AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“And Jo is the woman, I know.”
“Not anymore.” I look beyond Ollie. Amir, RJ, and some of the other deckhands have joined Jo, Alex, and Britt at the table. Amir says something that makes everyone but RJ laugh. The look RJ gives him could fillet him alive. At least I’m not the only one who’s miserable tonight.
Ollie doesn’t say anything else. When I look up at him again, I catch the soft smile he saves only for me. Being near him is like sighing into my couch when I first get home from charter season. We haven’t spent much time together since he moved from Palm Beach to Miami. He’s only an hour and a half away, but the restaurant keeps him busy, and I’ve avoided driving down to see him ever since the last time I ended up in his bed.
For the last year, my friendship with Ollie has consisted of phone calls on his drive home from work. Most nights, unless I’m working late on the boat, he calls just as I’ve gotten into bed. I always put the phone on speaker and close my eyes as we talk, mostly about nothing. The restaurant, the yacht, weird Craigslist listings. By the time I hear Ollie unlock his apartment door, I’m half-asleep, lulled there by the sound of his voice.
It sounds like a capital-RRelationship, but it’s not. I don’t know what to call it. The phone calls and occasional hook-ups are all I can give. They’re enough for me. But this phase, the one in which we can be friends, lasts only so long before Ollie is itching for more, something with a label. And when I refuse, he’ll pull away from me again. We won’t talk for months, maybe a year. He always says he’s done, and sometimes he finds someone else, someone he really likes. But it’s no use. We always find ourselves back here, walking this in-between place like a balance beam.
“Did you miss me?” he asks.
“We spoke yesterday. Though you failed to mention you’d be here.”
“Wasn’t sure I’d come. But I like to see the faces you make when you tease me.”
“Teasing? Me? Never.” I rest my hands on his shoulders. “You’re built like a hunky fridge,” I say. My hands slide down his arms to give his biceps a squeeze. He laughs, and I shoot him a glare. “What? You’re frigid, and bulky, and occasionally provide food.” I’m making quite the spectacle of myself tonight. Maybe it’s time to give up the tequila.
“That face. Right there,” Ollie says. He presses his thumb to my mouth. “And you say you don’t tease me.”
My heart is doing moves now that would be physically impossible for anyone but Simone Biles. I take Ollie’s hand in mine and squint at his palm like a fortune-teller. I know the callus at the base of his forefinger. I can map out the small scars and discolored burns that run up his hands and arms. Even when I don’t want to, I think of them whenever someone else touches me. It’s a real mood killer.
“No new injuries, I see.”
“Not on this hand.”
“And the other?”
He puts his other hand in mine, and I spot a new burn right away, just behind the knuckle of his pinky finger. “New line cook doesn’t look where he’s fecking going,” he says.
“I wish you’d be more careful,” I say, but I regret it as soon as Ollie’s smile becomes a smirk.
“So, you did miss me.”
“I didn’t say that.” And really, what does he care if I missed him or not? What would it change about anything?
“I’m seventy percent sure you did,” Ollie says.
Ollie’s hands feel so good in mine after months apart that I don’t care that what I’m about to suggest will only make the situation between us murkier. “Do you want to play a game?” I ask.
“What game?”
“Truth or dare.”
He raises his eyebrows. “Oh. Sure.” He squints at me. “Truth or dare, Nina Lejeune?”
“No,” I say. “I go first.”
Ollie rolls his eyes. “Why do you always get to make the rules?”
“Because I suggested the game.”
“All right, all right. You go.”
“Truth or dare?” I ask.
Ollie’s eyes are bright with mischief. “Dare,” he says.
“I dare you to come outside with me,” I say.
