“Shut. Up!”
Holy shit, I haven’t heard her voice that loud before or seen her face bust out into a bright as hell smile like the one she has now. It makes my still heart beat.
“You wanna give up Thursday nights for Friday and Saturday?” I can’t help smiling back at her. I also can’t believe I’m giving her my busiest nights when tonight was far from smooth. Hell, I guess it’s because I wouldn’t mind seeing her smile more often. It feels good.
“And Tuesday.”
My jaw drops a bit. “Three nights on top of a full-time job? What will your boyfriend say?”
She looks down once again and shakes her head. “I don’t have time for boys.”
Good answer, Olivia, I think to myself.
“But I may meet someone now since I work for you.”
“Not at work you won’t,” I reply gruffer than I intended. I tell myself I don’t want to see her hitting on someone because watching crazy Livi crash and burn might piss me off. In reality, I’m thinking it might be something more.
She looks at me and nods quickly. “Of course not.”
...
Friday night is hopping. The facelift the bar got brought in a lot of curious neighborhood customers, and I am serving Prime Rib since hiring Olivia has freed me up to cook. She fucks up a little—okay, a lot—but she is seriously trying. I’m sure she will figure it out eventually.
While closing up, I notice her checking me out. “You good?”
“Yep, I was just curious. The tattoos, did they hurt?”
“Like a bee stinging. No big deal.”
“You have a lot of them.”
“Sure do. You have any?”
“No.” She starts cleaning the glasses that are still piled up. “I guess nothing ever meant enough to me to have permanently put on my body.” She laughs nervously.
“What’s so funny?” I walk a little closer, hoping that it’s me that put that smile on her face.
She shrugs. “I used to love Hello Kitty.”
“Hello Kitty?” I have no idea what the hell that is.
This chick is so random. Wow, everything comes and goes quickly, catch it while can with her.
“A little white cartoon kitten. I was just thinking…” She stops and laughs. Damn, I like that laugh.
“What were you just thinking?” And why the hell did I really want to know? I need to know, but why? I keep asking myself why. Crazy Livi is making me crazy.
“Well, there was a time I would have probably had a tattoo of Tinkerbelle put on me. Then the Hello Kitty phase. If I were brave enough, I may have had her put on as well.” She looks over at me and smiles big again. I fucking love that smile. “I would have been a walking cartoon character.”
I laugh with her. “I assume that’s why the law is eighteen years old to get inked.”
“What was your first time like?”
I take in a deep breath and sit down on the stool as I throw the clean bar rag at her so she can dry her hands. “Awkward. You know, pretty normal. I was glad she had experience. She took charge of my gear, made it easier on me. You wonder what it’s gonna be like, and once you start, you realize you could never have even dreamed of how good it actually felt. You close your eyes and try to be the man, but when it starts, you lose control.” I look at her, seeing she looks confused. I laugh. “What was your first time like?”
The look on her face is fucking priceless. Her jaw drops when she realizes I’m not talking about getting inked. She stammers as her face turns red, and I am loving it, but I let her off the hook with an easy laugh.
“You don’t have to answer. But, you did ask.” I stand up and grab the cash drawer out of the register.
“I meant the first time you got a tattoo,” her voice squeaks.
“Oh, shit, my bad, Olivia.” I turn around and wink at her. “I’m gonna go lock this up. You wanna drain the sinks?”
She is quiet on the way to her place. Not one word is said. The few times I allow myself to look over, she is yawning. When I pull up front and throw it in park, I glance over to see she is sound asleep
Shit.
“Olivia?” She doesn’t budge, so I repeat myself. “Olivia.”
She doesn’t even stir.
I sit back in the seat and decide to give her a few minutes. Power naps are beautiful things.
With nothing else to do, I look across the street and see a pile of snow on a car. It obviously hasn’t been cleaned off in a while. People don’t do that shit around here. They don’t let snow pile up on their cars unless they aren’t running. Livi’s car isn’t running.
I begin to piece it together in my mind. I rub my eyes and look closer. It’s a Chevy Camaro Iroc Z, I would dare guess. It’s a 1982, beautiful fucking car. I nearly get as hard looking at it as I do when I think about Olivia.
I sit back and watch the snow begin to fall harder, covering up even more of that beautiful car. Sometime later, I wake up to her poking me.
I slowly open one eye at a time then look at my watch. “Shit.”