AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Jackson leaned forward slightly. “What isthis?”
“You know…doing something that is clearlynotgoing to lead to a one night stand.”
“Ah,” was all Jackson said before he went back to his food and Ollie huffed, because he’d managed to makeherfeel awkward about herself for a change.
They continued to eat in silence and every so often, Ollie would lift her head and find Jackson watching her, but instead of looking away, he’d smile and keep his eyes on her. Men did this often—stare at her till she responded to them, and it usually led to lewd remarks and suggestions for them to hook up. With Jackson, it was almost like he didn’t expect anything from her. Well, other than a chance to be around her. Which was another new thing. Ollie didn’t know how to behave around Jackson when he liked being in her company.
Ollie dropped her fork, making it clatter against the counter. Jackson startled, looking at her in confusion. She sighed heavily, “I hate silences, they’re awkward and long and frustrating.”
“Are you sure you’re talking about silences?”
Ollie sputtered out a laugh as she replayed her sentence, “I have met awkward and frustrating penises too, yes.”
He smiled and pushed his food away, reaching for a bottle of water and Ollie watched. Was drinking water supposed to be erotic? Jackson lifted the bottle to his lips, tipped his head back and chugged. His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed and his jaw tightened with the same action and Ollie found herself licking her lips and tilting her head to watch the whole thing unfold. Just as he lowered the bottle, she blinked and shifted her attention to the tiramisu.
As Ollie cut the giant chunk of tiramisu into half and put one on a plate for Jackson, he cleared his throat to get her attention, “Tell me about your name.”
“What about it?”
“I don’t think I’ve ever met an Oleander before.”
Ollie smiled, really starting to love the way her name sounded rolling off of Jackson’s tongue. “My parents were somewhere in California when they came across a shrub. My mom liked the flowers and my dad was going to pluck a few when someone told them it was poisonous. But my mom loved the name and stuck with it.”
“You’re named after a poisonous shrub?”
“I’m beautiful and deadly and you won’t know it until you touch me.”
“I can attest to that.” Jackson smirked, playfully reaching across the table to touch her arm, hissing as he pulled away. “Unlike you, I inherited my name from my dad’s grandfather.”
“And a fine name it is. At least it’s a common name, kids at school called me all kinds of things.”
“Kids are assholes anyway. Who cares what they said about you?”
“I did! Well, at the time I did. It felt good to meet Frankie, who didn’t use her given name and we got clubbed as the girls with boys names.”
“Ollie and Frankie. You should have started a band.”
Ugh, she even liked the way he said her nickname. “And kill people everywhere since neither of us can hold a tune.”
Jackson laughed. “That’s why they invented auto-tune.”
Ollie smiled and shook her head, finishing off her tiramisu before sliding off the stool to rinse everything out. She turned around to reach for the other dishes and found Jackson watching her again. “What?”
“Can I take you out this weekend?”
Ollie arched an eyebrow at him. “You’re not going to stop until I say yes, are you?”
“I will stop if you want me to stop, I feel like we’re having fun together and it would be a waste to not even see where this could go.”
“Where do you see this going?” Ollie arched an eyebrow and rinsed out the plates and carried everything to the dishwasher and loaded it up.
“A couple more dates, maybe?”
“No coffee date, though.”
Jackson nodded, a wide smile splitting his face. “I was thinking more like a food truck festival.”
Ollie was very excited at the thought of food trucks. “That is so cool. I say yes to a food truck festival.”
