Chapter Twelve
“So, you said you’d call him?”
“Yeah.” Olivia tapped her fingers on the lino table. It was the night after her date with Mason, and Olivia had invited Theo out for a date debrief, that, or she just wanted an excuse to see him. She was still reluctant to admit the scale was tipping towards the latter.
They had decided on Five Guys, and after squeezing themselves into a small corner booth, with its shiny red rubber cushions and hard cream seats, ordered the greasiest burgers they could find to tuck into in celebration of her writing a further measly nine pages.
“But I’m not going to call him.” She sighed.
“And if he tries to call me in hopes of a second date with you…?”
Well shit. Olivia hadn’t thought of that possibility. Surely he wouldn’t do that. She glanced hungrily at her burger and shrugged. “I dunno. Be creative.”
Theo laughed. “He’s probably waiting by his phone hoping you’ll call.”
“Well, he should have thought about that before he called me Rachel.” Olivia peeled the tomatoes off her burger and put them on the side of her plate.
“He called you Rachel?” Theo frowned. “Even in that red dress?”
Olivia sighed. “Even in that red dress.”
“Oh man, he fucked up. How could he forget your name? You’re the least forgettable person I know.”
Olivia had an air about her, something that left a sharp zing in his chest whenever she was near.
At first, he thought it was just because she was drop dead gorgeous.
Any man, Taylor and Mason included, must be blind and dumb to not recognise the beauty they had just been out with.
Olivia was what you would call a blonde bombshell.
Her hair, no matter how windswept it was, always seemed to fall gracefully across her shoulder in waves of gold.
Her eyes, no matter how wired on caffeine, were always sparkling with cerulean-blue mischief.
Theo let his eyes drift over her soft knit top and sighed as the V-neck cut of her jumper made her creamy skin look softer than silk.
He wondered what it would be like to trace his calloused finger from the soft edge of her jaw, down her décolletage and down further until he was caressing her chest with his hand.
He gulped. “If he calls me then I’ll say you lost his number and couldn’t find it. Or that you were injured in a shark attack or something.” Leaning over, he swiped up the tomatoes and added them to his burger before giving her his gherkins.
Theo watched as she didn’t hesitate before grabbing the pickle slices and placing them in her mouth, biting down on the crunchy vegetable. “Thank you,” she said to the pickles. Or the date excuse. Or both. She lifted up the small container of sauce, pushing it his way. “Ketchup?”
Theo hummed into his burger, as she also swapped their condiments. “Where did he take you anyway?”
“Veritas.” Olivia dipped some hot chips into the aioli he had traded and stuffed them into her mouth as gracefully as she could.
“It was nice, and he organised everything. The food was delicious.” She grabbed another pickle slice.
“The venue was far too extravagant for a blind date, but hey, he paid so I can’t really complain about much. ”
Theo cracked a grin, looking over his half-eaten burger at her. “Other than the fact he called you Rachel instead of your actual name.”
“Yeah, that’s about it though, that and the fact he insisted on me getting the salad.”
Theo snorted. “What did you get instead?”
“I ordered the salmon.” Olivia leaned forward in the small booth and swiped a hot chip off his makeshift wrapper plate. “Ten out of ten, by the way.”
Theo pushed the remaining chips into the centre of the table and shot her another grin. “I’m glad you didn’t starve with a salad.”
Theo took a moment to gaze over her. She looked fresh, face bare of make-up, hair pulled up in a high ponytail, loose tendrils of blonde framing her face where the pieces were too short to be pulled back. The light blue jumper she wore over her summer dress brought the colour of her eyes out.
She was elegant, far too pretty to be sitting in a small red lino booth, on a plastic bench, eating a greasy Five Guys burger and chips with her bare hands.
He liked this side of her. The untamed, messy side where she ate her weight in red meat and cheese with no care about her figure, or whether she was being ladylike.
“You know, maybe I should set you up with someone.”
Her words drew him out of his thoughts with a sharp tug.
Not going to happen, he thought. The only person I want to see is you. He shook the revelation off with a booming laugh. “I’m fine thanks.”
