Jewel Ann - Idle Bloom

“Wait! You’re not walking across the street wearing only my shirt.”

“Chill, Oli. I have dresses that show more leg than I’m showing right now.” She blows me a kiss and shuts the door.

I didn’t need to know that.

Vivian

I hate leaving Oli, especially when we were getting ready to have sex again. I love sex with Oli. If I had a car I’d get a bumper sticker that said so. Maybe I should get a tattoo that says it. Maybe not. Then again, what if it’s not Oli? What if I just love sex? I mean, sex addiction is real. Could I have it? How would I know?

I tiptoe down his front steps in my bare feet and halt when I look up. Across the street Kai sits on my steps.

“I said I’d come to your place.” I stop at the bottom of the steps in front of him.

His eyes search the length of my body. “You also said you were at home.”

“No, I said I was getting ready to take a shower.”

Kai clenches his jaw, dark eyes glaring at me. “Please tell me you didn’t give him your …”

“My what? Virginity?”

Kai doesn’t respond.

“It’s none of your business.” I march up the stairs, past him, to the door. “Did Kate kick you out of your own place? Is that why you’re here instead of waiting for me to come to you?”

He follows me inside and shuts the door. “No, she moved out two days ago.”

I turn. “What the hell? Then why did you call me at five-thirty in the morning acting all pissed off and distraught like she literally just walked out on you?”

“Were you at his house all night? Is that his shirt?”

I shake my head. “Wh-what are you talking about? Why are you asking me this? I thought you needed to see me right away.”

“Just answer the question!”

“What question?” I’m so confused. We’re supposed to be talking about Kate but he’s not said her name even once.

“Did you sleep with him?”

“Yes! Jeez, why do you care?”

He paces the length of the room. “I don’t want you to get hurt.”

Crossing my arms over my chest, I laugh. “You do see the irony in you saying that to me, right?

He sighs. “God! I’m sorry, I messed up. I’ve said it a million times. What more can I say? What more can I do?”

“Nothing! That’s just it. I don’t expect you to do anything. I’m not asking for you to apologize anymore. But don’t ask me to spend the rest of my life reassuring you that it’s okay. I’m fine. I’m moving on and so should you.”

“Viv—”

“Don’t Viv me. Now, do you want to talk about Kate?”

He shakes his head.

“Go home, Kai. I have to get to work.”

* * *

When my dad was too busy working, Kai taught me how to ride my bike without training wheels. He lived four houses down from us, and I’m pretty sure I loved him from the moment he split his grape twin Popsicle with me after I took my first two-wheeled spill. We were inseparable. I played ninjas with him and he played house with me. He was my first kiss and I was his. We were seven and our moms had us kiss for a photo on Valentine’s Day, but it still counted. I wanted to be Kai’s first everything and him to be mine.

Me: Sorry I skipped out so early. I REALLY wanted to stay :)

Oli: Lunch?

Me: Can’t, Maggie is gone today.

Oli: You’re alone?

Me: Just me and the Cannabis.

Oli: What?

Me: For medicinal purposes of course.

Oli: Funny

Me: It is?

Oli: I’ll see you in an hour.

Me: :)!!!!!!

“I had to bring my sidekick. We’ll have to reschedule our nooner. Sorry, Viv.” Chance comes through the door first, carrying a pizza box.

I untie my green apron and wink walking past him and straight into Oliver’s arms. He hugs me and lifts me off the ground laying a long, sound kiss on my lips. “Hi.”

“Hi.” He grins.

I kiss one dimple and then the other.

“What are you doing?”

“Kissing your adorable dimples.”

He shakes his head and releases me to the ground. “Not the dimples.”

I slip my hands into his back pockets. “Oli, you count my freckles for heaven’s sake. I think that entitles me to kiss and swoon over your dimples.”

“Oli?” Chance turns around with a huge grin. “You let her call you Oli?”

“Zip it!”

I look back and forth between them. Oliver frowns with a scowl of warning while Chance feigns innocence with his single-dimpled grin.

“Would someone please explain what the big deal is? Oli is the common nickname for Oliver.”

Chance moves his gaze to me. “Oliver’s first girlfriend when he was … What were you? Nine? Ten?”

Oliver continues to glare.

“Anyway, her name was Molly. Oli and Molly sitting in a tree—”

Oliver begins to close the distance with his fists clenched at his sides.

Chance holds up his hands. “Okay, okay … I digress, said tree is still in our parents’ backyard with O plus M equals heart carved into it. Molly broke his heart a week later when she left him for Tommy who was a year older and, in her words, ‘had grown out of his boyhood name and was now going by Thomas.’ That’s the day Oli became Oliver and he threatened to beat up anyone who ever tried to call him Oli again.”

I laugh. “Is this true?”

Oliver looks down at me and nods just once.

“My point …” Chance speaks up, “… is that you must have some serious pussy power over him if he’s letting you call him Oli.”

“Shut up. You’re so crude.”

Inside I’m rolling around, holding my belly. After last night, I know that both the Konrad boys have the same dirty thoughts going through their mind. The only difference being Oliver is more refined, showing restraint and using a filter for his thoughts before they reach his mouth—except when he’s drunk.

Chance folds his slice of pizza toward the middle and shoves half of it in his mouth.

“So did you get this weekend off?” I pick the black olives off my slice of pizza.

