Olly
“I’m so sorry, Oll.” Lola was holding a tomato and begging for my forgiveness. I was just trying to forget about what happened two nights ago, but my sister planned to remind me of every last detail.
“Sure. Whatever.” I put apples in a bag for a customer. “Thank you, Mrs. Anderson. It was nice to see you again.” The woman smiled and glanced between my sister and me. “I’m busy today, Lola.”
“Maya can be a bitch, I know.” She followed behind me as I walked over and rearranged the stack of apples. “You know how she’s had a thing for you forever.”
I finally stopped and turned to face her. “Sis, I told Maya a long time ago nothing would happen between us. She would always be just a friend.”
“I know, but after your divorce, she thought…”
“She had a chance.” I rolled my eyes. I hated talking about my divorce. It was a brief moment in time. It was a dumb moment, but still, it happened. “I just don’t see her in that way, Lola. I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay.” She wrapped her hand around my bicep. “It is okay. Plus, Mom took care of the situation. Maya will be fine going forward.”
“What?” The apple I was holding almost fell. I fumbled with it a few times but grabbed it before it hit the ground. “She didn’t?”
“Yeah.” Lola crossed her arms over her chest. “You know, it was amazing, too. When mom is pissed, look out.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” I noticed I was squeezing the apple I had just rescued.
“I haven’t seen Mom that mad before, and you know I’ve tried.” She laughed and reached forward to save the apple. “Listen, Maya will always be my friend. She’s a bit much sometimes, but I still love her. Mom made it clear that if she continues coming around, she needs to be prepared for changes in your life.”
“She said that?” My shoulders dropped, and my anger moved from 100 down several notches.
“Of course.” She pushed at my shoulder. “Mom knows you’re not into Maya. She also could see the sparks between you and Jules. Everyone could. Which is why Maya got her panties in a bunch.”
“Sparks.” I shook my head and walked around her toward the onions. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Right.” She stepped up beside me and wrapped her arm around my shoulders. “Just give it time; you will eventually.”
“Are you going to keep bothering me or buy something?” I picked up an onion that had fallen on the ground.
“I do need some tomatoes.” She held up the one in her hand. “Oh, do you have some basil? I should grab some fresh mozzarella and make a caprese salad for lunch.”
“Yup, hold on.” I made my way over to the walk-in. As the door closed behind me, I stopped in the middle of the space.
My ex-wife’s face flashed through my mind. It had been months since I thought about her. We were young and thought we had our whole life figured out. That lasted less than a year.
My mom knew how I felt about the divorce. It was not something I liked to discuss.
It meant a lot to me that she talked to Maya. She would be the one who could get through to her because telling Maya, “I’m not interested,” wasn’t enough.
I shook all the thoughts from my mind and grabbed some basil.
“Here you are.” I held up the basil. “Wait, did you need anything else while I was there?”
“Nope.” She grabbed the basil and leaned on tippy toes to kiss my cheek. “Hey.”
“What?”
“Just enjoy the ride, okay?”
“What ride?” I walked over to ring her items up.
“This new thing with Jules.” She rolled her eyes and grabbed the bag.
“I met her in the morning two days ago, and then that night, she was having dinner at my place.” I shook my head. “It was just someone I didn’t know having dinner and learning to make tortillas.”
“Someone you couldn’t take your eyes off all night.” She blew me a kiss and left me with that little piece of information.
Bullshit. I took my eyes off Jules. My sister loved saying the craziest things.
Then, the vision of standing next to her, making the tortillas, ran through my mind.
AUTHOR NOTE:
Awwww, sweet Olly. I love how he is trying to deny his feelings. I get it, though. If he had a weird past, he’s going to be cautious. I wonder if he’ll talk to his mom about the Maya conversation or just leave it?