I closed and locked the door behind me, turning to Ollie and smiling awkwardly. I pulled off my coat and hung it by the door, feeling like I was a stranger in my own house. I took a deep breath and walked past him, heading to the kitchen to get a drink. At first, I was considering water, but from the revelations just made, I thought maybe something a bit stronger was in order. I pulled down two glasses and poured a shot of vodka in each. I felt like I had fallen down the rabbit hole, caught in an alternate universe, a world that was not my own. Ollie loved me. Just thinking those words were enough to disorient me, and for that, I knew I needed to take a drink.
He loved me. I mean, could it really be true? Could the man that I had wanted for many years finally have fallen in love with little old me? His dream was prophetic almost, and as he had told it to me, I could feel this weight just lifting off my shoulders. It was as if the ghost of Lillie that followed me had gone away, too, taking all the guilt, fear, and pain with her. I had looked around the bar realizing that I no longer felt that anxiety I would feel walking into a room soaked in memories. Then on top of all of that, Ollie had professed to me that he loved me.
In any other circumstance, I wouldn’t have believed him, but feeling that absolution, I couldn’t help but realize what he was saying was the truth. It was so much information that my emotions just went wild, taking over my mind and forcing me to release them right there in the restaurant. I was grateful that he had led me out of there before it turned into an ugly, embarrassing cry.
I put down my glass after shooting the vodka and took a deep breath. My eyes moved over to Ollie who was standing there staring at me, his face showing a nervous look, but one filled with love and curiosity. I walked over to him and stopped just inches from his body, thinking about what I wanted to say. I pulled my arms around his neck and looked deep into his eyes. He reached forward and cautiously placed his hands on my waist, looking back at me without thought or apprehension. I couldn’t help but think about the moment I had first really looked into Ollie’s eyes, the first time I actually thought of Ollie as his own entity and not just my best friend’s fiancé. He looked so handsome, but bewildered, running through the campus, plowing me to the ground and then running around, collecting all my papers as they blew toward the courtyard. It was definitely an interesting meeting.
“Ollie,” I said calmly. “Are you sure that you’re making the right decision? Because I don’t think that I can take it if we break things off again. I know that I made the choice, but I was so distraught, I haven’t been able to think of anything but you. It affected my job, my personal life, where I slept, everything. I went and stayed at my mom’s house, and at first, I thought it was to hide from you, but then I realized that I wanted to be comforted, to feel like I didn’t have to worry about being an adult for two seconds. I wasn’t even sure I was going to come out of this situation with the same vitality that I had walked into it with. I was completely spiraling downward, and although I knew it, I was helpless to stop it.”
He grabbed tighter around my waist and pulled me in closer, wrapping his arms tightly around me. I relaxed into him, feeling his body against mine and remembering how much I missed the smell of his cologne. He leaned his face against my cheek, and I sighed, not wanting him to ever let me go again. It was all so sudden and so completely unbelievable.
“I want to tell you a secret,” he whispered into my ear. “I have never felt this way about a woman before, Lillie included.”
I pulled my head back and looked into his eyes, completely shocked by his admittance of his feelings for me, and the ones he used to have for Lillie. I really never thought that anyone would care about me as much as Ollie had cared for Lillie. But now, he was admitting to me that he cared about me and felt stronger about me than any woman he had ever been with. I wasn’t even sure how to react.
“I loved your best friend,” he continued. “I don’t want you to think I didn’t. I would have happily married her, and I would have spent the rest of my life with her. But at the time, you have to remember, you weren’t in my romantic thoughts, at least not in the forefront of them. After spending so much time together, finding out who you really were, and bonding with you in this incredibly intense way, I realized that you have always been a better fit for me than Lillie was.”
I took in a deep breath, feeling the emotions flood through me. That was what I had thought ever since I first met him, but he was Lillie’s, and there was no way I was going to betray her. After a while, I just figured that it was wishful thinking on my part, just me trying to project my crush onto my personal pride, trying to make myself feel like I could ever actually have a man like Ollie. As it turned out, I had him before he even realized it.
