Page 7 of Always Been You

“Yeah, Liv liked to follow us wherever we went. She was at every one of our hockey practices and games growing up. She knows just as much as us about hockey now. Never get between that girl and watching the Cyclone play. She can be feral,” Matt says, chuckling. The Cyclone are our local NHL team.

“Man, do you remember our first year at Harvard? When we were home for Christmas, and we were at your parents’ place watching the game? I swore she was going to throw her bowl of popcorn at the TV when the ref made that tripping call against Vancouver. She was pissed, yelling at the TV, cussing out the refs,” I say to Matt, holding back a laugh.

“Yeah, she is definitely entertaining to watch hockey with,” Matt agrees.

“Why don’t you invite her to our games, then? Might be nice to have someone watching who actually knows the sport.” Grayson asks Matt with a grin.

“I haven’t thought about it, but I’ll ask her.”

Matt’s phone goes off and he pulls it out of his pocket, checking it. He smiles, turns the music off, and motions toward the living room. Standing on his couch, he announces, “Everybody, they are on their way up now.”

He jumps off the couch, and we all move closer to the entryway to greet the birthday girl. Silence fills the air until the door opens, and Olivia walks in with her friends.

Olivia is blindfolded with a scarf. Her auburn hair cascades in loose curls to her shoulders and her lips are painted a dark red. My eyes take in the sight of her, black skinny jeans that hug her every curve, paired with black heels that make her legs look amazing. Her red sheer top teases me, allowing me to see the black lace bra that’s underneath. The sight of her has my heart racing and my jeans tightening. God, my mouth is dry; has someone suddenly cranked up the heat sucking all the moisture out of the air? Olivia is gorgeous.

I take a quick sip of my drink to fight my suddenly dry mouth. Grayson gives me a knowing look like he knows the internal turmoil I’m going through right now.

Zoey unties the scarf from around Olivia’s eyes and the entire group yells, “Surprise!” Her eyes widen, and her jaw drops as she takes in the room around her. She scans the room, looking at the pictures that are everywhere, the decorations, her friends from work, some I recognize from her high school days, her brother, and then her eyes land on me and they widen in shock for a minute and then a smile crosses her face. Turning around, she looks at Zoey, Hannah, and Eliza andpulls them into a group hug. She must whisper something to them because they all erupt in laughter.

Everyone in the room goes back to their conversations, allowing Olivia to make the rounds. Turning back to us, she walks up to Matt and pulls him into an enormous hug.

“Thank you so much, Matt. This looks amazing,” she says.

“Of course, anything for you Liv; but to be honest, Zo handled most of it. She and the girls were here while we were at lunch decorating and everything.”

Her eyes go comically wide. “Wait, you’re telling me you let my three friends into your apartment by themselves and you sat and had a calm lunch with Josh and me without having a coronary?” she asks, dumbfounded. Caleb and Grayson chuckle beside us.

“Yeah, it wasn’t a big deal,” he shrugs, “now let’s celebrate my little sister turning twenty-five!” He reaches into his pocket and turns the music back on–it’s the stuff that Olivia usually listens to.

She gives Grayson and Caleb quick side hugs before turning to me. Matt and the guys walk over to Olivia’s friends, leaving just her and me to talk.

“Twice in one day, huh, Josh? I don’t think I have seen you this much since you were at Harvard and visited for the holidays or summer.”

I laugh. “Yeah, we should probably fix that. But right now, let’s get you a drink. Rum and Coke Zero, right?” Her eyes widen for a moment, “Ummm… yeah, you remember?” she asks, sounding a little surprised.

“Of course, I remember Olivia.”

Extending my arm to indicate I’ll follow her, she walks ahead of me and I put my hand on the small of her back. I can feel heat radiating through her shirt and into my hand aswe walk. In the kitchen, I fix her a drink, handing it to her and lifting my glass to hers. “Happy birthday, Olivia.” She clinks her plastic cup with mine and takes a sip.

“Perfect,” she smiles at me before one of her friends comes and steals her away.

I wander around and eventually find Grayson, Caleb, and Matt in a corner, all talking. I catch the end of their conversation about last night’s playoff game between Boston and Vegas.

“What’s going on with you and Hannah?” I ask Grayson.

He grimaces slightly before he lifts his beer to his lips, “What do you mean?” he asks, taking a long draw from his beer.

“You’re going to play dumb? You two work together and she has been shooting death glares your way and avoiding this side of the room all night. So... what the fuck did you do to deserve that reaction from her?”

“Man, I don’t know.” He looks around the room, finding Hannah, before looking back at me. “She’s just being Hannah. She’s standoffish at work, too. She does her job, but she gives me the cold shoulder.”

“You must have done something to fuck up because that’s not Hannah. I have known her for years and she is nice unless you give her a reason not to be,” Matt says.

“Have you asked her what happened?” Caleb asks.

“Nope, I figure she will say something eventually if she wants to, but we work together fine. So, until it impacts that, I’m going to let sleeping dogs lie.”

“You sure? I can ask Liv for you if you want,” Matt asks.

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