“Why not?” Olivia glanced at him, her bottom lip pouting slightly. He drew in a sharp breath and forced himself to look anywhere other than her lips.
Their eyes met as he picked up his drink. “I’m perfectly content being single.”
“You’re a good-looking guy. You’ve got that tall, dark and handsome mystery thing going for you. Surely you don’t have trouble getting women.”
“Is that a compliment?” Theo chuckled.
The burger joint was thrumming with activity, a long line of people, young and old, all queuing up for one of the delicious, greasy meals they were both tucking into shamelessly.
“Oh, come on. You know you’re handsome. You can’t pretend not to see it, that’s just ego seeking. But yes, it was a compliment.”
Theo looked bashful for a moment, before he grabbed a napkin, and reached over to dab the corner of her lips, where a small blob of sauce had lingered. “You have some sauce…”
Olivia reached up quickly and swiped her thumb across her bottom lip, placing her thumb into her mouth and licking the sauce off the pad.
Theo cleared his throat, eyes dragging themselves away from her lips.
“My… My last break-up was messy,” he admitted, slumping back on his side of the booth. “What was it you said about unrequited love and infidelity again?”
“I think I know what you mean,” Olivia muttered, burger long forgotten. “I’m sorry, Theo.”
“It’s okay. I just don’t want to rush into anything right now, and dating seems like a whole lot of effort and energy I’d rather be giving you. And…uh, your leading lady.”
Was he blushing? Her own heart fluttered at his words, at his dedication to helping her find her mystery man, though she still couldn’t help the curiosity that budded at the corner of her mind.
Who had caused him to have such distrust or reluctance to start over?
Theo was one of the most confident people she knew, and for him to say he wasn’t ready to date after being single for a while, although not unusual, still baffled her.
The man was gorgeous, with his brooding looks and height, all the women in this Five Guys joint had at least sneaked one glance at him at some point during their dinner.
She hadn’t heard much about Theo’s past dating life, or his current affairs for that matter.
He was incredibly elusive when it came to his relationships, whether that be romantic, familial or friendships.
It was one of the reasons she had thought he was keeping her at arm’s length.
That this was all merely business for him rather than a potential friendship.
He was only helping her finish her novel, nothing else. They were not friends.
It was cowardice to encourage him to jump back into dating when she could barely entertain the idea herself, afraid to land on two solid feet.
Though he gave minimal details, the soft frown upon his forehead, small shake in his fingers and tense lift of his shoulders told her everything she needed to know about his break-up. “Whoever she is, I’ll send her one of those threatening notes using letter cut out of a magazine or something.”
Theo let out a booming laugh, shaking his head. The idea was absurd. Olivia was far too nice to do anything of the sort. He knew it, and she knew it. “No, you wouldn’t.”
Olivia couldn’t help but return his infectious grin. “Yeah, you’re probably right. I wouldn’t, but you know what I mean.”
“So, how’s the novel coming?”
“My leading lady is still on the hunt for a leading man. I’ve outlined some chapters, and I’m getting there.
I only have an outline of him, he’s like a black and white sketch and I’m trying to dig further and look for the colour, ya know?
Depth.” Olivia snagged another chip before continuing.
“For instance, is he blue, or green? What’s his eye colour, or the colour of his favourite T-shirt? I’m still trying to figure that out.”
She toyed with the discarded remains of her meal.
She leaned back in her chair as she spoke, looking up at the ceiling as she tried to articulate her crazy thought process.
She didn’t need to explain it, though, she knew Theo understood perfectly.
He understood her perfectly. Although she had a quirky way of describing it, her words made perfect sense to him.
She was searching for all the things that made someone a man.
His being. His aura, or however you want to describe it.
She didn’t want to write just a handsome man; no, she wanted someone who was kind, and this was reflected in the scribbled attributes she’d put in her green notebook from the very beginning.
A list that she was revising with each disaster date.
“You’ll find his colours, , it’s only been a few weeks. There’s still time.”
Olivia scoffed. But he saw the glint of optimism in her eye all the same.