20. Liv
CHAPTER TWENTY
LIV
I am freed on Thursday. Callum drops me off in time for my classes on his way to work, kissing me in front of the university.
I could get used to this.
He picks me up after work, and does the same the next day, and—following a sinfully lazy weekend in his hall—the Monday after that. I’m pretty sure that by Wednesday, I am used to it.
“I have a room, you know,” I mention, in case he forgot that fact.
I’ve only dropped by my dorm to change clothes and pick up course work over the last week.
“I don’t think my neck will ever forget your bed,” Callum retorts. “The only way I’ll ever sleep in your dorm is if you let me change the damn bed.”
After a week in his expensive furniture, I’m tempted to allow it, but I just say, “Or you could sleep in your bed, and I could sleep in mine, occasionally.”
Even I don’t like the thought of that.
“Don’t wanna.”
Me neither, so I let it drop.
The next day, I stop being invisible. Overnight, people go from completely ignoring my existence to saying hi to me in the corridors, or stranger yet, pointing and staring.
It’s not until I check my phone at lunch that I learn why.
Grace: OMG!!! Is it true you moved in with Cal??
Lucinda: Good on you, girl.
Grace: Why am I learning that from a magazine?? You’re losing sister points.
Bella: What magazine? I want the gossip!
Astrid: link
Astrid: Spill, girlfriend.
Before composing a reply, I click on Astrid’s link, and read a three-page piece detailing how I have been picked up and dropped off every day by none other than Callum Noble.
Who is the future earl’s new live-in wonder, you wonder? Meet Olivia, nineteen, student at the Anderia Royal University, Mr. Noble’s undergrad alma mater before he crossed the sea to ? —
It says very little about me, sticking to my valedictorian status and my course schedule at school, blissfully skipping the pole dancing. God bless crooks who love to pay cash. There aren’t many records of my former employment. I can only imagine how problematic that would have been for Callum. He might not care about it, but I imagine he would certainly mind his image being ruined over it.
I quickly return to the group chat.
Me: I haven’t moved in. We’ve just been hanging out.
Grace: Every day??
Me: Only for a week.
Bella: But every day?
I don’t have any choice but to admit as much.
All the girls go crazy, sending many emojis.
Grace: Drinks tonight? You can tell us all about it.
Lucinda: If your sex god lets you out of his cave, that is.
I accept the drinks.
The rest of my inbox is just as insane.
Tricks: CALLUM NOBLE?? Jesus, warn a girl, would you! And WELL DONE!
Jinx: Is it true? I know the media can be stupid. Tell me it’s true, pretty please. I want to live vicariously through your Cinderella story.
I laugh at both, and spontaneously decide to invite them for drinks with the other girls. They’re all in the same school anyway. Jinx and Tricks can’t afford the fifty-buck cocktails we’ll sip at my sister’s favorite club, but there’s no way I’ll let them pay.
I send the information to the girls, and Bella’s the first to answer.
Bella: Wonderful. I love J and T.
Grace: I don’t know them well. Let’s change that.
The others acquiesce too, if a little reluctantly: a thumbs-up and a “no problem.”
I muse at the different greetings; those four have been lovely to me, but I don’t really think they like my other dance school friends, except for Bella.
Then I think back to Jinx, who’s extremely awkward, to the point of weirdness, and Tricks.
Tricks…is loud.
I might love the attention, as Callum so likes to point out, but I don’t like it on me all the time. Just when I dance and do other, mostly naked things. Tricks was the most popular girl in our old middle school. She was never mean or a bully, but she did always like to draw the eye, and well, it didn’t make her loved by other girls; especially when she batted her pretty lashes and flirted with their boyfriend.
We got close because we were the two principal dancers in her mom’s school; I ended up being favored over Jinx when we were about thirteen, because I took ballet seriously and Jinx preferred to attend comic cons and read manga. Tricks and I ended up spending a lot of time together for years. She never did anything to hurt me, but that doesn’t mean she was a saint.
I regret my impulse, but there’s nothing I can do about it now that the invitation is sent.
I tell Callum I’m hanging out with the girls tonight, and to my surprise, he doesn’t try to stop me or barge in. I half expected him to. He can be pushy.
Callum: I’ll pick you up. Text when you’re done?
Me: You could let me go home, you know.
Callum: We could do that…I remember how fun you can be when you’re drunk. Go home. Leave the door open. I’ll see you when you’re asleep ;)
And now my panties are ruined in the middle of the day. Great.
On my way to the bar, I’m worrying about what Tricks could possibly have done to earn their scorn, when a voice makes me stop dead in my tracks.
“Hey, Olivia! Wait up.”
Shit .
If I had to compose a list of the people I don’t want to see again, my father would have been number one. Yet, although it’s definitely not his part of town, there’s no denying that my drunk of a sperm donor is crossing the street, waving at me like we’re a happy, happy family.
Someone shoot me.
I’m almost at the bar, and all of a sudden, I freeze, not wanting to bring him any closer. Shit. Grace is there. She hasn’t seen his abusive ass since she was a toddler for a reason. It’s one thing for me to deal with him—I have my entire life—but I don’t want to bring his attention to her.
Squashing my instinct to run, get into the bar, and tell whatever security that he’s bothering me, I stay put.
“What do you want?”
“Is that how you greet your old man?” he drawls.
“ Yes . What do you want—money?” I guess, knowing that there likely is no other reason why he would have approached me.
He saw the article, somehow. Maybe someone he knows, someone in the building, brought it to his attention. He’s guessing I have some cash, or at least, access to it through a man, and he wants a cut.
“Now you mention it…” He scratches his chin. “Had a bad hand at poker. You understand. I wondered if you’d mind helping out your old man.”
“I would mind,” I snap, knowing it’s the only way forward.
If I give in and hand him anything at all, he’ll never leave me alone.
“I’m at school on a scholarship and live in the dorm, Dad. I don’t have spare cash to bankroll your habits.”
A lie, but one so believable he doesn’t question it.
“What about that man of yours?”
“No one asks for cash from their boyfriend for their drunk of a father. Get lost, Dad. You’re getting nothing from me.”
“Hey now, wait a?—”
“Is this man bothering you, love?”
I blink, startled. But indeed, Callum just appeared at the corner of the street. He walks towards us smoothly, bringing his arm around my shoulders.
“Yes,” I say, recovering quickly. “Yes, he is.”
Dad puffs his chest. “I’m her father!”
“Oh, yes. Heard all about you.” Callum looks at him from top to bottom, with the haughty arrogance of a prince staring at a particularly repulsive slug. “And given that you just raised your voice in front of my girlfriend, let me make it crystal clear that I’ll have you arrested if you ever get within fifty feet of her again.”
Without another word, he starts to walk toward the bar, taking me with him.
My entire body is tense, but I manage a, “Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it.” He puts his lips on my forehead, squeezing my arm.
“How were you here so fast?”
“I missed you,” Callum says simply. “I figured I’d go to the bar, too. Less, Caden and Seb are joining us. Don’t worry. We’ll leave you girls to your chatting. I just want to be close to you.”
Finally, my body starts to loosen in his arms.
I must have been a pretty awesome person in my previous life to deserve a man like him.