22. Chapter 22
LUNA
You would have thought I’d caught the deadliest disease known to man, and if you so much as get within six feet of me, it’s game over.
Because that’s how Oliver continues to act around me, refusing to hold eye contact or jerking his hand away if we both reach for his vomit-green juice at the same time during the morning routine.
I don’t understand it.
If anyone should feel awkward around one another, it should be me; after all, he was the one who kissed me, not the other way around. He refuses to talk about it, and I’m sadly the only one acting like an adult around here.
Does he think it’s easy to act as if nothing happened between us? He has no idea that kiss has haunted my dreams, that it sends a burning heat trailing through my body and clouds my mind at least three times a day, yet you don’t see me acting as if he’s given me cooties.
Hot or cold.
That is what I’m getting from him these days, and it’s incredibly confusing. One minute, he hates my guts, then the next minute, he’s so charming that all I want is to be around that side of him more and more.
On Monday, Theo made a request we both didn’t have the strength to deny, asking to spend the day with both of us, completely oblivious to what’s going on around us, and we’d prefer to keep it that way.
I mean, there’s no doubt he did it for Theo, but Oliver didn’t treat me like my skin would make him catch on fire, and the three of us had such an amazing day together, full of fun, banter, laughter, and surprise.
It had my stupid heart pounding with nonsense, but it all stopped the moment we got home.
Oliver turned back into an ogre, unable to hold my gaze for longer than a few seconds.
Before he ran off to his office, and then an hour after Theo had gone to bed, he left the house.
Something he’s made a habit of every night this week, only to return in the morning to give himself enough time to get ready for work, then take Theo to school.
I don’t really understand how this makes me feel. It’s clear the kiss we shared means nothing to him, yet my heart continues to believe otherwise. But it can’t explain why he’s treating me worse than he did when I first started this job.
“Who is ever going to want you now?” A hateful memory from my past looms in my head. One I haven’t thought of in a long while, despite seeing that person as often as every day.
I begin to question why he, of all people, creeps back into my head during times like this, but I don’t have the time to decipher that right now, as I’ve just entered the house and I can hear Oliver leaving his office. It’s the weekend yet again, and I’m just getting home from the care home.
Theo had long gone to bed by now, and I’m back far later than usual.
I offered to stay with Randall and the children at the home because Tracy had to take Marco that is my cue to leave.
Sighing quietly to myself, I turn around and stride towards him. Making myself appear as tall as I can when you’re able to class yourself as over five feet, but I have to try because the last thing I want to do is make myself appear even smaller than he’s already made me feel.
So despite the vein in my neck begging for release, I keep firm eye contact with him for a few more seconds until I can get past him and make a run for the stairs.
The very same intense gaze burns into me when I’m stopped by his large hand above my head, and he cages me between him and the wall, making it harder for me to escape.
My heart pounds and my body wants to melt into his trap, but on the outside, I greet him with a stern raise of my brow and tip my chin upwards. If he’s doing this because he finally has something to say, then let him be the first to speak.
“About…tomorrow…” He grumbles when his words trigger my memory. With his extra efforts to ignore me, and after the hectic day I had at the care home today, it was easy to push what happened last weekend to the back of my mind.
I had already mapped out how I was going to let Gran down with an excuse as to why Oliver couldn’t attend, so I don’t really know how to react to him bringing the subject up first.
“You can’t make it, I u-” I begin to explain, but he speaks at the same time, overpowering my words.
“-What time do we need to leave tomorrow?” he blurts, but I could have sworn my ears heard wrong.
“W-what?” I murmur, watching him shift his body to face mine and lower himself so we’re much closer while he repeats his words. But hearing the question a second time doesn’t help at all. If it does do anything, it’s that it makes it worse.
Although I’ve seen Oliver Walters make jokes before, this surely had to be another one. Because I could have sworn the last thing he’d ever willingly do is have dinner with my family.
OLIVER
A lump of something - I’m not sure what - clogs my throat as Luna, Theo and I stand outside her family home. Could it be the lack of sleep I lost by not sleeping in my own bed, or could it be the fact that I’m standing outside the home of the woman who continues to penetrate my mind?
Unable to find out by the time she pushes the key through the door, and my last chance of backing out crumbles into dust.
Before the door is even open, Theo already bolts inside, and the faint sound of him colliding with Luna’s grandmother fills my ears; then the two of them laugh it off.
Luna turns her head and looks me in the eye; her gaze sends a jolt racing through my veins as she silently tells me no, I can still leave, as I hadn’t stepped through the doorway yet, whilst she had.
Her look alone says if I turn around now, she’ll provide me with an excuse as to why I couldn’t make it, and I could rid myself of the hideous feeling I hadn’t been able to shake since yesterday.
The logical part of my brain screams at me.
“Get out. Leave before you dive deeper,” I tell myself, glancing over my shoulder at the stairwell no more than five strides from where I am now, and I almost listen to it.
Almost. But then I turn to Luna, and the part of me convincing me to leave ceases to exist. I have just enough time to give her a small nod, letting her know I’m here to stay, when her grandmother pulls the door open further and appears behind her.
“Oliver, so glad you could make it!” She beams as I extend my hand, attempting to introduce myself once more, but she takes that opportunity to yank me past the threshold with a sudden but swift moment.
I need a second or two to catch myself. Once we’re all inside, Luna slowly closes the door, truly putting any means of escape to rest.