Page 3 of His to Cherish
I bite back a groan of frustration and anger. Holding myself back from her has been hard enough. But now I’m expected to sit there and watch her get with some other guy? Take her to a fancy ass restaurant so she can see him? Be her goddamn wingman?
There’s no fucking way.
But then another thought occurs to me. If there is some asshole she’s interested in, wouldn’t it be better to check him out for myself? It’s not like she would ever tell me about him—Lilly and I have an unspoken agreement not to talk about our dating life. I’m pretty sure I would break things if I had to hear details about any of her dates. And I sure as hell don’t tell her the filthy shit I get into. She would run for the hills.
“Hey,” she says softly, reaching out to touch my arm. Even through the layers of my suit, I swear I can feel the heat of her little hand. “It’s not a big deal. If you’d rather stay here and watch the game, we can do that.” She gives a shrug, her expression looking defeated for some reason. “I just thought it would be nice to try something new.”
Sweetheart, you have no idea the “new” things I want you to try,I think to myself.
Looking at her face, I know there’s no question about the fact that I’m taking her to that restaurant. The defeated expression is like a spear to my heart. I never want to be responsible for putting that look on my girl’s face.
Somehow, I manage to smile as I hold out my hand to her. “If you want different, let’s do different.”
It’s worth it when her face lights up and she takes my hand—even if there is a guy there she’s hoping to see. It will be fucking torture, but I’ll go through it for her.
I’m going to show my Lilly a good time tonight. Even if it kills me. “Come with me.”
LILLY
This was such a mistake. Who in the hell did I think I was kidding, traipsing into Hoops with my ridiculous shoes and this slutty dress? What did I expect to happen? That Oliver would take one look at me and suddenly see me as something other than his best buddy?
I’m such an idiot.
Oliver could have his pick of any woman in the city. Believe me, I’ve watched him flirt with enough of them. He’s gorgeous and confident and rich—not that I care about that last part. No, my crush on Ollie started way before he had money. Back when he was a lowly data entry tech like me.
My attraction to this man had been immediate. Pretty much all he had to do was smile at me in the break room at our old job and I was a goner. It helped that we liked a lot of the same things—we always had something to talk about and being with Ollie was justeasy. The way he looked didn’t hurt either. I’ve always been a sucker for tall guys with dark hair and boyish smiles.
But it was more than that. It took me a while to identify the feeling that I got around him. The way my belly would fill with warmth, my worries seeming to drift away. It was safety. That’s the feeling I had with Oliver. Safety.
A feeling I hadn’t found in years.
Maybe it was the fact that he was several years older than me. Or maybe it was his overwhelming intelligence. The way he carried himself with such confidence. I was surprised a guy like him would even be working at a place like that, spending his hours doing menial data entry in a tiny cubicle. Once we’d gotten closer, he explained to me that he was only keeping the job to pay the bills until his app was successful enough to provide for both him and his mom.
The man takes care of his mother. Is it any wonder I’d develop such a crush on him?
But I know it’s more than that. Ever since my parents died three weeks shy of my twenty-first birthday, I’d felt alone. Entering the world as an adult while simultaneously juggling the most all-consuming grief I’d ever known had been damn near impossible. Sure, I’d had friends. An aunt and a few cousins out of state. There were people in the world who cared about me.
But it wasn’t until I met Oliver that I felt like I actually had family again.
I’ve told myself over and over again that nothing could ever happen between the two of us. He clearly sees me as nothing more than a pal. He’s even referred to me as “being like a sister” before.
For years I’ve managed to push that crush down into the deepest recesses of my soul. I couldn’t ever let him know how I felt. What if it made him uncomfortable? Friendships have been ruined over less, and I can’t lose his friendship, not for anything.
So I accepted my role as Oliver York’s best friend because I figured it was way better than the alternative. I even managed to have a few boyfriends, though I wasn’t super enthusiastic about any of them, and to not cry too much when Ollie went out with someone new. And I think everything would have been finecontinuing on that way forever if it wasn’t for what happened at work last month.
It was a typical day, for the most part. I’ve moved up in the company into a data analysis role. It’s not my dream job, or anything, but it keeps my mind busy and pays the bills. The biggest downside to my new position is definitely my co-worker, Jeff. Jeff is one of those guys every woman has had to deal with. The kind who does just enough creepy shit to keep you uncomfortable without ever crossing the line into something serious enough to report to HR. The little jokes, the leering glances. It’s annoying but what are you gonna do? I don’t want to be known as the girl who goes crying to her boss because some loser gives her the ick.
Ollie, apparently, doesn’t agree. He surprised me with lunch at work, when I thought he was still supposed to be in Singapore on a work trip. Unfortunately, he came in right when Jeff was loudly telling me about his recent date and all the ways he’d rocked her world. His language was totally inappropriate for work and I’d told him more than once to leave me alone.
Ollie took one look at my face and lost his shit. I’ve never seen him like that. Red-faced, hands clenched into fists. Voice both loud and cold at the same time. He got in between me and Jeff then backed the loser into the break room wall. In a low voice he’d told him in no uncertain terms that if he ever heard of Jeff being inappropriate in my presence, he would do everything in his considerable power to ruin him.
It was overwhelming and a little scary, seeing him that angry. It was also really,reallyhot.
Ever since then, I just can’t get it out of my mind. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it, to stop thinking abouthim. It’s like seeing him being so aggressive and protective took a lid off the carefully controlled attraction I’ve always felt, and I can’tfigure out how to put it back on. I want Oliver the same way I crave water after a tough work out—like a physical necessity.
But no matter how I might have felt, Ollie continued to treat me the same way he always has. We meet up at least two or three times a week. We watch games at Hoops. We hang out at each other’s houses. We go to the movies and often meet up after work.
And it never goes beyond that. Because Oliver doesn’t see me as anything more.