They both look at me in confusion.

“Cape Cod? This weekend? Alex and Sean invited us to go with them?”

Oliver chews in slow motion, squinting his eyes.

“I asked you yesterday at Dunks.”

Chance chokes on his pizza. Oliver shakes his head and rolls his eyes. I see what I’m not supposed to hear.

“You told him?”

Oliver shakes his head while swallowing what’s in his mouth. Chance snickers, refusing to make eye contact with me.

“You told him!”

“No, I didn’t. I only told him I knocked over my coffee, that’s all. I swear. I don’t know why he’s acting like a dumb-ass who knows something he really doesn’t.”

I glare at Chance. He holds up one finger as he swallows. “True. When he showed up for work he told me he spilled his coffee.”

Oliver lifts his shoulders with a wide-eyed I-told-you-so look.

“But … he shared a different much more interesting story after his fourth beer last night.” Chance wiggles his eyebrows and I want to die.

Now Oliver chokes. “I did … not!”

“Yeah, ya did, Bro. And I suspect there’s more to the cut on your head story, but we’ll save that for the next round of beers. By the way, Viv, you can take me out to breakfast anytime you want.” He winks.

I don’t question Chance because I too got quite the earful of Oliver’s uncensored beer lips last night.

Oliver shakes his head and chuckles. “How is it that I’m getting so much grief about this, like I did something wrong? Was public humiliation, hot coffee in my lap, and a trip to the emergency room not enough to warrant a pardon for the few indiscretions I may have had?”

Grabbing the neck of his T-shirt, I pull him closer and kiss his cut. “I forgive you, Oli.”

“Gee, thanks.”

“So, what I was trying to tell you yesterday is that Sean’s family has a place in Cape Cod and we’ve been invited to go with him and Alex to stay there for the weekend.” I look at Chance. “That is, if your boss will give you the weekend off.”

“Oliver doesn’t ask me for anything. It’s not up to me if he goes.” Chance tosses the pizza box in the trash. “Wrap it up, I’ll meet you in the truck. Thanks for the nooner, Viv.”

“Bye, Chance.” I look at Oliver, trying to decipher what his expressionless face means. “So you’ll go this weekend?”

“I don’t know. A weekend away with your friends, that’s …”

“What? Fun? Relaxing?”

“Serious.”

“Serious?” I twist my lips to the side and take a step back, leaning against the checkout counter. “Okay, well I’m still going.”

He nods. “You should. They’re your friends and you’ll probably have a lot of fun.”

“I’d have more fun if you were going.” I’m disappointed and hurt, but I’m only letting him see the disappointment. Somewhere over the past few weeks I thought we’d established an unspoken understanding that our relationship was serious—evidently not.

He holds out his hand, I take it, and allow him to pull me into his arms. “I have to go, but I’ll see you later.”

With a kiss and a smile, he’s out the door. I berate myself for feeling so let down. Oliver is everything I never expected. Asking for more is slapping mercy in the face. I’ll take every look, every touch, and every whisper he’s willing to give me. The problem is the only place I have to keep them is my heart.

* * *

Oliver

The morning sun has become the opening act for the real star of my days—Vivian. She’s this blinding light that makes me forget where I’ve been and not care where I’m going. I don’t know what we are, we just are.

“You’re going to miss me.” She slips on her sundress, without underwear. I prop my head up with my hands laced behind my head, enjoying the view from my bed.

“I am, so you should stay tonight so I can get my fill before you leave.”

She slingshots her lace panties at me. “Keep those as a souvenir. I can’t stay, I have to pack tonight. Kai is picking me up at six in the morning.”

“Kai?” I prop up on my elbows and can’t help but grin as she wets her lips with her gaze on my flexed abs.

“Uh … yes, I’m riding with him because Alex and Sean left yesterday.”

“So just you and Kai?”

“Yes. Kate was supposed to go too, but since the breakup she’s obviously not going and you’re not going, so it will be the four of us.” She kisses me and I harden again with the simple slip of her tongue. “Bye, Oli,” she whispers.

She’s on her back and I’m hovering over her in a breath of time that doesn’t exist between us.

“Oli!”

“I changed my mind.” My hands slide up her silky legs, taking her dress with them. “You don’t need to spend time with your friends.” The moment my lips find hers, she relaxes her legs and I sink into her. A soft moan escapes as she wraps her long legs around my waist. It feels like her body is telling mine to lead the way, that she’ll go anywhere I go.

After I take her with the same depraved greed with which I stole her innocence, I watch her walk out my door. She looks back just once and I see stars in her emerald eyes. They’re filled with dreamy illusions, like she knows me, but … she doesn’t. I wish to God she did.

* * *

I never know what the sunrise will reveal. Sometimes the bright blue sky brings a sense of clarity. Sometimes I see hidden messages in the dull reddish-orange horizon. Other days the clouds morph into a question mark, no doubt symbolic of my recent state of being. Today, however, the message is clear. The woman who has infiltrated my life in every way possible is not going to Cape Cod with Kai and not me.

My bag is packed and loaded into my trunk. I lean against the driver’s door as Kai pulls up in his gray Honda.

“Kai, is it?” I offer my hand as he gets out. “I’m Oliver Konrad. We met at The Green Pot.”

He stares at my hand a moment before shaking it. “You up early just to tell Viv goodbye?”