“Hey,” I tell her, scooping her off the bed and into my lap. I just keep repeating the only truth I know. “We’re going to fix this. You’re going to be ok, because I love you and I’m not going to let anything happen to you, all right?”
I feel her nodding and I let her cry for a bit. Tia and Elyse are staring at us with wide eyes, like this is some breaking news. Whatever. I know they knew I loved Olive this whole time. Her breathing slows after awhile and I look down. “I think she fell asleep,” I whisper to the girls. “I’m just going to take her across the hall.”
They nod and help me get the door open. I carry Olive to the couch and sink into it with her on top of me. I run my fingers through Olive’s hair as she sleeps. I should be exhausted after everything that’s happened, but I feel a sense of calm.
It felt like the biggest risk of my life and simultaneously the easiest thing I ever did when I kissed Olive in that shower, when I told her I love her.
I spent so many years feeling scared of letting her know how I felt. So long worried that making this leap would mean the beginning of the end of having someone I can rely on. I guess it might be too early to know that things are going to be all right, but her getting fired? This is just going to be a blip.
I wish I knew what I could do to fix it, though, because I know Olive being here at college is tied to that job—she got her tuition paid for partly from a federal work study program. I never had to learn anything about that shit because me and all the guys are here on a full ride.
She’s really out, which makes sense because I fucked the hell out of her last night after we had a huge ordeal. I smile, happy I wore her out enough that she can get some sleep.
I lean my head back on the couch and shift Olive so I can reach my phone in my pants pocket. Keeping her tucked in one arm, I scroll through my contacts until I get an idea.
“Finnegan,” I whisper into my the phone when he picks up. “Weren’t you banging some chick who worked in the financial aid office?”
“Shouldn’t you be here in the weight room?” He grunts and I can tell he’s trying to lift while he talks to me.
“Something came up. But listen. I need you to help me out. We gotta find Olive another work study job.”
I hear the sound of weights hitting the floor. “Doesn’t she already stretch out the fencing team?”
“Swimmers, dude. But she got fired today.”
Olive stirs and I rub my hand along her jaw. God, this feels so right. I can’t believe I haven’t just been doing this all the years I felt the urge. I convince Finnegan to send me his girl’s number and, working my other hand out from beneath Olive, I start to put together the most important text introduction of my entire life.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Bax
Olive sleeps on my lap for a few hours and when she finally stirs, I reach down and greet her with a kiss. It just feels so right to press my lips against hers and let her know she’s my everything. “I love you,” I tell her.
“Even though I’m penniless and will probably have to drop out?”
“Hey, Livvy, you can’t talk that way. We’re going to figure out something, ok?”
She shakes her head and stretches. “I’m sorry. I love you, but I just need, like, a few days to wallow about this.”
Olive never wallows. To an outsider, it might seem like hiding in the forsythia bush in the backyard was her burying her head in the proverbial sand, but I think it’s amazing that Olive found that escape, a way to get away from her parents screaming. She definitely used her time in there to create solutions for me. Helping her find a new job is the least I can do.
I open my mouth to tell her about the text I was sending with Finnegan’s girl Leslie, but I’m interrupted by a rap on Olive’s window. “What the hell?”
I look over my shoulder and see Kevan and Tim standing outside smiling and waving. Olive raises an eyebrow and gets up to open the window. “Hey? Tim, should you be up and around?”
Kevan drops an arm around Tim’s shoulder. “He’s great. Got him on the good pain meds. Let us in?”
I open the window and lean out to give Kevan a hand, but he swats my arm away. “Dude. Tim had a dislocated shoulder. He can’t climb through the fucking window. I meant meet us at the front door.”
Kev shakes his head at me and starts walking around the building. Olive giggles and heads down the hall to get them. I guess it’s at least good to see her mood lighten. I fiddle around with her remote while I wait for them all to get back. It’s a tight squeeze with 2 football players and a lanky swimmer in Olive’s dorm room.
I sit back and wait for Kev to tell us what the hell he’s doing here, which he proceeds to do, but not until he drops a kiss on Tim’s cheek. The intimacy of the kiss makes me blush, I’m not going to lie. Kev’s love for Tim is so palpable. I can just feel it, and I reach for Olive as if by reflex, needing to be in contact with her.
Kevan says, “We wanted to thank you again, Olive. The doctor said moving fast
