29. Olivia
DAY FOUR OF THE 2024 OLYMPICS
Olivia shuffled away from Zeke and glanced down at her phone to check the caller ID.
“It’s my best friend,” said Olivia. A part of her wanted to let the phone ring out and slide back over to the other side of the elevator. But she and Aditi were both in a foreign country. What if it was an emergency and she actually needed to reach her?
“Hey, are you okay?” Olivia asked as she answered the video call.
“Are you okay?” said Aditi from the other side of the phone. “You usually text me every three minutes when you’re on your way home. I hope the radio silence is because you’re having fun, not because you’re in a dark room somewhere staring at your screen applying for jobs and muttering about how much you hate… Wait, where are you?” Aditi was peering at the screen.
“I’m in a lift. I’m stuck in a lift,” Olivia said.
“Oh no, are you with someone? How are you getting phone service? Do you need me to call Village Security?” Aditi asked. She said it like she was concerned, but Olivia could see the delight in her eyes. This was exactly the kind of thing that happened in the K-Dramas they watched on Friday nights.
“I’m fine,” Olivia said.
“The technician should be here in, like, five minutes, right?” said Zeke. But before Olivia could reply, she saw the look of glee on Aditi’s face.
“Wait, is that a boy? Are you stuck in the lift with a boy?”
Olivia closed her eyes in embarrassment. Zeke looked amused; Olivia bit her lip to maintain her composure.
“Olivia, pass the phone over to whoever you’re with right now. I need to warn them about how intense you get when you have to deal with a situation you can’t control for more than ten minutes,” said Aditi.
Zeke shuffled closer, and Olivia shook her head in defeat as the side of his face came into the frame. Aditi’s eyes and mouth widened.
“Zeke Moyo? Oh my God,” said Aditi. “Wait, Olivia hates you.”
Olivia tried to silence Aditi with just her eyes, but it didn’t work.
“Oh, I already know,” Zeke said. “She quite literally slid down the wall when she realized she was going to be stuck in here with me.” Nobly, he failed to mention that she’d also just climbed on top of him so she could kiss him from a better angle.
“Well, I think you might have a smudge of something on your lips, Zeke. Something red?” Aditi said, not so subtly pointing out the lipstick stains around Zeke’s mouth.
“I’m hanging up now,” said Olivia.
“Thin lines, right?” Aditi said with a wicked smile.
“Bye, Aditi,” said Olivia as she ended the call. She put her phone in her pocket and looked anywhere but at Zeke.
“Thin lines?” Zeke asked.
Olivia had no intention of giving him an answer. And, luckily, the emergency intercom in the lift buzzed before he could ask again.
“Hey, Giannis… yep, I’m here,” she said, trying to make her voice sound upbeat and casual to distract herself from the fact that her whole body was drawing her back to Zeke, to finish what they’d started. She could still remember the feeling of Zeke’s hands running up and down her sides, the dizzying effect of his lips, and just how breathless she’d been when they’d let go. The tension between them was still lingering in the air. Olivia knew that if the lift doors stayed closed, there would be no stopping what they’d put into motion.
But she didn’t have to test the limits of her self-control because the lift was moving again; Giannis had reached the building and reset the system. The lift was finally at the ground floor, the doors opening. Olivia was so relieved to breathe fresh air again that she immediately stood up and began to walk out.
“Forgetting something?” Zeke asked as he pointed at the painting of Arlo. She’d almost left it in her rush to escape the complicated feelings she could sense herself beginning to form toward Zeke. Who was she kidding? The complicated feelings she’d been forming ever since they’d fallen onto the ground together that first day.
It was the blue hour when Olivia and Zeke stepped out of the building. The sky was a haze, and the bright yellow streetlights that were beginning to turn on made it feel like they were floating in an otherworldly window between day and night. The air was thick with a heady sense of possibility. They could so easily get swept away.
“That’s my turning,” she said, breaking the silence as they reached the bend in the path that would take her to the shuttle bus.
“Okay, will you be all right getting back? There’s just one shuttle an hour, right?” he asked. Both of them were looking everywhere but at each other.
“Yeah, the next one is in fifteen minutes,” she said, checking her phone.
“Text me when you get home?” he said with a gentleness that startled her.
“I don’t have…” She trailed off. He put his hand out and she gave him her phone, then he gave her his. They saved numbers and swapped their phones back, fingers gently grazing as they made their returns.
But as soon as she took her first step toward the other path, he reached for her hand. His touch was gentle but firm. Her heartbeat began to quicken. His hand was a question, and whatever she did next would be the answer.
If Olivia had taken the stairs instead of the lift, she would have gone straight home in time to catch Aditi watching a rerun of that afternoon’s Olympic beach volleyball game. If Zeke had taken the stairs instead of the lift, he probably would have put his trainers on and gone straight out for a run.
If the lift hadn’t got stuck somewhere between the seventh floor and the ground floor, they would have just exchanged a few words and then walked back out into the Village, too busy with their own lives and worries to spend time thinking about the person they kept bumping into. But that’s not how it had played out.
The thing with magnets was that as much as they tried to resist each other, hold back their power, face in opposite directions and try to stay apart, the force of attraction would always win. They could both feel the gravitational pull.
Olivia turned around and looked at Zeke. Zeke pulled her closer to him. Their lips felt hot against each other like they were two forces colliding in the most magnetic, passionate chemical reaction. As if their lips were specifically designed to meld together. But this kiss was different. He kissed her softly, like she was something precious. Gently stroking her hair and holding her close as if what stood between them was too delicate to rush. She kissed him slowly, savoring each moment. Lightly running her hands up and down his back, pulling him closer, and placing delicate kisses on his lips with a tender intimacy that surprised her. She was as comfortable with him as if she’d known him all her life, but with each touch, kiss, and sigh her body felt completely electrified.
The energy between them inside the elevator had been so intense that she’d almost been able to convince herself it was just a physical thing, a natural human response to being stuck in an enclosed space with someone she was attracted to. After all, Zeke was ridiculously hot, an insanely good kisser, and she was an adult woman with wants and desires. But as they kissed under a lamppost, she realized that it wasn’t just lust. Lust was easy, lust had a clear solution. No, as she gently kissed the soft area around his mouth, she knew her feelings for Zeke were much more complicated than that. Olivia liked Zeke Moyo. And that realization kind of terrified her. As he planted tender kisses on her cheek, held her close, and looked down at her with a kind of startled adoration, she realized that he might feel the same way too. Which terrified her even more. So, she gently disentangled herself from him and let go. She looked at Zeke and the lipstick stain she’d left on his lips. The creases on his shirt and the buttons at the top she was pretty sure she’d unbuttoned. They stood in silence for a moment. And then she reached down, put her bag on her shoulder, and placed the canvas back in her hands.
“The shuttle,” she said. Her heart threatened to run out of her chest.
“Only once an hour,” he said.
She turned around and walked down the path toward the shuttle bus, fighting the urge to turn back and look at him one more time.
Olivia could still taste him on her lips.