24. Olivia
OLIVIA
“ I could have gotten my own room, Lucas.”
Lucas shot me a look that suggested maybe he thought I’d gotten into drugs.
“Why the fuck would you do that?”
“Well, last time, Helen was footing the bill. It was technically a work expense…”
“I don’t know about you Angel, but I don’t typically expense sex with coworkers.”
He was deliberately trying to make me uncomfortable to avoid the very real issue of him paying my way this weekend.
He stopped in front of our room, setting the bag he refused to let me carry on top of his rolling suitcase.
Turning to me, he grabbed my face and bent his knees until we were eye level.
“Liv, it wouldn’t matter because I’d want you with me regardless, but in this particular instance, I needed a room anyway. I’m not spending extra money on you I wouldn’t have spent otherwise.”
“Okay. Yeah, I guess.”
“Alright, so I’ll let that slide for now because when I spend money on you in the future, it can’t be an issue.”
“It’s just… we just started whatever we are. This is a big expense.”
“Whatever we are?”
“Yeah. I mean, we just started dating. It’s early for big gestures.”
That was clearly the wrong thing to say. Now Lucas was staring me down like I just told him I’d bulldozed his home. He took one invading step closer. Then another, until he was crowding all the space between us.
“We are not two teenagers fucking around Liv. As far as I’m concerned, you’re mine. And I don’t have any intention of that changing. You can get on board whenever you’d like.”
My throat was so dry. Probably from my mouth hanging open as I gaped at him. I couldn’t formulate a response, so I just slowly closed my jaw and worked a swallow down while nodding my head yes.
I shouldn’t be shocked by what he’s saying, but I wasn’t even sure if he’d told anyone about us. I certainly would not be the one to tell his family, so I’d been playing it cool.
While I snapped back to reality, Lucas opened the door to our room and guided me inside. Was he serious? We were just doing a full on relationship?
“Lucas.”
He smirked, watching my brain catch up.
“So, does that mean you’ve told people about us? ”
“Yes, that’s what that means.”
“So your brothers know we’re seeing each other? Your dad? Employees?”
He chuckled. I was amusing him.
“I haven’t put out a company-wide memo, but I’m happy to if you’d like. My brothers know. My dad knows. He wants you to come to our next dinner.”
My head was spinning. I’d figured he’d want to keep this under wraps. I had been feeling guilty and stressed that I told Helen and hadn’t even told Callie. She suspected, but I hadn’t confirmed because I assumed Lucas wouldn’t want me to.
“Well, then I should tell you I told Helen.”
“Okay.”
“That’s it? Just ‘okay’?! Lucas, what's going on? I thought you were worried about this? About it going poorly and affecting the job? Why are you suddenly the picture of calm and collected while you shout our love life from the rooftops?”
Just like in the hall, Lucas strode to me and grabbed my face with both hands. Again he kneeled to make us eye level.
“Olivia, I didn’t get into this lightly. I will not squirrel you away like something I’m ashamed of. I wouldn’t have initiated something I felt I needed to hide. And now that I have you, there isn’t a chance in hell I’m letting you go, so I don’t see that as the problem I used to.”
“What if I want to end things?”
“No.” He stood up straight and started unpacking his bag.
“No? ”
“That’s what I said. Do you want to grab some food before we head down or wait until we do a walkthrough? I could use a coffee.”
“You are insane.”
Lucas shrugged.
I kind of loved it.