Ashton

"Like Oliver, Oliver?" Christina asks into my ear, when she calls, later that evening.

  The first thing I did was tell her about who my new client is. She's been gone a full week and it feels like a month already, but talking to her every night is helping.

  "Yes."

  "The same guy that I had a huge crush on but never looked my way?" she goes on.

  I snort. Christina tried to flirt with Oliver constantly anytime she was around him, but he was never really interested in her. "Yes," I say again.

  "Is he still gorgeous? More gorgeous?" she wants to know.

  "Would Ben like you asking that?" I laugh, while folding some clothes with the hand that is not holding my phone.

  I would never tell her that yes, Oliver is even more gorgeous than he was when we knew him. He's dark and mysterious and sexy, and he seems to have grown up a bit, but he's still Tyson's older brother.

  Christina laughs, too. "Ben is pretty confident that I love him."

  "I need to get out of this job, Chris," I tell her, a moment later. I won't tell her that I already tried to get out of it. That was embarrassing enough. "I cannot work with him."

  "No. Tough it out. It's a big job for you. And good for your portfolio," Christina tells me, easily.

  "Yeah but-"

  "No buts. Suck it up, girl," she says again, then laughs. "I'm sure it won't be that bad."

  Famous last words.

  God, I know she's right. I know I have to do this job because it's a big, well-known local company and it'll be great for my portfolio. It's just a couple of months. I can handle having to see him for just a couple of months.

  "You're right," I tell her anyway.

  "Duh," she says with a giggle. "Miss you."

  "Miss you more."

*

  The first week goes relatively smoothly, with no major kinks.

  I'm professional, but sort of short with Oliver when we have to interact. I'm on edge. I'm so afraid he'll bring up something from our past, that I try to only speak about the job to him. He's helpful to have around because he knows exactly what they - as a company - need from me. But he's constantly going back and forth between giving me the cold shoulder and mostly ignoring me to being a casual flirt. I ignore the flirting and I welcome the cold shoulder. I'm flustered with the whole situation, but I push on. I have a job to do.

  The last thing I want is to have to think about what happened a year ago.

  "Hey," he says in a friendly tone, poking his head into my office at the end of the week. "I'm running out to get a coffee and a snack. You want anything?"

  This morning, he sat across from me in a meeting and didn't even make eye contact. Now he's offering to bring me back food?

  "No, I'm good. I bring my own food," I say and immediately realize how silly that sounds.

  "Okay." He stares for a moment longer before disappearing again.

  All of our non-work related interactions are similar. It's stressful and awkward. We don't know how to act around each other. I'm crossing my fingers the next few weeks go by quickly and we can part ways before anything actually happens.

*

  After the second week of working with Oliver, I feel like I'm safe, generally speaking. There's been no drama, but he has only been to the office three times this week. It feels like he's giving me more space. But I also know he trusts me and my work. He's loved everything I've done so far, and so have the people he's shown my work to. The first round of business cards and the start of the website, along with the start of the new logo design are all on the go.

  It's Friday evening, the end of week two. The contract with Santos Home Renovations is for six weeks but it can be extended, if needed. I plan to finish in under six weeks so I can move on. That doesn't mean I'm rushing the job. I would never. But I won't need this extended. I don't need Oliver around my office any more than necessary.

  It's a late night in the office. I'd rather be working alone, but Oliver insisted he stay to "help". All he's doing is drinking my wine and talking, and distracting me. Mostly, he's talking about his company. So far, he's informed me that he's the oldest grandchild and was hoping to take over the business completely this year, but his uncle bought it before he could. So now he's second in charge, but still has to answer to his uncle Johnny. He has two cousins who work for the company, too.

  I put the final touches on what I feel is the perfect new logo before spinning my laptop around to show Oliver.

  "Yes. That's it. It's exactly what I was thinking," he says enthusiastically. "How do you do that?"

  "Do what?" I ask, feeling my cheeks blush.

  "Take an idea from people like us and create this?" He points to my laptop.

  "I went to school for this. Plus... it's my one talent. I have an eye for design and I learned the programs really well in college-"

  "I'm sure it's not your only talent," Oliver interrupts.

  I shoot him a look and he smiles back. I look away. No. My stomach is not fluttering. This man is a reminder of a horrible thing that happened to me. He never reached out to me afterwards. We were friends and he didn't care enough to even send a text to see if I was okay.

  "You didn't hear about Ty, did you?" Oliver suddenly asks me, as I'm saving the image to get it ready to send to the printer.

  I need to print fifteen hundred of this first round of new business cards for them.

  "What?" I snap, looking up at him right away. My face feels warm. My heart is beating too fast.

  Why would he bring up Tyson now? We just got past the awkwardness of all of this. Sort of. I feel like I made it pretty damn obvious I wasn't interested in bringing up the past. And now, tonight, almost two weeks into this arrangement, he's doing this?

  "Tyson... died. In the spring," he goes on, as if this is a perfectly normal thing to say.

  My stomach drops. I was not expecting that. "Oh my god. I'm sorry."

  "It was a motorcycle accident," he tells me, looking at the ground. When he looks up, I can tell he's hurting. "He was pretty reckless, with his life. But I never imagined..."

  I wish I had something to say, but I don't. I'm sorry his brother died. That must have been a significant loss to him and his family. But it's been over a year since I've seen him and I've felt nothing but pain and anger towards Tyson and his family since our horrible break up, last summer. I do not know how to turn that off.

  "I guess I should go," Oliver says and then clears his throat to get my attention.

  "You aren't driving, are you?" I ask him, without thinking.

  He just finished a very large glass of the bottle of wine that I keep in my mini fridge, in my office. For after hours, of course. "Uh, no. Sable lives a couple blocks away. I'll walk."

  "Okay."

  He also told me about Sable tonight. She's his girlfriend, who he just met this past summer. They've been seeing each other for two months. I want to let him leave, now. I want to stop feeling this aching in my chest that I suddenly feel for him.

  I pull a bottle of water out of the mini fridge while I put back the wine, and drink half of it back. Oliver packs up his stuff. As he clips his bag closed, I notice he's avoiding my eyes. He tosses the bag over his shoulder and glances at me before walking towards the door. I don't look back over him and he doesn't even say goodbye when he leaves.

  For the rest of the night, I feel confused and sad and very, very nervous to see Oliver again.