the time though, so I pasted on a smile and cut into the sibling bickering.
“I appreciate you two staying so long just to talk to me, but can we move this somewhere else? I’ve been on my feet for hours.”
Sara winced, sympathy clear. “Sorry about us, we always were the ones to bicker in the family.” Then she moved for the door, waving over her shoulder as she went. “Do you feel like going out of town? I know an awesome arcade.”
My feet pulsed in disagreement to the idea, but under the physical discomfort, longing hit. Oliver wasn’t the only one without friends, and it’d be a lie to say I didn’t want them. Sara seemed nice, and right now? I could use that.
So, ignoring the pain, I followed with a nod. “I’m up for it.”
Arcades usually weren’t my thing, but I could at least give it a try.
Oliver hovered on my other side, speaking low enough that I could just barely hear him over his sister. “I’m sorry about her. If you want to head home, feel free to say so. Neither of us will be hurt by it.”
I nodded, responding just as quietly. “Thank you, but I don’t think it’ll be a problem. I like you two, and I miss being around friends.”
He hesitated, something flashing behind his eyes that I couldn’t name, then he shook himself and smiled. “Well then, let this be my treat. I was already planning on paying for her since it’s her birthday.”
I opened my mouth to argue against that, but Sara turned and cut in, that glint in her eyes still present and sparkling.
“It’s not worth the fight, Jen. Trust me on this; just let him have his way. He does this with people he likes.”
Something about her tone made me think there was more to that statement than what met the eye, and Oliver stiffened as if that were true, but when neither of them seemed inclined to share, I shrugged it off.
