Chapter 38
Olivia
Now
The past couple of weeks in the kitchen have been smooth, but now Carmello and I are working in perfect tandem.
It’s not just about anticipating each other’s needs but about how effective our communication is.
We’re aligned, the tension from weeks ago is gone.
And I’m high on the fact that I’m a girlfriend.
Carmello’s girlfriend again. I came here hopeful, searching for signs, but I didn’t let myself believe this would happen.
It’s hard not to let the happiness show on my face because he’s working across the room and each time he looks at me my body turns to liquid.
“You two better keep it PG in this place or I’m quitting,” Steven says, not bothering to look up as he puts the finishing touches on a meal he just plated.
I add lomi noodles to boiling water. “We have no clue what you’re talking about.”
Carmello keeps a straight face while he spatchcocks a chicken. “None.”
Steven cuts me a look, then slides his headphones over his ears.
He might teach self-defense, but one doesn’t have to be skilled at reading body language to see the difference in our demeanor the last couple of days.
Around noon, Paula pulls me aside to ask if we’re back together, and twenty minutes later Debra has the whole front-of-house gossiping.
But as happy as I am, whenever Veronica walks into the kitchen to pick up an order I feel myself shrinking.
She hasn’t made eye contact with me today, but I did catch a look she exchanged with Carmello.
I have a feeling she either blames me for whatever happened in her relationship during the trial experience, or she’s upset about me and her cousin. Maybe both.
Denise is another one who has doubts. I don’t know, Olive, in the decade I’ve known you, something has always pulled your attention somewhere else.
But even without your personality traits, I still think spinning the block should only be for sex.
This feels fast, and aren’t you the one who said people are for seasons and reasons?
Maybe you’ll remember your own words once the orgasm-filled haze clears and you realize the past has caught up to you.
Her words made my stomach twist at first, then I decided she was right but not about everything.
It’s true that my attention gets pulled—maybe because of my ADHD, or maybe how I was raised to follow wherever my path takes me—but there was something about Rhode Island that held it right away.
I remember visiting the beach with my parents after we’d gone a long time without being by an ocean, how walkable it was as I wandered through its small cities while they worked, the way it felt like I’d found a piece of my culture that I’d been missing when I ate Celia’s food for the first time, how my heart raced when Carmello’s eyes caught mine as I sat in a booth as a customer.
And falling in love with working as a chef at this very restaurant.
So, I’ll sit in the joy I feel knowing life has led me back here.
After we push out a batch of orders, I pull out my phone and text him. You’re across the room, but I miss you. I see when he gets the notification on his watch. His jaw clenches and he raises his head to meet my gaze. A delicious shiver shoots up my spine from his heated stare.
Because of the gas leak, some regular customers haven’t been back.
After forty-eight hours, it’s already starting to pick up, but it’s a negative hit on the business.
Still, I don’t think we accounted for any positives.
When Steven goes to the front-of-house to speak to a customer about specials, Carmello comes up behind me at the stove.
Presses his body to my backside. “Can I have a taste?” he asks over my shoulder.
I give him a spoonful of sauce, and he groans a little, mouth on my neck.
My eyes fall closed and I almost forget where we are, aching for another kiss, for him to keep rocking his erection against me like he’s doing right now.
“Meet me out back in twenty minutes,” he whispers.
His break time. I’m giddy at the thought that we can take it together, and I try hard not to let it show on my face when Steven comes back with suspicious eyes.
***
I set the pace so Carmello doesn’t have to.
I can tell it bothers him that he doesn’t have many moments to steal to spend time with me, but I’m excited every chance we get.
It takes five minutes to drive to a secluded lot.
Carmello parks under a few trees, even though I’ve already told him I feel safe enough with his tint.
With twenty minutes on the clock, I’m quick to climb over to the driver’s side and straddle him. It’s tight, but we make it work.
A ripple of warmth spreads through my belly. I bite back a whimper when he pulls my breasts out and sucks my nipple into his mouth. “Wait,” I say. “Take off your shirt first.”
He doesn’t ask why, just pulls it over his head and tosses it to the passenger side, letting me admire his beautiful body in the daylight.
With the sun glinting off his shoulders, I run my hands from his wrists to his forearms, showing attention to every vein, tattoo, and sinew along the generous expanse of his brown skin.
As much as I’m wanting his tongue on me, I need a second to look at him like this.
To merge in my mind the boy I used to know and the man he is now.
Heat floods through my chest as I gaze down at the hard lines of his stomach and the dips in his torso.
I trace my fingers along the V that disappears beneath his boxers and lean forward to bite his neck. “Mine,” I whisper against his skin.
He puts his fingers in my hair, tugs to tilt my chin, marking me with his teeth there too. “And you’re mine,” he says against my throat while we start to grind. “Mine. Mine. Mine.”
Moans steal my breath, make my back arch, but I’m silenced by the view through the clear glass of Carmello’s sunroof.
Because above my head, the branches of a big oak tree whose dark green leaves have fully budded are swaying in the wind, and right now, I can’t think of anywhere in the world I’ve been that’s more beautiful than this.
I don’t know if Carmello completely believes I’m ready for the commitment, but someday he’ll realize I left my heart here and I just needed time before I came to get it.