“We do match together really well,” I said, smiling.
“I love your sense of humor,” he said. “It’s like a perfect match for my sarcastic attitude. We have similar interests, like football, traveling, books, comics, education, and so many other things. And man, I have to say that our sex is off the damn charts. I mean, I dream about it even right after we have it. We just know each other’s bodies, which sounds crazy since we’ve barely spent that kind of time together. There is just something about our connection. It’s like we both dial into the same frequency, even if we start in different places. Elana, I knew from the moment I woke up in your bed with you gone that I couldn’t even think about facing this world without you by my side. Call it fate, soul mates, kismet, whatever you want, but that is what you are to me.”
“You’re so romantic this evening,” I said, smiling. “It’s almost like I won a bet or something.”
“If the prize is me loving you forever,” he said. “If it’s knowing that you’re the only one I want now, tomorrow, and for the rest of my life, then yes, you definitely won the bet.”
“Can I slip in there something about servitude?”
“You can put anything you want in there as long as it means that I get to have you as my partner for the rest of my life,” he replied, chuckling. “Though, I can’t promise I will always do the dishes.”
“Ugh, that’s it,” I said, throwing my arms in the air. “I knew there was fine print.”
“Come here,” he growled, laughing. “I’m not going to put this in a contract, and if you try to use it against me, I will deny the whole thing, but if having you means dishes for life, I’ll go get myself some dish gloves and a sponge because I’m ready for it.”
“Wow,” I gasped. “That is some serious commitment. I mean, I’m all about everything you have said, but I’ll be honest, if you said dishes were my duty in return for having you the rest of my life, I might have to take a second to think about it.”
“Oh, yeah?”
“Yeah, I mean I have to keep up my reputation.” She laughed. “Dishes make my hands all soft and satiny smooth. What if someone were to notice?”
“Like who? The library mafia?”
“Shhh,” I said, putting my finger to his lips. “Careful. They will hear you. I don’t want to end up in the stacks, if you know what I mean.”
He laughed loudly, leaning in and kissing me on the cheek. As he pulled back, I could feel the fire surge through his eyes. I put my arms back around his neck and looked him deep in the eyes.
“I love you, Ollie,” I whispered. “Forever.”
He pulled me in and pressed his lips against mine, kissing me passionately. Immediately, he scooped me up into his arms, cradling me, and heading out of the kitchen and toward the stairs. He climbed up to the top and walked into my bedroom, kicking the door shut behind us. As soon as my feet touched the floor, his lips were on my neck, his hands on my breasts, and our bodies were just centimeters apart. The lust filled us both, and we instantly knew we had to be entangled, feeling our bare skin against each other. I reached down and unbuttoned his pants, slowly pulling the zipper down and letting them drop to his ankles. He pulled my shirt over my head and scooped my breasts out of my bra, putting his lips around my erect nipples. I moaned loudly, and he pulled back, undoing my pants as I unclasped my bra and threw it to the side.
I smiled, backing up and laying down on the bed, my legs spread wide apart. He pulled his shirt and boxers off, not wanting to waste any time with nonsense. He climbed forward, putting his arms around my thighs and grabbing my panties, pulling them down my body and tossing them to the floor. He grabbed his cock and pushed it toward me, feeling the warmth of my wet pussy. We couldn’t move fast enough, our hands all over each other as he thrust his hips forward and buried himself deep inside of me. I gasped out, leaning my head backward and bending my legs at the hip. I fell backward onto the bed and pulled him down on top of me, kissing him wildly as he fucked me deeply and passionately.
“Yes,” I screamed out, showing all the signs of being close to coming.
He put his hands down on both sides of my shoulders and pushed his torso up, diving his hips down and feeling my body take him in. Over and over again, his hips pushed, and the air filled with my wildly loud moans and screams. His breath was heavy. He leaned down and kissed me deeply, feeling the vibrations of his groans pushing down my throat. He reached his arm do
wn and grabbed my thigh, pulling my leg up to his side. He slowed his pace but began to roll his hips into me, his body rubbing against my clit like waves in the ocean.